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Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy: Discipline on the Leeward Islands Station, 1784 - 1812
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 7, 2013
John Byrn`s book origionated as a PHD thesis at Louisiana State University and was published in 1989 by Scolar Press (now Ashgate).
Generally speaking, I do not appreciate this book that much because, in my opinion its approach carries too many faults in methods. First of all, Byrn limits his study to the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean with the explicit justification, that on this station the Admiralty in London -due to the long distance- could not unduly interfere that much in the administration of Justice. Such an approach is ahistorical. If the power of the Admiralty in London was a serious factor with regard to the administration of naval justice on most other naval stations, it makes absolutely no sense to choose as object of research just that unrepresentative! station, where this was not the case. After all, a case study should be as representative as possible. Moreover, Byrn selects only such naval ships as object of study, which stayed more than fifty percent of the period 1784-1812 in the area of the Leeward Island Station. Therefore, if a naval crime was committed on the Leeward Island Station but the ship to which the offender belonged had been less than fifty percent of the time on the Leeward Island Station Byrn does not count this crime. This, too, is in my opinion a highly artificial approach. After all, naval crime committed on the Leeward Islands station is naval crime comitted on the Leeward Island Station, no matter how long a ship remained on that station. Thirdly, Byrn embarks upon an incorrect comparision of the strictness of naval
justice and Assize Justice on shore. Byrn claims, that the roughly 50 per cent execution rate among naval offenders on the Leeward Island Station was roughly in line with the execution rate in England. If he had studied execution rates in England during the period 1784-1812 properly, he would have recognized, that execution rates on shore were much lower than the fifty per cent execution rate among naval offenders on the Leeward Islands Station. All this faults in method turn in my opinion Byrn`s book into a work of limited value and representativeness. I, therefore, award only two stars for it.
Generally speaking, I do not appreciate this book that much because, in my opinion its approach carries too many faults in methods. First of all, Byrn limits his study to the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean with the explicit justification, that on this station the Admiralty in London -due to the long distance- could not unduly interfere that much in the administration of Justice. Such an approach is ahistorical. If the power of the Admiralty in London was a serious factor with regard to the administration of naval justice on most other naval stations, it makes absolutely no sense to choose as object of research just that unrepresentative! station, where this was not the case. After all, a case study should be as representative as possible. Moreover, Byrn selects only such naval ships as object of study, which stayed more than fifty percent of the period 1784-1812 in the area of the Leeward Island Station. Therefore, if a naval crime was committed on the Leeward Island Station but the ship to which the offender belonged had been less than fifty percent of the time on the Leeward Island Station Byrn does not count this crime. This, too, is in my opinion a highly artificial approach. After all, naval crime committed on the Leeward Islands station is naval crime comitted on the Leeward Island Station, no matter how long a ship remained on that station. Thirdly, Byrn embarks upon an incorrect comparision of the strictness of naval
justice and Assize Justice on shore. Byrn claims, that the roughly 50 per cent execution rate among naval offenders on the Leeward Island Station was roughly in line with the execution rate in England. If he had studied execution rates in England during the period 1784-1812 properly, he would have recognized, that execution rates on shore were much lower than the fifty per cent execution rate among naval offenders on the Leeward Islands Station. All this faults in method turn in my opinion Byrn`s book into a work of limited value and representativeness. I, therefore, award only two stars for it.
August 28, 2021
Dr. John Byrn was a passionate historian and reference librarian who was serious about his translations of British Royal Navy records. He took annual pilgrimages to do his research and translations to the National Maritime Museum, the British Library, the Institute of Historical Research and the Admiralty Library in London as well as the Mudd libraries at Yale University. This book is a compilation of his findings and his interpretation of those findings. One thing is for certain, if you committed any act of treason against your ship captain, you were in for dire punishment of sundry and radical kinds, as the ship captains were given royal authority over the sailors once embarked on a voyage to sea. Recommended reading for British history buffs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews