Question about officers, mutiny and the death penalty.
In a novel I came accross, set in the late 18th century, a Royal Navy officer (2nd Lt. if I remember correctly) is sentenced to hang for taking part in a mutiny. Now I've read that hanging was the common punishment for mutineers. But so far all the secondary material I've read (both Lavery and Cordingly) also suggests an officer, sentenced to death, would have been shot, not hanged, and hangings of Royal Navy officers were actually very rare in the 18th century.
Were there ever any officers hanged for mutiny, or is the novel talking nonsense?
Said novel got a lot of other stuff about the AoS Royal Navy wrong, so I wouldn't be surprised. So, I thought I'd better ask here, where people actually know stuff. :)
Were there ever any officers hanged for mutiny, or is the novel talking nonsense?
Said novel got a lot of other stuff about the AoS Royal Navy wrong, so I wouldn't be surprised. So, I thought I'd better ask here, where people actually know stuff. :)