About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

51 Mil. L. & L. War Rev. 221 (2012)
The Gunner's Case

handle is hein.journals/mllwr51 and id is 221 raw text is: MILITARY LAW AND THE LAW OF WAR REVIEW '1/1 (2012) The Gunner's Case EUGENE R. FIDELL Senior Research Scholar in Law and Florence Rogatz Visiting Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School I. An Old Case R. v. fWaymouth, which I shall call The Gunner & Case. was a Royal Navy court-martial tried nearly 350 years ago, on 25 March 1669. It's a case about which we know from the diary of Samuel Pepys. In a way it is fitting that Pepys, chronicler of the Great Fire of 1666, should have been involved in The Gunner s Case, since it too involved a conflagration. The case concerns the loss of HMS Defiance, 64, the fourth Royal Navy ship to bear that name. She was a third rate ship of the line, launched at Deptford in Charles II's presence on 27 March 1666. Boasting a crew of 320, Defiance was of 863/2 tons burthen, 117' in length, with a 37' 3 beam, and drawing 15' 3. Her life was short but eventful. She saw service in the Four Days Battle in early June 1666, only a short time after she joined the fleet, but on 6 December 1668, only 30 months later, she was destroyed by fire - and I don't mean enemy fire - in the Medway, near Chatham. Her commanders included Sir John Kempthorne in 1666-1667 and, from 1667 to her end, Sir John Harman. At the time, the Navy as a whole was led by the Duke of York (later, James II), holding the office of Lord High Admiral. As Clerk of the Acts, Pepys was a member of the Navy Board. So what happened, and what was Pepys's role? The wheels of justice turned quickly. On 29 December 1668, the Duke ofYork appointed a court-martial to inquire concerning the loss of his majesty's said ship Defiance, and to proceed to the trial and conviction of all such person or persons as shall be suspected to be any ways guilty in the loss of the said ship.' This was followed on 10 March 1669. by a warrant constituting the court-martial, composed of Rear-Admiral This paper is adapted from remarks at the annual dinner of the Association of Military Court Advocates, Lincoln's Inn, London, 17 May 2012. 1 am indebted to Sarah Kraus and John B. Nann of the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, and the staff of The National Archives, Kew, for their assistance. A transcription of the record of trial and allied papers in the principal case discussed (by S. Chua-Rubenfeld & D.P. Quinlan) appears immediately after this article. G. Penn, lemorials ojthe Professional Lije and Tines ofSir Willian Penn (1833. Vol. 2), p. 520. 221

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most