BIDEN, Christopher.

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Naval Discipline. First and sole contemporary edition. Biden uses numerous accounts of insubordination and mutiny to illustrate the need for a legal framework for responding to such events, arguing that HEIC captains often acted in wanton and excessively punitive ways.Christopher Biden (c. 1789-1858) was an East India Company sea captain. Between 1807 and 1818, he completed seven voyages to India on the Royal George. In 1821 he became captain of the Princess Charlotte of Wales and completed four more return journeys between England and Kolkata. Biden retired in 1830 to publish this volume, using his significant experience of leading men at sea as well as accounts by other captains. "The result is a kaleidoscope of dismal tales of drunkenness, insubordination, insolence, theft, murder and what we would now call mental health issues against a background of storms, dangerous reefs, men falling overboard, hostile ships, navigational errors and shipwrecks" (Willasey-Wilsey). He argues that if officers respected their men they would not abuse that freedom, as long as one knows, "as I trust I always did, where to draw the line, where to stop" (p. 170). He also advises against the use of flogging except in the most serious of situations, when all other options have been exhausted.

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