THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1798 The Irish Plot to Seize the Channel Fleet

Recent scholarship has examined the 1797 fleet mutinies at Spithead and the Nore, and the frigate Hermione affair, distinguishing between industrial grievance, ideological revolt, and personal tyranny. In The Naval Mutinies of 1798,MacDougall extends this historiography to a wider, Irish revolutionary context. He argues that the Society of United Irishmen sought to exploit disaffection within the Royal Navy—particularly among Irish sailors,to coordinate shipboard mutinies, seize Channel Fleet vessels, and transfer them to French control in support of an invasion of Ireland. Drawing on extensive archival research, MacDougall reconstructs the operational logic of the conspiracy across multiple theatres, showing both its limited successes and frequent failures due to poor secrecy and naval discipline. The narrative situates naval unrest within broader Franco-British strategic tensions and the 1798 Irish rising.