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The Passage Illustrated: The Captain re-takes his ship

The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and five more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came to the ship’s side; when the captain and the mate entering first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the butt-end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their men; they secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below; when the other boat and their men, entering at the forechains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, who, having taken the alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had got firearms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow, split open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody. The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and, with his pistol, shot the new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth, and came out again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a word more: upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost. [Chapter XIX, "The Ship Recovered," pp. 193-94]

Commentary

In the 1891 volume's ninety-second lithograph (one of just thirteen full-page illustrations) for Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, Paget has selected for realisation one of the book's most violent episodes, the shooting of the leader of the mutiny in Chapter XVIII, "The Ship Recovered." This sensational illustration and the next, "I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship." nevertheless supports Crusoe's assertion that he assisted in the recovery of the ship with very little bloodshed — "the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost" (facing page, 194). Although such earlier illustrators as Thomas Stothard, George Cruikshank, and Hablot Knight Browne have avoided the violent quelling of the mutiny, both Cassell's editions — the 1863-64 and the 1891 — have underscored the significance of the mutiny and its aftermath by providing five illustrations of the events in each case. In particular, Paget sensationalizes the scene below decks in which the first mate puts a bullet through the head of the ringleader, firing at nearly point-blank range, whereas the earlier Cassell's treatment shows the head mutineer already dead as the loyal sailors break into the round-house. The mutiny sequence of both the 1863-64 and 1891 editions is transitional in that it marks Crusoe's return to European society as a man of experience, substance, and authority.

The Suppression of the Mutiny in Pictures

• "My eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor."
• "'What are ye, gentlemen?'"
• "They begged for mercy."
• "Shot the new captain through the head."
• "He made Robinson hail them."
• "I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship."

Related Material

• Daniel Defoe
• Illustrations of Robinson Crusoe by various artists
• Illustrations of children’s editions
• The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe il. H. M. Brock at Project Gutenberg
• The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe at Project Gutenberg

Relevant illustration from the 1863-4 edition

Above: The earlier Cassell edition's dramatic wood-engraving of the destruction of the leader of the mutineers in the ship's round-house, Death of the Rebel Captain. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

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Reference

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by Himself. With upwards of One Hundred and Twenty Original Illustrations by Walter Paget. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell, 1891.

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Last modified 24 March 2018