ABSTRACT
In 1761, the officers of HMS Stag arrested their captain, Henry Angel, on accusations of indecent conduct toward a male passenger, a civilian. A court martial early the next year acquitted Angel, but a separate trial gave his first lieutenant only a slap on the wrist for seizing command of the ship. A third trial acquitted the other officers. 1 Angel’s behavior after his trial and the lenient treatment of his officers strongly suggest that the courts and the captain’s superiors believed he was guilty of sexual misconduct. 2 The affair became a major scandal in the navy, though one that does not appear to have registered widely outside of it. It raised difficult questions about how officers should address allegations of sexual misconduct against those in command. Memory of Angel persisted, as is shown by later discussions of his case in print and in archival records. The following selection is taken from one of the earliest book-length texts on naval justice. John Delafons, a navy purser and experienced deputy judge advocate, printed the results of the third of these three trials. By selecting this particular verdict, he clearly indicated that the Stag’s officers had acted properly in supporting the plan to arrest the captain.
