Sailors' committees gave chief petty officers a body to consult before carrying demands to commissioned officers. Chiefs could translate between the committees and the command structure, and they were probably organizing much of the wider action. Photographs discussed during the lecture show sailors still cleaning their decks, consistent with a controlled protest. The estimate of roughly 100,000 naval personnel varies with authorized and training strength, but the 400 dismissals amounted to about 0.4 percent. Most of those removed were able seamen. There is strong suspicion that captains used the mutiny to discharge people already considered troublesome, although no individual disciplinary records are examined here.
Notable Point · 2:06:01-2:09:58
Chiefs translate between sailors' committees and officers
Chiefs mediated through sailors' committees while routine work continued, and the small number of dismissals prompts suspicion that the Navy selectively removed existing troublemakers.