Mutiny

An act of open rebellion or organized collective refusal to obey lawful orders by a group of military personnel, a ship's crew, or other subordinates against their commanding officer or authority, historically punishable by death in most naval and military legal codes because of the acute threat an organized refusal poses to command discipline in circumstances, such as aboard a ship at sea, where the chain of command cannot easily be restored from outside. The 1789 mutiny on the Bounty, in which part of the crew of the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty seized control of the ship from Lieutenant William Bligh and set him and his loyalists adrift in an open boat, remains among the most widely documented historical cases and shaped much of the later popular understanding of the offense. Modern military law, including the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice's Article 94, continues to treat mutiny as one of the most serious offenses a service member can commit, generally carrying the possibility of a life sentence or, in a time of war, a death sentence.