Peter Bover

Captain Peter Turner Bover (5 October 1772 – late 1802) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars, who fired the first shot at the Spithead mutiny of 1797.

He entered the Royal Navy, following in the footsteps of his father (Captain John Bover) and two of his elder brothers, as a volunteer aboard HMS Perseus. He transferred to HMS Queen the same year, and then to HMS Crown, then the flagship of Commodore Cornwallis. Cornwallis took a great interest in Bover's career, as did Admiral Affleck, who wrote that "Bover... is a name which will always be dear to the service". He was appointed a lieutenant on 3 January 1794, serving in HMS Minerva, HMS Excellent and HMS Caesar, before being appointed the First Lieutenant of HMS London, a 98-gun first-rate, in 1797; it served as the flagship of Admiral Sir John Colpoys.

In early May, the Spithead mutiny had been active for around three weeks, but remained subdued; the commanders had not yet brought matters to a head by a forcible confrontation with the sailors. On Sunday 7th, a boat of delegates pulled around various ships of the fleet, urging them to overthrow their officers and set sail; on coming to London, it was refused permission to come aboard. The atmosphere grew tense — the seamen of London were clearly in favour of receiving the delegates — and a group of men on the forecastle began to move a gun to point at the quarterdeck, where the ship's officers stood. Bover, on deck as the first lieutenant, ordered them to stop and threatened to fire on them; all but one did so. The remaining seaman, however, dared Bover to fire and carried on; Bover fired a moment later, killing the sailor. This sparked a riot, with men storming up from below decks; in the ensuing violence, several men on both sides were wounded (three sailors fatally) and the Marines defected to the mutineers. On seeing this, Admiral Colpoys immediately surrendered to avert further bloodshed.

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