Captain Vere's Trial And Execution In Billy Budd By Herman Melville

Captain Vere’s decision to rush Billy’s trial and execution can be justified from both a legal and military standpoint. Melville mentions many times throughout the book that the punishment for killing a superior officer, is death by hanging. Claggart is Billy’s superior officer, so by killing him, even accidentally, Billy is immediately subjected to the law. Rumors of a mutiny had been circulating around the ship, the last thing the Captain would want to allow to fester by delaying Billy’s trial. When the officers whom Captain Vere has handpicked for his drumhead court appear reluctant to convict Billy and sentence him to death, Vere forcefully reminds them they owe their "'allegiance'" not to "'Nature,'" their "'hearts,'" or their "'private conscience,'" but entirely to "'the King.'" Captain Vere chose to rush Billy’s trial and execution as an example to the other crewmen aboard of what would happen if they
In Billy Budd’s day, when King George II reigned, death by hanging was an appropriate response, both from a legal and military standpoint for anyone who committed the murder of a superior officer aboard a ship at