Cyprus mutiny Cyprus mutiny The "Cyprus" mutiny took place in 1829 off the British penal settlement of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia). Convicts seized the brig and sailed her to Canton, China, where they scuttled her and claimed to be castaways from another vessel. On the way, "Cyprus" visited Japan during the height of the period of severe Japanese restrictions on the entry of foreigners, the first Australian ship to do so. The mutineers were eventually captured. Two of them, George James Davis and William Watts, were hanged at Execution Dock, London on 16 December 1830, the last men hanged for
William Watts (engraver) William Watts (engraver) William Watts (1752–1851) was an English line-engraver. The son of a master silk weaver in Moorfields, London, Watts was born early in 1752. He received his art training from Paul Sandby and Edward Rooker, and on Rooker's death in 1774 continued the "Copper-plate Magazine". Watts sold up at his house at Kemp's Row, Chelsea, London and went to Italy, reaching Naples in September 1786. After about a year he returned, and lived at Sunbury, Middlesex. In 1789 he went to Carmarthen, in 1790 to the Hotwells in Bristol, and in 1791 to Bath where he spent two