Mutiny of the Matoika

Mutiny of the Matoika is the common name for the events in July 1920 involving a large portion of the 1920 United States Olympic team while on board the U.S. Army transport ship Princess Matoika, headed to Antwerp for the 1920 Summer Olympics. Princess Matoika was a last-minute substitute for another ship and, according to the athletes, did not have adequate accommodations or training facilities on board. Near the end of the voyage, the athletes published a list of grievances and demands and distributed copies of the document to the United States Secretary of War, the American Olympic Committee (AOC) members, and the press. The incident received wide coverage in American newspapers at the time and was still being discussed in the popular press years later. The event was not an actual mutiny, but has been called that since the mid-1930s.^[1]

The conditions on the Princess Matoika were terrible, as the hold reeked of formaldehyde from the dead bodies of the recently deceased American World War I soldiers, and there was no place to train. Furthermore, the athletes were dissatisfied with the quality of food and huge numbers of rats present on the ship.^[2] Near the end of the voyage, the athletes published a list of grievances and demands and distributed copies of the document to the United States Secretary of War, the American Olympic Committee members, and the press. Among these were the demands for better accommodations in Antwerp, cabin passage home, and railroad fare from New York to their home cities.^[3] The incident received wide coverage in American newspapers at the time.^[4]