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io6 THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1797
known exactly how the Spithead mutiny had been
conducted.
We may conclude that the first impulse to mutiny in
the Nore fleet was the work of the Spithead delegates.
A few days after the outbreak at the Nore it was said in
the Star : "The
mutiny at Sheerness appears, from
every possible inquiry, to have originated in the first
instance from the representations of the sailors at
Portsmouth, communicated to those at the Nore, either
by letter or by persons sent for that purpose from the
Grand Fleet." l There is every reason for believing that
this report was well founded. 2
It is curious, however, that the mutiny at the Nore
began so much later than the disturbances at Plymouth
and Yarmouth. In both these ports there were signs of
mutiny before the end of April, but there is no evidence
that anything at all happened at the Nore until 6 May,
and the actual outbreak did not take place until the
twelfth. The most likely explanation is that the ships
at the Nore were scattered in different parts of the
Thames mouth and Sheerness harbour, so that communication
between them would be comparatively difficult.
In a compact fleet in which boats were often
passing from one ship to another, it would be easy to
convey letters without arousing suspicion. But at the
Nore there could be little intercourse except on the days
of ship visiting, and even when the letters from
Portsmouth had reached the Sandwich—they would
almost certainly be directed to the flagship—several days
probably passed before the contents could be made known
to the whole fleet ; and the preparations for the mutiny
1. Star, 18 Mav. The same paragraph appears in the London Packet,
17-19 May.
2. The Lords of the Admiralty did not realize at this time the
extent of the conspiracy in the home fleets. They attributed the
outbreak at the Nore to "a belief which the seamen entertained in
the first instance that the Act of Parliament for increasing their pay and
provisions had not yet passed, and afterwards that their brethren at
Portsmouth had been ill-used." Nepean to Buckner, 13 May, A.S.M.
137.