o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

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DEMAND FOR A BOARD IN SHEERNESS 147
said that Parker behaved in a most insolent manner, and
assured Buckner that he was not to be intimidated. 1
The mutineers were much irritated by the flat refusal
of the Admiralty to comply with any of their demands.
The natural disposition of the ringleaders, encouraged
by the early success of their enterprise, and stimulated,
perhaps, by the infiltration of revolutionary ideas, had
aroused in
the seamen an inflated estimate of their own
importance. They believed that they would become so
formidable that the Admiralty must of necessity show
them as much consideration as had been shown to the
seamen at Spithead. They did not like to deal with
Buckner alone; they would not accept a pardon from
2
him ;
and they clamoured for a deputation from the
Admiralty. On 22 May Parker had written in a letter to
Buckner :
The Lords of the Admiralty have been remiss in their duty
in not attending when their appearance would have given
satisfaction.
And he added that no accommodation could take place
until their arrival. 3 The Lords of the Admiralty,
however, had given an answer which was intended to be
final, and they saw no use in going to Sheerness to enter
into a discussion with the seamen when they had nothing
1. Evidence of Buckner and Captain Dixon at Parker's trial
Cunningham, pp. 21, 22. Both Buckner and Dixon said that the
incident happened on 23 May. Cunninghkim (p. 23) assigns it to the
twenty-first. He suggests that the success of the mutineers on this
occasion may have encouraged them to publish their list of demands.
This is careless on his part, for even according to his own showing the
demands had already been sent in. He must have written his account
of this part of the mutiny from a confused recollection, without
checking the dates. Cunningham was present at the interview, and he
says that Parker's insolence made him so angry that he would have
killed the mutineer if Captain Blackwood, of the Brilliant, had not
intervened. Buckner said in his evidence that Parker was accompanied
by Davis, the mutineer who acted as captain of the Sandwich, and
three or four others.
2. Buckner to Nepean, 24 May (A.S.I. 727, C 336) :
" All are
clamorous to have the pardon notified to them in a more solemn manner
than they conceive the notification of it by me would impress it with
(at least, I am inclined to think that is their idea)."
3. Papers of the Repulse, no. 5.