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158 THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1797
a broadside from the Inflexible. The crews of both
frigates prepared to escape from the fleet, but they were
detained by a message from some seamen of the Directory
to the effect that the crew of that ship were anxious to
accompany them. The loyal seamen on the Directory
however, were not strong enough to carry out the plan
of escape, and, after a struggle, they were forced to
abandon their enterprise.
On 30 May, in the small hours of the morning, the
cables of the Clyde were cut, and the frigate drifted away
from the fleet on the flood tide. When she had drifted
far enough, the sails were loosened, and she made the
harbour in safety at sunrise. A great crowd of people,
mainly soldiers, welcomed her crew as they came to land.
The San Fiorenso also escaped, but did not fare quite
so well. Bardo, the mate of the Admiralty yacht, had
gone on board during the night to act as pilot. She
missed the flood tide and had to wait until noon. Bardo
put a spring on her cable, but cut the cable too soon,
when the vessel wras heading down the river. The wind,
which was then blowing from the W.N.W., carried her
through the middle of the fleet, and several ships opened
fire on her. Happily, their marksmanship was not
deadly, and she escaped with only a slight damage to the
rigging. She put in on the coast of Essex, eight miles
from the Nore, and eventually, after being piloted past
the Goodwin Sands by another ship, made her way to
Portsmouth, accompanied by a French privateer which
she had taken on the voyage. 1
The royal proclamation and the visit of the Admiralty,
by influencing many of the seamen to desert or resist the
mutiny, were only encouraging a tendency which had
been apparent from the very beginning of the disorder.
1. The escape of these two frigates is important, for it was the first
sign of the collapse of the Nore mutiny ; but it is hardly mentioned in
the official reports, and I have had to 'fall back on Cunningham as the
sole authority for the above description (see Cunningham, pp. 43-48).
On 5 June orders were given for the repair and provisioning of the
San Fiorenzo at Spithead (Ord. and Instr., A.S.O. 231, p. 135).