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LOYAL CREWS 159
It will be remembered that the crews of the Clyde and the
San Fiorenzo were forced to join a movement which they
did not approve. As long as they remained with the
fleet they served as the nucleus of opposition to the
mutiny. It seems probable that the attempted defection
of the Brilliant and the Iris was due to their influence,
for the four frigates were stationed together at the Little
Nore for several days, and communication among them
would be very easy. 1 Another centre of reaction was
the transport vessel Serapis, which arrived at the Nore
from Lisbon on 24 May, and was included in the mutiny
against the wish of the crew, who were only hired for the
voyage. Two days later, Buckner reported that the
companies of the Espion and the Niger—the frigates
which were being refitted in the harbour—were loyal. 2
It was at this time (26 May) that the Clyde refused to go
up the river at Parker's invitation ; and the delegates
were so uneasy in regard to the intentions of these too
loyal seamen, that they brought the Pylades sloop into a
position between the Clyde and San Fiorenzo*
1. Cunningham mentions (p. 27) that they were together there on
23 May, when the gunboats were being removed from Sheerness harbour.
The fact that Parker chose men from these frigates to go up the river
and bring down the Lancaster seems to suggest that he was acting on a
definite policy. They were probably suspect, and he may have wished
to test their adherence to the mutiny. Or he may have wanted to
commit them to some definite act of mutiny in order to ensure their
whole-hearted support of the seamen's cause—on the principle of the
terrorists in France, who held that a good revolutionary was one who
would be sent to execution if the monarchy were restored.
2. A.S.I. 727, C 340. Some of the Niger's crew early in the mutiny
gave evidence of their loyalty, by helping to rescue Lieutenant
Thompson, of the Niger, who had been arrested in Sheerness by the
delegates, and was being tried before an improvised court in one of the
public houses (Cunningham, p. 14, 18 May).
3. Cunningham, p. 32. It is remarkable that the Pylades should have
been chosen for this duty, because she was one of the ships on which
the white flag was hoisted two days later. Possibly the crew, instead
of keeping the others in subjection, were influenced by their loyalty.
In the notes on the conduct of the» crew, made by Keith after their
submission, it is said that "the ship's company were impressed with
fear and acted contrary to their inclination" (C 373b). In a note to
no. 6 of the papers of the Inflexible (A.S.M. 137) the Pylades is
described as one of the most violently mutinous of all the ships at the
Nore ; but it seems that the violence was largely due to Charles
MacCarthy, of the Sandwich, who acted as the captain of the Pylades
during the mutiny (see letter from Captain Mackenzie, of the Pylades,
18 June, C 397).