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CHAPTER V.
The Mutiny on the " London/'
The blow fell suddenly on Sunday, 7 May, in the
morning. Until the outbreak actually happened everything
was apparently working smoothly. Only a few
people in authority had any suspicion of the trouble that
was being prepared. Thomas Grenville wrote a few
days later: "By the post of Saturday the letters from
the fleet were better than they had ever been ; and the
officers themselves seemed in much better heart and
spirits." 1 The wind had at last veered round to the
east, and Bridport intended to make the signal for
sailing. 2 But the fleet was so distracted by the ill-will
of the seamen, that he dreaded the result, and refrained
from giving the order. 3 At nine o'clock in the morning
the crews of most of the ships crowded forward and gave
three cheers. The yard-ropes, which had become a
symbol of mutiny, were hung up again. Some men of
the Pompee set out in a boat, and began a tour of the
fleet. Each ship sent its delegates in a boat to join them.
One or two crews were reluctant to embark on a fresh
mutiny, but they were coerced by the others, and before
noon every ship at St. Helens had contributed its boat
1. Buckingham Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 379, T. Grenville to Buckingham,
9 May.
2. On 1 May Sir John Warren, who was cruising in the Western part
of the Channel, reported eighteen ships of the line and six or seven
frigates at Brest, most of them with sails bent and ready to put to sea.
Bridport received the news on 3 May, and it probably decided him to
make the signal as soon as the opposing wind abated (A.S.I. 107, J 248).
Reports of this kind were fairly common; e.g., on 9 May the Due
d'Auvergne sent intelligence of sixteen ships of the line and twelve
frigates in Brest harbour ready for sea. As a matter of fact the fleets
in Brest and the Texel were by no means prepared for sailing.
3. Bridport to Nepean, 7 May " : I intended to have made the signal
for the fleet to weigh this morning, as the wind was easterly; but I am
compelled to remain here unless the vote of supply in the House of
Commons for the increase of the seamen's pay and provisions should
arrive, and give the crews of the fleet satisfaction" (A.S.I. 107, J 262).