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OUTBREAK AT ST. HELENS 59
and delegates, and all the officers were deprived of their
command.
The plan must have been carefully laid, but as the
delegates were already elected, the rules ready made, and
every one in the fleet was used to the business, it was a
comparatively simple matter to start a fresh mutiny. 1
Most of the officers yielded as readily as they had done
three weeks before. Some of them tried to argue their
crews back to obedience, some, as vainly, called the
marines to arms, and Captain Lock, of the Queen
Charlotte, tried to send away the boat that came from
the Pompee. But they all saw that resistance was useless
and gave way without fighting. They must have been
overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness at this new
outbreak, and indeed their commander openly confessed
to such a feeling. He wrote on the same day to the
Admiralty :—
" I have endeavoured to prevent this mischief by every
argument in my power, but without effect ; and I cannot
command the fleet, as all authority is taken from me
My mind is too deeply wounded by all these proceedings, and
I am so unwell that I can scarcely hold my pen to write these
sentiments of distress." 2
But there was one officer who determined to resist the
mutiny, and in resisting it nearly lost his life. About
noon, when every ship at St. Helens had contributed its
boat and its delegates, the whole procession set out for
Spithead, with the intention of bringing the ships that
were stationed there to St. Helens, so that the mutinous
fleet might be more compact and formidable. The
Marlborough and the Nympfoe were still at Spithead, and
Admiral Colpoys remained there in the London to watch
them. 3 These ships had been joined by the Monarch
1. It seems likely, however, that a separate committee, probably of
twelve members, was elected on each ship at this time (see above,
p. 22, n. 1).
2. A.S.I. 107, J 262.
3. Probably they were in a line—the Marlborough furthest to the
west, the Ny raphe on the east, and the London keeping guard between
the two. Colpoys said in a letter that the Marlborough was to the west
of the London.