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66 THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1797
position, and the copy of the vote was taken aboard.
The crew received it with great satisfaction, and they
promised to send Colpoys and Griffith ashore uninjured,
and to return to their duty as soon as the King's pardon
should be announced, i The three officers, together with
the Rev. Samuel Cole, chaplain of the London, were put
ashore the next day.
At the inquest on the seaman who had died in
Haslar
Hospital, the jury showed their approval of the officers'
conduct by finding a verdict of " justifiable homicide."
1. A.S.I. 1022, A 428.
2. Times, 13 May, J 282, A 436. Colpoys retired from his command
directly after the mutiny. On 4 June he was in Tunbridge Wells (he
wrote a letter on that date, asking for arrears of pay, A.S.I. 579.)
In 1805 he was made the Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital (Letter to
Sir T. B. Martin, p. 41). Spencer and Nepean both sent him letters
in which they spoke with the greatest approval of his conduct on the
London (ibid.). A conditional order for Colpoys to strike his flag was
sent on 14 May (A.S.O. 1352, p. 84; see also Letter to Sir T. B. Martin,
P- 3°)'
It may be worth while to point out some inaccuracies in the chief
published accounts of the fighting on the London, in addition to the
almost inevitable mistakes in reporting the casualties. Mr. Hannay's
account is accurate in most particulars ; but he says that some of the
crew refused to go below, a statement that is not found in the original
letters, and that the crew mutinied at the instance of the delegates,
whereas the delegates were not on board when the disturbance began.
This statement, however, which appeared in the Saturday Review, is
corrected in the Naval History, vol. ii, p. 367. The Times (10 May)
represents the marines of the London as firing into the boats of the
delegates.
Brenton (vol. i, p. 418) makes several mistakes. He says that a
delegate shot Lieutenant Simms, whereas the delegates were not on
board during the fighting. And he gives the name of the wounded
lieutenant as Lyons. According to Captain Griffith, Brenton's description
of Bover's conduct is quite wrong. He says that all the officers
and marines were imprisoned. The chief object of Griffith (Sir E. G.
Colpoys) in writing his letter to Sir T. B. Martin was to correct
Brenton's mistakes. Schomberg (vol. iii, p. 19) makes Lieutenant Bover
give the order to fire, and says that the marines obeyed the order.
This mistake was copied, probably from Schomberg, by Brenton.
Clowes (vol. iv, p. 171) says that the marines helped in resisting the
delegates; and he follows Brenton in saying that the marines were
imprisoned.