o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

SEAMEN ON SHORE 71
company, resign with all due honour, respect and submission
hopeing you will always continue to do as you have heretofore
done, to hear a man's cause as well as an officer's." 1
On 7 and 8 May the harbour was busy with boats
coming to the shore with their cargoes of dispirited
officers. From admiral 2 to boatswain, whether roughly
treated or respectfully, whether sent with honour in a
captain's barge or dismissed without warning into a
ship's boat, all the officers who opposed, or were likely
to oppose the wishes of the seamen were sent ashore :
some for a few days only ; many with no hope but to
make such terms as they could with the Lords of the
Admiralty. At least a hundred officers were expelled,
and they came from at least eighteen different ships.
Those officers who remained were deprived of all
authority, and the seamen enjoyed unwonted freedom
for a short time. They were able to row from one ship
to another or to go ashore, whenever they were off duty,
without any other hindrance than the roughness of the
weather.
Some took their ease on the beach at Southsea : others,
perhaps more wealthy, tasted, in the public houses of
Portsmouth and Gosport, the undiluted liquors from
which the rules of the naval service had estranged them.
No one on shore had orders to oppose their landing ; the
inhabitants were friendly ; and the sailors came and went
unmolested.
1. A.S.I. 1023, A 434, apparently 10 May, but no date is given.
The letter, that it might be more acceptable, was written very carefully
in copy-book fashion, on pencilled lines.
2. Gardner was sent ashore from the Royal Sovereign on 8 May.
Bridport and Pole remained on board the Royal George.