Sons of the Waves by Stephen Taylor

Author:Stephen Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300245714
Publisher: Yale University Press

As the two admirals involved at Spithead, both Howe and Bridport were subsequently blamed by a conscientious officer, Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, for what he called ‘this great national calamity’.6 But the First Lord at the Admiralty, Lord Spencer, also ignored loud-ringing alarm bells. Spencer had, in fact, been warned the previous December of rising bitterness over pay by Captain Thomas Pakenham, negotiator during the Culloden mutiny and an officer well connected with hands across the fleet.7 Pakenham was not the only captain to sympathize with them, or to tell Spencer of their disgruntlement. At the time, Spencer, unwilling to challenge a parliament beset with financial stress, responded that there was simply no more money – or, as he put it: ‘In the present state of the country, it is not possible to enormously increase disbursements.’8

All this needs to be set within the context of a country in crisis. Bonaparte, dominant in Europe, had mustered an army across the Channel at Brest, poised to launch an invasion of the British Isles. The Navy’s supposedly impassable Wooden Walls stood in the way, reassuring citizens that their island bastion remained secure – until a French fleet appeared off south-west Ireland in January and, a month later, 1,500 French troops managed to land near Fishguard in Wales. Although that inept foray was swiftly dealt with, it precipitated a run on the banks and the Bank of England was forced to suspend cash payments.

Through March part of the Channel Fleet was off Brest, bottling up the French invasion force. It was only in April, on Bridport’s return to Spithead, that he, as the new commander, received the original eleven petitions forwarded by the Admiralty, along with three new ones. Not that he was animated to do anything about them. It is fair to add that exploring the origins of each petition would not have been simple: the Channel Fleet was a complex organism, with ships variously dispersed between those blockading Brest, those at Spithead, and others anchored at Plymouth and Torbay. But even the newspapers sensed trouble in the air. The Morning Post reported that when the fleet returned on 30 March, ‘a gloomy discontent pervaded every crew’; this had become the topic of conversation ‘in every public house in Portsmouth . . . and the most fatal predictions have been made’.9 Bridport remained blithely oblivious of the mood on his ships. In the lead-up to mutiny, it seemed the Channel Fleet did not have a commander-in-chief at all.10

All the more remarkable therefore was the collective strategy being coordinated by sailors dispersed around Portsmouth’s waters and beyond. Of the original eleven ships to sign the petition, just four were back at Spithead during the critical first week of April; the others remained at sea or were refitting. But hands on at least thirteen more ships of the line, including the 100-gun Royal Sovereign, continued to use boats to meet and exchange letters; and because Bridport and his senior officers had gone ashore, the men were able to hold their parleys quite openly.

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