With celebrant seamen and admirals jostling shoulder to shoulder in the streets of Portsmouth, the national crisis would appear to have ended. A reluctant government having begrudgingly conceded three of the demands that had been placed before them, the mutinous seamen of the Channel Fleet and Plymouth Squadron had returned to duty. And why should they do anything else? They had received an increase in pay, improved victualling arrangements and the removal of some of the least popular officers.

But not everything was as it seemed to be. In various ill-lit alehouses or in the secluded corners of cramped gun decks many continued to weave the web of intrigue. Gathering in small groups, messmates continued to be harangued by their more vocal brethren. On such occasions they were reminded of the demands that had not been granted. Despite his efforts at conciliation, Admiral ‘Black Dick’ Howe had not given a thought to the issue of shore leave, better treatment of the sick and wounded, nor to a range of separate grievances that had been prepared by most of the ships assembled in the Spithead anchorage.

Into this cauldron of unease and scepticism stepped four seamen who had arrived post-haste from North Kent. Bewildered by what they saw and heard, none of the group could believe that the seamen of the Channel Fleet were returning to duty. As delegates who had been appointed to represent crews on board naval warships anchored in the Thames and Medway, these four seamen had been sent to Portsmouth to glean accurate and up-to-date news of the state of affairs.