252 THE SEA. 



confident in their patriotism and loyalty, became irritated by ungrateful neglect ou the 

 one part, and by seditious advisers on the other, and turned the guns which they had so 

 often fired in defence of the English flag against their own countrymen and their own homes. 



Richard Parker, the chief ringleader at the Nore, was a thoroughly bad man in 

 every respect, and one utterly unworthy the title of a British sailor, of which, indeed, he 

 had been more than once formally deprived. He was the son of an Exeter tradesman in 

 a fair way of business, had received a good education, and was possessed of decided 

 abilities. He was a remarkably bold and resolute man, or he would never have acquired 

 the hold he had for a time over so many brave sailors. He was unmistakably 



" The leader of the band he had undone, 

 Who, born for better things, had madly set 

 His life upon a east," 



and until overtaken by justice, he ruled with absolute sway. 



Parker had, eleven years previously, entered the navy as a midshipman on board 

 the Culloden, from which vessel he had been discharged for gross misconduct. A little 

 later, he obtained, however, a similar appointment on the Leancler frigate, and was again 

 dismissed. We next find him passing through several ships in rotation, from which he 

 was invariably dismissed, no captain allowing him to remain when his true character 

 disclosed itself. It did not usually take long. At length he became mate of the Resistance, 

 on which vessel, shortly after joining, he was brought to a court-martial and " broke " 

 i.e. } his commission taken away and declared incapable of serving again as an officer. 

 After serving a short time as a common sailor on board the Hebe, he was either invalided 

 or discharged, for we find him residing in Scotland; and as he could no more keep out 

 of trouble ashore than he could afloat, he was soon in Edinburgh gaol for debt. But 

 men were wanted for the navy, and he was eventually sent up to the fleet as one of the 

 quota of men required from Perth district. He received the parochial bounty of 30 

 allowed to each man. He joined the Sandwich, the flag-ship of Admiral Buckner, 

 Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. The best authorities believe him to have been employed 

 as an emissary of the revolutionists, as, although he had only just been discharged from 

 gaol, he had abundance of money. His good address and general abilities, combined with 

 the liberality and conviviality he displayed, speedily obtained him an influence amoi 

 his messmates, which he used to the worst purpose. He had scarcely joined the fleet 

 when, aided by disaffected parties ashore, he began his machinations, and speedily seduced 

 the majority of the seamen from their duty. In some respects the men followed the 

 example of those at Portsmouth, selecting delegates and forwarding petitions, but in 

 other respects their conduct was disgracefully different. When mastery of the officers 

 had been effected, Parker became, in effect, Lord High Admiral, and committed any 

 number of excesses, even firing on those ships which had not followed the movement. 

 Officers were flogged, and on board the flag-ship, the vessel on which Parker remained, 

 many were half-drowned, as the following account, derived from an unimpeachable source,* 



* The Annual Register, 1789. The account above presented is derived from that source, and from the 

 standard works of Yonge and James. 



