at Spithead, and of the measures taken by the said Lords Commissioners in consequence thereof; and in order to manifest our desire to give due encouragement to all those who shall return to the regular and ordinary discharge of their duty, according to the rules and practice of the navy; we have thought fit by the advice of our Privy Council, to issue this our royal proclamation, and do hereby promise our most gracious pardon to all seamen and marines serving on board the said squadron, who shall upon notification hereof on board their respective ships, return to the regular and ordinary discharge of their duty; and we do hereby declare, that all such seamen and marines so returning to their duty, shall be discharged and released from all prosecutions, imprisonments, and penalties, incurred by reason of any act of mutiny or disobedience of orders, or any breach or neglect of duty, previously committed by them, or any of them.
Given at our Court at Windsor, the 22d day of April, 1 797, and the 37th year of our reign.
God save the King[1].
Captain Griffith, we believe, did not return to the London; but some time in the course of the same year,he was appointed to the Niger, of 32 guns, stationed on the French coast, and from her removed into the Triton, of the same force. In these ships he captured the following privateers: la Rosée, 14 guns, 70 men; l’Impromptu, 14 guns, 64 men; and le Delphine, of 4 guns, and 38 men. Our officer afterwards obtained the command of the Diamond, a fine frigate; and in the summer of 1800, accompanied the expedition against Ferrol and Belleilse[2].
Captain Griffith remained in the Diamond until the spring of 1804, and then joined the Dragon, of 74 guns; in which ship, after serving some time off Ferrol, under the orders of Sir Edward Pellew, he joined Sir Robert Calder’s fleet at the close of the action with the combined squadrons of France and Spain, July 22d, 1805, on which occasion the Dragon had 4 men wounded[3]. He subsequently went to the Mediterranean in company with the Queen, of 98 guns, Rear-Admiral Knight, and a fleet of transports, having on board a body of 5,000 troops, commanded by Sir James Craig.
- ↑ The concessions of Parliament, and its acquiescence to the demands of the seamen, it was to be hoped would have restored general tranquillity throughout the navy; but towards the end of May, a mutiny still more alarming than the preceding, broke out on board the ships at the Nore and in the North Sea fleet, the particulars of which will be found under the head of Admiral Sir John Knight, p. 160, et seq.
- ↑ See Viscount Exmouth.
- ↑ See p. 405.
