vessel that had been boarded and plundered by the ships at the Nore, arrived off Gravesend with information that the delegates, although in the habit of searching and stripping every vessel attempting to pass them, not being able to procure a sufficient supply of provisions, had determined to take the fleet over to an enemy’s port, and had already commenced getting up their yards and top -masts in preparation for sailing. On the receipt of this intelligence, Captain Daniel and the commanding officer of the military determined to send a despatch to the Board of Admiralty; but Lieutenant Daniel seeing that much time would thus be lost, suggested the propriety of sending letters, by horsemen, to Margate and Maiden, desiring the revenue cutters to cut away the buoys of the different channels before day-light the next morning. This suggestion was acted upon, and the cutters, although discovered, succeeded in their object, to the great annoyance of the mutineers, among whom symptoms of disunion soon after began to appear.
Subsequent to this event, Lieutenant Daniel, acting as aid-de-camp, pro tempore, to Colonel Nisbett, the military commandant, succeeded, at the imminent peril of his life, in seizing several of the delegates who were proceeding up the Thames to bring the Lancaster, of 64 guns, from Purfleet to the Nore, and who were directed by Parker, the ringleader, to fire upon the town of Gravesend, in case the inhabitants did not prevent the batteries from molesting them.
For these and other important services performed by Lieutenant Daniel at this alarming epoch, the court-martial assembled to try the mutineers strongly recommended him for superior rank; but it was refused on the ground that his appointment at Gravesend rendered him ineligible, although his predecessor had been promoted from that situation to the rank of Commander. The following is an extract of a letter from the Duke of York’s Secretary to Colonel Nisbett, dated “Horse Guards, June 7, 1797.”
“His Royal Highness desires that you will express his thanks to Captain Daniel and his Son, and assure them that H.R.H. will not fail to communicate your favourable report of their zeal and activity to Lord Spencer[1].”
- ↑ The Society of Merchants, established in London for the purpose of
