When the news reached England, that a British fleet had defeated a Spanish force of almost double its strength, there was general rejoicing and Nelson was rewarded with a knighthood. His father, who was staying in Bath, reflected the mood of many when he wrote, 'The name and services of Nelson have sounded throughout the City of Bath from the common ballad-singer to the public theatre. Joy sparkles in every eye and desponding Britain draws back her sable veil and smiles.' Sir John Jervis was made an earl and became Lord St Vincent. A few weeks after the battle he had taken the British fleet south and commenced the blockade of Cadiz.
There is no record of the reaction of the Bellerophon's crew to Nelson's arrival on board, nor of his conversation with Captain Darby, but the marine artist Thomas Buttersworth painted a number of watercolours of the ships of the Advanced Squadron around this time which show the Bellerophon anchored alongside the Theseus, Nelson's flagship. Buttersworth was a seaman on one of the ships in the main body of the fleet under Lord St Vincent and although his pictures are strangely lacking in atmosphere they are full of carefully observed detail. The anchored ships of Nelson's squadron are beautifully drawn; he notes the boats moored alongside their sterns, and the longboats and cutters coming and going in the foreground. His pictures clearly show how close the squadron was to Cadiz. According to Nelson, 'We are looking at the ladies walking the walls and Mall of Cadiz and know of the ridicule they make of their sea officers.'
Compared to the hazardous job of patrolling the seas off Brest, the blockade of Cadiz should have been a relatively easy task but St Vincent imposed a strict regime and with good reason. He and his fellow officers were aware that there was unrest among the sailors of the fleet, much of it inspired by news of the two fleet mutinies which had recently taken place in home waters - the most serious in the navy's history. With the nation at war and under threat of invasion from France, such rebellion could have had the most disastrous consequences. There was much talk of the mutineers being influenced by the French Revolution and some may have been, but the British sailors' demands were much more basic than the republican ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The grievances on the list drawn up by the sailors of the Channel fleet at Spithead on 17 April 1797 were entirely concerned with their pay, food and conditions. The pay of seamen in the Royal Navy had remained unchanged since 1653 and was fixed at 24 shillings a lunar month for able seamen and 19 shillings for ordinary seamen. Merchant sea captains in the Pool of London were offering wages of £3. 15s. a month around this time and a private in a cavalry regiment earned £3 a calendar month. In addition to an increase in pay, the sailors wanted better food and the full rations to which they were entitled; they wanted shore leave when ships returned to port so they could see their families (most captains refused shore leave on the grounds that their crews inevitably included large numbers of pressed men who were likely to desert); and they wanted better treatment and pay for men who were sick or wounded.
Senior officers in the navy were generally sympathetic to the men's requests and within eight days the Admiralty agreed to all the demands, but when the fleet was ordered to sea on 7 May, the men refused to obey their officers because they did not believe the promises that had been made. An Act of Parliament was hastily passed, and on 14 May Lord Howe arrived at Portsmouth with the news that all the men's demands would be met and a pardon would be provided for the Spithead mutineers. The jubilant sailors carried Howe on their shoulders to the governor's house and later manned the yards of their ships in celebration as he was rowed through the fleet.
Unrest had also spread among the ships anchored at the Nore. In addition to the concessions made to the men at Spithead (which had been extended to the whole navy by the Act of Parliament), the Nore seamen wanted a more equal distribution of prize money, the payment of arrears of wages before ships went to sea, and the removal of the harshest of the Articles of War. The mutiny at the Nore began on 12 May and rapidly extended to most of the ships in the Medway as well as the North Sea fleet along the coast at Yarmouth. The mutineers tarred and feathered several officers, looted local fishing boats and farms, and began intercepting shipping on the Thames with the aim of blockading London. However, when the government began to set up shore batteries and brought up warships with loyal crews, the mutiny rapidly collapsed. Officers resumed command of their ships, and Richard Parker, the leader of the mutiny, was handed over to the authorities. This time there was no mercy for the mutineers. Richard Parker and thirty-five other seamen were hanged.
The Bellerophon had been anchored in the Bay of Cadiz for nearly six weeks when an event took place which provoked a mutiny on one ship and might have led to a more general mutiny had it not been for the swift and uncompromising action taken by Lord St Vincent. Two young seamen from another ship in the fleet were charged with committing 'the unnatural and detestable sin of sodomy'. The court martial was held in the great cabin of the Prince George, a big three-decker of 90 guns. The two seamen had spent three days in confinement, and would have been only too aware that the punishment for breaching the Twentieth-ninth Article of War was death. After their cramped and gloomy quarters, confined in irons below deck, the atmosphere of the great cabin must have been extremely intimidating. They found themselves in an elegantly proportioned room filled with senior naval officers resplendent in their full dress uniforms with dark blue coats, white breeches and stockings, buckled shoes, and an impressive array of gold lace on sleeves and lapels. The room had a low, gently curving ceiling with the far wall almost entirely composed of windows. The sunlight streaming in through the curved arc of these stern windows was dazzling. It glistened on the polished mahogany chairs and tables, and on the gold epaulettes and brass buttons of the assembled officers. The president of the court was Charles Thompson, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and the captains included Cuthbert Collingwood, Thomas Troubridge, Sir Robert Calder and the Bellerophon's Henry Darby.
The first man to give evidence was Nicholas Tobin, the captain's coxswain of the St George, the 90-gun sister ship of the Prince George. He was sworn in and asked to relate what he knew of the business. He told the court that on the night of 27 June, between the hours of 9 and 10, he was on the main deck when seaman John Tipper came to him and said that there were two men connected together. Tobin told him to get a light and they went below to where they heard a man breathing very hard. This was in the area below the forecastle beside the door of the sick berth.
'I saw John Benson and Philip Francis laying with their trowsers down about their legs one hand fast held of John Benson's privates while several people standing by tried to get them up.' What happened next was described by John Tipper who was the next witness. For some reason Tipper had taken the light away for a few minutes and he recalled that, when he came back, he: