There is perhaps some room for doubt whether the naval officers and the agent, on whom the chief burden of responsibility fell throughout these anxious days, did not overrate the extent to which the mayor and magistrates supported and encouraged the mutineers. It is certain, however, that on the very day on which the town’s meeting was held the aspect of affairs began to improve, and that evening Mr. Saverland was able to report to London that some men were already returning to their duty. On the following day the upward tendency was more marked, and it was intimated to the agent that the greater part of the men would return if they could be assured that they would be well received, and would not be abandoned to the pressgang. Mr. Saverland at once caused a notice to be printed and distributed, promising protection to all men who would return except four or five who were specially named, and who had distinguished themselves by particularly riotous conduct. This notice had an excellent effect, and on the evening of the day on which it was issued there was a full muster of men on board all the Packets.
The mischief was, however, done. The threatening aspect of the mutiny, and the impossibility of despatching the mails, had caused an amount of anxiety and alarm which was not to be allayed by the simple announcement that the men had returned to their ships. It was felt necessary to mark the occasion in some signal way, and the idea of removing the Packets to Plymouth, which had entered Mr. Saverland’s mind on October 30th, occurred quite independently to the Secretary of the Treasury on the same day. It thus happened that the Secretary of the Post-Office, on repairing to Whitehall on October 31st, to suggest the adoption of this plan, found that it was already being favourably considered, and that very day instructions were sent to Sir Robert Calder to despatch forthwith to Falmouth a force sufficient to navigate the Packets round to Plymouth.
The news fell like a thunderbolt on Falmouth. It was received on November 2nd, and even Mr. Saverland was not prepared for it. The sailors had, as already stated, returned to their ships, and the step appeared so little necessary that the agent thought that his chiefs in London must have failed to comprehend how much the situation had improved, and he consequently sent off an express with a full report. The measure was, however, dictated by a strong feeling that it was necessary, once for all, to show the seamen and the inhabitants of Falmouth that they were not masters of the position. It was felt, not unjustly, that the danger and inconvenience of any interruption of the Postal Service was great enough to warrant the Department in giving a severe lesson, and the decision to remove the Packets was consequently persisted in.
On November 6th “H.M.S. North Star,” accompanied by a frigate and two sloops of war, entered Falmouth Harbour, and set sail again for Plymouth in company with six Packets. On first reaching Plymouth the Packets lay in Hamoaze, while a temporary office was secured for the agent and his staff at the “Fountain Inn.”
It was not long before agent, officers, and men, wished themselves heartily back at Falmouth. Writing to the Secretary of the Post-Office on November 13th Mr. Saverland says:
“I hope the Packets will not remain here as a fixed station. If they do, the establishment must be greatly increased and the correspondence delayed. Both the West India and American Mails were ready yesterday by about noon, but what with the passengers in different and distant inns, the Packets in different places, the cartage of the mails, the purchasing of their anchors in very deep water—pilotage not one man-of-war ever goes to sea without, so dangerous is the passage—that I see very clearly we shall not gain anything in getting to sea, though the mail arrives here in the morning.... In the late gale the ‘Diana’ parted her cable and was nearly on shore, and the ‘Stately,’ a 74, nearly ran on board the “Despatch,” and would have sunk her if she had, but fortunately she ran on board a hulk, and just saved the Packet.... In Hamoaze and the Sound the water is so deep that if it blows a little the Packets cannot weigh their anchors, and anchors are so distributed about by ships cutting and slipping their cables that cables are worn out in a few hours. The “Elizabeth” cut a new cable which cost £140 nearly through last night, getting foul of some anchor or wreck....”
Again a few days later he wrote:
“The Packets lie very badly here.... Unless moorings are laid down, and a separate place assigned, some of them will be lost before the winter is over. The seamen are obliged to be victualled constantly on board, and stock of all kinds is dearer than at Falmouth, together with greater wear and tear, exclusive of risk....”
These representations were of course not without effect, and were pressed home by the fact that on more than one occasion Packets which set sail from Plymouth in stormy weather were obliged to run for Falmouth for shelter. The Post-Office, moreover, was exposed at this time to strong pressure exerted by prominent persons in Cornwall, who used all their influence to secure the return of the Packets to Falmouth.
At that time forty-four members were returned to the House of Commons from Cornwall, and it was rightly foreseen that these members would act unanimously in the matter. A deputation of the inhabitants of Falmouth had, moreover, reached London early in November. It consisted of the mayor, Mr. James Bull, Mr. John Carne, and Mr. Robert W. Fox. These gentlemen had an interview with the Secretary of the Post-Office on November 10th, but received what was to them an unsatisfactory answer to their representations. The unyielding disposition shown to them was due not only to a conviction that it was much too soon to give way, but also to the difficulties arising from the case of Pascoe and Parker.