Some of these men went brawling and rioting through Plymouth, insulting the night-watch, and even adding murder to pillage.
The townsfolk complained, and the Earl of Bedford, at that time Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, demanded that the guilty should be delivered up. Sir Humphrey would have seconded the Earl's efforts to keep order, but Henry Knollys, to whose ship most of the rioters belonged, set the law at defiance, laughed at the disorders, and thus encouraged his crew to commit further excesses.
Knollys, relying on his kinship to the Queen, even ventured to be rude and insolent towards his leader, and boasted to Sir Humphrey that he was worth twenty knights. Once, when Gilbert had invited him to dinner, Knollys declined the invitation, insolently remarking that he had money to pay for his own dinner, and that the admiral might keep his trenchers for such beggars as stood in need of his hospitality.
Every day these bickerings and insults passed between the captains and threatened to end in bloodshed. Henry Knollys, being left second in command while Sir Humphrey was absent on business, took the opportunity to pay off a grudge he had against Captain Miles Morgan.
Fortunately Gilbert returned just in time to stay the proceedings. As he rowed to the ship he asked the meaning of the flag being at half-mast. "They be agoing to string up Cap'en Morgan at the yardarm, Admiral."
One may imagine how anger and shame and disappointment troubled the mind of the thoughtful explorer, as he hastened to save his captain from the savage vengeance of Henry Knollys.
Then, to secure himself against an appeal to the Queen's Council, Gilbert submitted the matter to the Mayor of Plymouth, who, after hearing evidence on both sides, gave judgment in favour of the admiral.
But this did not put a stop to the quarrels of the captains, and Henry Knollys, his brother Francis, Captain Denny, Gilbert's cousin, and others of the company broke away from the admiral with four ships, and set sail on their own account. It is pleasant to know that the Queen stood by her faithful Gilbert, and would listen to no complaints from the Knollys.
It was not until the 19th of November that Sir Humphrey, with Walter Raleigh, was able to sail from Plymouth with seven ships and three hundred and fifty men. But whither they went has been left in obscurity.
It seems that Gilbert wished to plant a colony on the North American coast, a little south of Newfoundland, but the majority of his officers were for making an attack upon the Spanish possessions further south. In attempting this they fell in with a strong Spanish fleet in the spring of 1579, and were defeated with the loss of one of their best ships and of the brave Captain Miles Morgan, and of many others among the adventurers.