The experience of the American Revolution, the international call for the rights of man that came with the French Revolution, an English reform movement stifled by a reactionary British government, and the example of the new United States defending sailors’ rights all had an impact on the British navy. In turn, what happened in the British navy had an effect on the United States and its commitment to sailors’ rights. Aggravated by harsh treatment, meager rations, and poor pay, two great mutinies swept through the British navy in the spring of 1797. The sailors in the channel fleet at Spithead off Portsmouth mutinied on April 16, limiting their action to a petition of grievances while asserting loyalty to King George. Thanks to timely action by Admiral Richard Howe, who offered some concessions and a carte blanche pardon, the men resumed their duty on May 14. The British government was less lenient with the mutiny in the fleet stationed at the Nore, at the mouth of the Medway leading to the Thames River and protecting London. The sailors in these ships, who began their mutiny on May 12, espoused a more radical agenda by drawing up a revolutionary constitution, placing committees in command of their ships, threatening to blockade London, and even discussing joining the French. By mid-June this revolutionary movement began to fall apart as one ship after another returned to the control of its officers. By June 16 the mutiny was over. Authorities executed thirty-six of the ringleaders, including the president of the delegates of the fleet, Richard Parker.