The Nore Mutiny
Upon his arrival at the Nore, one of the bases of the North Sea fleet, Parker was assigned to the ship HMS Sandwich which was widely regarded as one of the worst in terms of its squalid and overcrowded conditions. It was on the Sandwich, on 12 May, that the Nore mutiny broke out; Parker played no role in organizing the mutiny, but he was soon invited by the mutineers to join their ranks, and was subsequently appointed "President of the Delegates of the Fleet" due to his obvious intelligence, education, and empathy with the suffering of the sailors.
His degree of control over the direction of the mutiny was limited; his role as President was largely symbolic, mainly involving supervision of the processions of delegates in boats that plied between the involved ships for communication and morale purposes. Despite the chaotic nature of the mutiny and his ill-defined powers, Parker did manage to exert control, as on 2 June when the sloop HMS Hound arrived at the Nore and was boarded by a party of delegates. The Hound's crew and commander violently resisted this intrusion, but Parker’s arrival and display of authority quickly convinced the Captain to submit and join the mutiny. During the mutineers' blockade of the Thames, only ships bearing a pass signed by Parker were allowed to pass without being stopped and searched.
Read more about this topic: Richard Parker (sailor)