On the 18th two petitions, one to the Admiralty and the other to the House of Commons, were drawn up and signed by the delegates. They were both worded with the highest propriety of expression and respect. The petition to parliament stated that the price of all articles necessary for subsistence having advanced at least thirty per cent. since the reign of Charles II., when the seamen's pay was settled as at present, they requested that a proportionate relief might be granted to them. It represented at the same time that, while their loyalty was equal to that of the army, the pensions of Chelsea had been augmented to thirteen pounds a year, but those of Greenwich still remained at seven. The petition to the Admiralty contained a recital of the services rendered by the petitioners and a warm declaration of their readiness to defend their country, and set forth the low rate of their pay, and the insufficiency of their allowance of provisions, demanding increase of both, together with the liberty of going ashore while in harbour and the continuance of pay to wounded seamen till cured and discharged. Such, in the meanwhile, was the alarm of the public, and particularly of the government, that it was judged necessary to transfer the board of Admiralty to Portsmouth, in order to be nearer at hand to inspect the transactions on board the fleet, and to consult on the readiest and most likely means of quelling the discontent, the consequences of which might prove ruinous to the nation by throwing open the Channel and all the neighbouring seas to the uncontrolled dominion of the French fleets and cruisers. The first lord of the Admiralty, Lord Spencer, accompanied by Lord Arden and Admiral Young, repaired accordingly to Portsmouth, where they directly proceeded to take into consideration the petition that had been transmitted to the board. They authorised Lord Bridport to inform the ships' companies that they would recommend the king to propose to parliament an augmentation of pay to the seamen in the navy at the rate of four shillings a month to petty officers and able seamen, three shillings to ordinary seamen, and two shillings to landsmen. Seamen wounded in action were also to continue in the receipt of their pay till cured or declared unable to serve, when they should be allowed a pension or admitted into Greenwich Hospital. To this notification the seamen replied by requesting that the long-established distinctions in the navy, of able and ordinary seamen, should be retained; the pay of the former to be raised to one shilling a day, and that of petty officers and ordinary seamen in the usual proportion; they also requested that the pay of the marines while on board should be the same as of ordinary seamen, and that the pensions of Greenwich Hospital should be increased to ten pounds.