Friends came round him, eager to help and--not least--to share the profits of the expedition; among these were Walter and George Raleigh, George and William Carew, Denny, his cousin, Nowell and Morgan. But best of all, the Queen wished him all good success; for she had sent two of her own kinsmen, Henry and Francis, sons of Sir Francis Knollys, to join him on the expedition. By the end of summer, 1578, Gilbert's fleet of eleven sail, manned by five hundred young gentlemen and sailors, seemed ready for sea as it lay at anchor between the wooded cliffs that girdle the Dart. But a strange discord was already making Gilbert's life bitter to him; there were too many masters in that little fleet, and petty bickerings spoilt the voice of authority and command. Naturally, the common seamen took their cue from their betters. They were for the most part reckless men who had broken out of prison; blasphemers and ruffians who had been tempted to volunteer from sheer love of piracy. 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.