In November in that year, a dispute arose between the keelmen and the ship masters and ship owners of Newcastle; and 80 alarming a spirit of insubordination was displayed., that government found it necessary to send a small squadron to the River Tyne, to aid the civil power in subduing the riots; the command of which was entrusted to Captain Nicolas. The same success which has marked the whole of his professional career, attended him on this occasion; and obtained for him the marked approbation of the merchants, of the civil authorities, of his commander in chief, of the Admiralty, and of the Secretary of State for the Home department.
On his arrival in the Tyne he learnt that the conduct of the keelmen had produced a total stagnation of the coal trade ; and he therefore suggested to the mayor of Newcastle, and the magistrates in the vicinity, the possibility of opening the trade by the crews of his Majesty’s ships under his orders, and thus to prove to the refractory keelmen the folly of their resistance. This plan, though never before tried, in similar “strikes.” was adopted, with a zeal on the part of the mayor, Colonel Hell, which did him the highest honor, and with great thankfulness by the coal owners. The next morning, at one o’clock, all the boats of the squadron, aided by two gun-boats, assembled under Captain Nicolas’s command, at the mayor’s stairs, where they were joined by the mayor in his barge, and proceeded to the different coal sheathes, several miles above the town. They reached these places before daylight, and found there the 3rd dragoon guards, under Lieut. Colonel Holmes, and the Northumberland cavalry, under Colonel Bradling, ready to protect them. The keelmen had collected in large bodies along the banks of the river, to oppose the men-of-war’s men in taking possession of their keels; but notwithstanding their resistance, by throwing heavy stones from every point which the boats passed in going tip and down the river, upwards of one thousand tons of coals were conveyed to Shields on the that day, the same plan was pursued, and the same quantity brought, on the next, and every succeeding day, for
