Was London afraid Cochrane might declare independence?

Was the Admiralty asking about Cochrane's forces because it feared he might declare independence?

No. Officials expected Cochrane to remain loyal, but they were seriously concerned by the size, equipment, and uncertain legal status of the force he had assembled.

A viewer jokingly interprets Admiralty questions as contingency planning against a Caribbean declaration of independence. Officials were fairly sure Cochrane would not secede. Their serious concern was that he had raised a large military force whose size, equipment, and authority were poorly understood in London. The same personnel later appeared in the War of 1812, leaving American commanders unsure what manpower and heavy guns Cochrane could bring against them. His claimed unfamiliarity with the Articles of War only deepened the accountability problem. The exchange separates a joke about rebellion from a genuine civil-military problem of control and force visibility.