Duncan, discipline, and the fleet after mutiny

The physically imposing Duncan confronted an attempted mutiny aboard his flagship by holding one participant over the ship's side and challenging anyone to remove him from command. Duncan was already a trusted and popular admiral, which helped persuade the crew to back down. He then responded to the underlying grievance by promptly ending the purser's-pound practice on his ships. The recovery mattered operationally: Duncan soon took a recently mutinous fleet into the Battle of Camperdown against a well-drilled Dutch navy. Camperdown appears as a greater risk than Trafalgar in important respects because Duncan's crews had so recently mutinied and the Dutch remained one of the age of sail's strongest seafaring opponents.