After reading of the court-martial summons, John Bulkeley learns a warrant has been issued for his detention. He confronts the marshal, initially posing as a relative, and is told the longboat men will likely be hanged. Revealing himself as the Wager’s gunner, Bulkeley is taken into custody, joined by Lieutenant Baynes, carpenter Cummins, and boatswain King, then transported to Portsmouth and confined aboard HMS Prince George without outside correspondence.

Other survivors are called, including John Byron. Captain David Cheap boards voluntarily, likely surrendering his sword, regaining some of his authoritative bearing despite lingering illness. Reunited for the first time since the island, all must now “give account of [their] actions,” with the process focused on undisputed facts: Bulkeley’s party bound their captain and abandoned him; Cheap shot an unarmed man without legal process.

The text details Articles of War Bulkeley’s faction appears to have breached: mutinous assembly, concealing mutiny, striking a superior, and desertion. Additional allegations could include cowardice, theft, and scandalous conduct; Cheap further accuses them of attempted murder for leaving him. Conversely, Cheap faces the stark Article 28—willful killing—punishable by death without leniency. Even Byron worries over his brief desertion before turning back.

The chapter notes omissions and self-serving legal papers in the survivors’ narratives, suggesting consciousness of guilt. It explains that naval courts, while severe, could mitigate sentences, yet served chiefly to uphold discipline by example. A later example—the Bounty hangings—illustrates the spectacle designed to deter seamen from mutiny.

While they await trial aboard Prince George, a Sunday service adds to their dread. The chaplain warns souls at sea are tested and cautions against “vain notions” of reprieve, reinforcing the men’s fear that they may “fall by the violence of power.”