Billy Budd (opera) the conflict between good and evil, he is tormented by guilt over the case of Billy Budd on board his ship, HMS "Indomitable", some years earlier. The crew of the Indomitable works on deck. For slipping and bumping into an officer, the Novice is sentenced to be flogged. At the same time a cutter approaches, returning from a merchant ship where it has pressed three sailors into the Royal Navy. One of these sailors, Billy Budd, seems overjoyed with his situation – entirely different from the other two who are not so happy. Claggart, the Master-at-Arms, calls him "a find
HMS Diligent (1776) HMS Diligent (1776) HMS "Diligent" was the mercantile schooner "Byfield", which the Royal Navy purchased in 1776. She was wrecked in the Bay of Fundy in May 1777. The Royal Navy commissioned "Diligent " under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Dod in July 1776. On 18 May 1777 Dod went aboard , Captain Andrew Barkley, that "Diligent" "was beat to pieces upon the Gannet Rock Ledges". Barkley took "Diligent"s officers and crew aboard "Scarborough" at noon. A report, in the "Independent Chronicle" of 19 June 1777, dated Halifax 27 May, stated that "Diligent" was lost on the Gannet Rocks in