As one of the early commanders of HMS Temeraire, Eyles had to deal with a mutiny as disaffected sailors aired their grievances at being sent abroad as peace seemed imminent.

[4][5] The expedition ultimately ended in the frustration of the British plans to encourage a French Royalist rising, but Eyles and Warren both benefited from it.

[5] On 22 August 1796 Eyles was in company with several frigates and smaller ships when the French 36-gun Andromache was spotted making for the Gironde estuary.

Eyles took command of the 74-gun HMS Canada, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Warren, and under him saw action at the Battle of Tory Island, in which a French invasion force under Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart was encountered and successfully dispersed on 12 October 1798.

[8] The newly commissioned Temeraire then joined the Channel Fleet under the overall command of Admiral Lord Bridport and supported the blockade of the French port of Brest, making several long cruises of two or three months at a time patrolling the area.

Anticipating the imminent end of the war, Temeraire was taken off blockade duty and sent to Bantry Bay to await the arrival of a convoy, which she would then escort to the West Indies.

[8] Many of the crew had been serving continuously in the navy since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, and had looked forward to returning to England now that peace seemed imminent.

On hearing rumours that instead they were to be sent to the West Indies, a group of around a dozen men began to agitate for the rest of the crew to refuse orders to sail for anywhere but England.

[10] Trouble flared up again when the mutineers, believing they would be supported by the majority of the crew, again made their refusal to sail to the West Indies known, and began to agitate against the officers.

[11] Campbell met with Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell the following day and after a period of tensions and standoffs between the officers and the crew, the mutiny collapsed when the marines obeyed orders to arrest the ringleaders.

[13][a] Having carried out the executions, Temeraire was immediately sent to sea, and Eyles sailed for Barbados, arriving there on 24 February, and the ship remained in the West Indies until the summer.

^ A number of general histories, including Goodwin's The Ships of Trafalgar and Noel Mostert's The Line on the Wind, state that all 14 were hanged.