Upon returning to the English fleet in the Mediterranean, the Bellipotent encounters the French battleship Athée (the Atheist). In the engagement that ensues, Captain Vere, while spearheading an attempted boarding of the enemy ship, is hit and seriously wounded by a musketball. The senior lieutenant succeeds him in command and leads the crew in capturing the enemy ship. He successfully guides both ships to the port of Gibraltar, not far from the scene of the fight. Here, Captain Vere and the other wounded men are put ashore. Dying and under the influence of a soothing drug, the captain murmurs, "Billy Budd, Billy Budd." The words are inexplicable to the attendant, but significant to the senior officer of the marines, to whom they are repeated by the attendant.
A few weeks after Billy's execution, a notice appears in an authorized weekly naval chronicle stating that Billy stabbed Claggart with a sheath knife. The account also states that the assassin was not an Englishman, but rather an alien taking an English name.
As is the custom in naval folklore, the spar from which Billy was hanged becomes a monument. The bluejackets keep track of it and revere it like a piece of the Cross. Even though they learn only parts of the whole tragedy, they feel that the penalty was unavoidable. Still, they know intuitively that Billy was guilty of neither mutiny nor murder.
