ay is to heel, etc.,
and confine them to ten days in port for the refreshment of their
companies in case they should miss the spring tide." "Their Lordships
will give me leave to observe that the relief of the squadron depends
more on the refreshment of the ships' companies than on cleaning the
ships. By the hurry the latter must be performed in, unless the ship
continues a month or five weeks in port, which the present exigency will
by no means admit of, the men would be so harassed and fatigued that
they would return to me in a worse condition than when they left me....
However, I shall endeavor to comply with all their Lordships' directions
in such manner as, _to the best of my judgment, will answer their
intentions in employing me here_." The words italicized strike the true
note of subordination duly tempered with discretion.

To the Navy Board, a civil adjunct to the Admiralty, but possessed of
considerable independent power to annoy officers in active military
service, he took a more peremptory tone. He had discharged on his own
authority, and for reasons of emergency, a mutinous surgical officer.
For this he was taken to task, as Nelson a generation later was rebuked
by the same body. "I have to acquaint you," he replied, "that there was
no mistake in his being ordered by me to be discharged." He then gives
his reasons, and continues, "For the real good of the service I ordered
him to be discharged, and his crime noted on his list of pay, for your
information. I shall not enter into any dispute with you about my
authority as a Commanding Officer, neither do I ever think of
inconveniences or prejudices to myself, as a party, according to your
insinuations, where the good of the service is concerned." It must be
added that to subordinates he was as liberal with praise as he was with
censure, where either was merited; nor did he fail in kindly personal
intervention upon due occasion for deserving or unfortunate men. More
reserved, apparently, than Nelson, he seems to have been like him
sympathetic; and hence it was that, as before observed, it was his
spirit that he communicated to the navy rather than a system, admirable
as was the strategic system embodied in his methods of blockade. It was
by personal influence rather than by formulated precept that Hawke
inspired his service, and earned a just claim to be reckoned the
greatest force of his century in naval development.

The general conditions being as describe