on as well as for
calculated audacity, both controlled by a composure and ability rarely
conjoined to the same great extent as in Howe. Circumstances were more
imminent than in the two previous reliefs by Rodney and Darby; for the
greatly superior numbers of the allies were now not in Cadiz, as before,
but lying only four miles from the anchorage which the supply vessels
must gain. True, certainly, that for these a certain portion of their
path would be shielded by the guns of the fortress, but a much greater
part would be wholly out of their range; and the mere question of
reaching his berth, a navigational problem complicated by uncertain
winds, and by a very certain current sweeping in from the Atlantic, was
extremely difficult for the merchant skipper of the day, a seaman rough
and ready, but not always either skilful or heedful. The problem before
Howe demanded therefore the utmost of his seamanlike qualities and of
his tactical capacity.

The length of the passage speaks for the deliberate caution of Howe's
management, as his conduct at the critical moment of approach, and
during the yet more critical interval of accomplishing the entrance of
the supply ships, evinces the cool and masterful self-control which
always assured the complete and sustained exertion of his great
professional powers at a required instant. Thirty days were consumed in
the voyage from Spithead to Gibraltar, but no transport was dropped. Of
the huge convoy even, it is narrated that after a heavy gale, just
before reaching Cape Finisterre, the full tally of 183 was counted.
After passing that cape, the traders probably parted for their several
destinations, each body under a suitable escort. The stoppages for the
rounding-up of straying or laggard vessels, or for re-establishing the
observance of order which ever contributes to regulated movement, and
through it to success, were not in this case time lost. The admiral made
of them opportunities for exercising his ships-of-the-line in the new
system of signals, and in the simple evolutions depending upon them,
which underlie flexibility of action, and in the day of battle enable
the fleet to respond to the purposes of its commander with reasonable
precision, and in mutual support.

Such drill was doubly necessary, for it not only familiarized the
intelligence of the captains with ideas too generally neglected by
seamen until called upon to put them into practice, and revealed to them
difficu