he says, "If you do not immediately make a
suitable apology to Commissioner Inglefield for the abominable neglect
and disrespect you have treated him with, I will represent your
behaviour to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and recommend
your name to be struck off the list of lieutenants." Captains of vessels
were not only subject to strict regulation as to their personal
proceedings, compelled to sleep on board, for instance, even in home
ports; but duties customarily left to subordinates, with results to
discipline that might not now obtain but which were in those days
deplorable, were also assigned to them.

"The commander-in-chief has too exalted an opinion of the respective
captains of the squadron to doubt their being upon deck when the signal
is made to tack or wear _in the night_, and he requires all lieutenants
then to be at their stations, except those who had the watch
immediately preceding." Nor did he leave this delicately worded, but
pointed, admonition, issued in the Mediterranean, to take care of
itself. In after years, when he was nigh seventy, his secretary tells
that on a cold and rainy November night off Brest, the signal to tack
being made, he hurried to the cabin to persuade the old man not to go on
deck, as was his custom. He was not, however, in his cot, nor could he
for a long time be found; but at last a look into the stern gallery
discovered him, in flannel dressing-gown and cocked hat, watching the
movements of the fleet. To remonstrance he replied, "Hush, I want to see
how the evolution is performed on such a night, and to know whether
Jemmy Vashon (commanding the ship next astern) is on deck;" but soon
hearing the captain's well-known shrill voice, crying, "Are you all
ready forward?" he consented then to retire.

Post-captains and commanders were required to attend at points on shore
where the boats and crews of ships congregated on service; at landing
places and watering places,--scenes fruitful in demoralization,--to
maintain order and suppress disturbance. "The Masters and Commanders are
to take it in turn, according to rank, to attend the duty on shore at
the ragged staff [at Gibraltar], from gun-fire in the morning to sunset,
to keep order and prevent disputes, and to see that boats take their
regular turns. They are never to be absent from the spot except at
regular meal times." "When the squadron is at anchor in Torbay [in the
English Channel], a captain of a ship-of-the-