ction for the attention he had
received, but Sir Samuel did not even know of the connection or the
name. "Indeed," said he, "I hardly knew the names of half my guests.
But who," he continued, "would make any distinctions amongst such
war-worn and brave fellows."

The fact is, such was his general kindness, that each of these
military officers, his passengers, fancied the Admiral was more civil
to him than to any one else. He suspended on this occasion all the
usual strait-laced etiquettes of the quarter-deck discipline, and
permitted the harassed soldiers to lie down and read between the guns,
or wherever they pleased. His great delight was to coddle them up, and
recompense them, as far as he could, for the severe privations they
had undergone during the retreat, and nothing entertained him so much
as seeing the relish with which these hungry campaigners partook of
his hospitality. On the day after the battle of Corunna, when these
gentlemen came on board, he ordered a cock to be driven into a
hogshead of prime old sherry; and his satisfaction was perfect, when
his steward, with a rueful countenance, communicated to him, on
arriving at Spithead, that "his very best cask of wine had been drunk
dry on the passage by the soldier officers!"

CHAPTER XXIII.

COMMISSIONING A SHIP.

Most people are curious to know how, from a state of total inaction,
or what is called "laid up in ordinary," a ship is brought forward
into real service. I have therefore thought it right to "begin with
the beginning," and tell how a man-of-war is first commissioned. This
leads to the fitting-out; that is, getting in the masts, putting the
rigging overhead, stowing the holds, and so on. The next obvious point
to be considered in the equipment of a ship is, the force she is to
carry, which brings us to the very curious question of naval gunnery.
Finally, if we suppose a ship equipped, armed, manned, and
disciplined.

As soon as an officer receives official intimation that he is
appointed to the command of a ship, he proceeds either to the
Admiralty or to the dockyard at the port where the ship may happen to
be laid up in ordinary, and takes up his commission. In the first
place, however, he must wait upon the admiral commanding at the
out-port where the ship is lying, and having reported himself, he
proceeds to the admiral-superintendent of the dockyard, to whom he
communicates his commission; he has the exclusive charge and
respons