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Notwithstanding this wide difference in political feeling between the two admirals Sir Gervaise being as decided a whig, as his friend was a tory their personal harmony had been without a shade.
He found his comrades very intelligent, and full of enthusiasm about their leader, whom one of the tars styled "one of the wery best Admirals that England ever owned arter Lord Nelson!" Their admiration was well deserved. We have already said that the Admiral had commissioned his fleet and got it into excellent working condition in what was deemed a miraculously short space of time.
For this reason it is supposed that there was not that good understanding between him and the admirals lieutenant as ought to have been for the public good, as appeared actually to have been the case in the sequel.
That the fleets of Britain are equal in force and number of ships to the united navies of the greatest part of the world; that our admirals are men of known bravery, and long experience, and, therefore, formidable not only for their real abilities and natural courage, but for the confidence which their presence necessarily excites in their followers, and the terrour which must always accompany success, and enervate those who are accustomed to defeats; that our sailors are a race of men distinguished by their ardour for war, and their intrepidity in danger, from the rest of the human species; that they seem beings superiour to fear, and delighted with those objects which cannot be named without filling every other breast with horrour; that they are capable of rushing upon apparent destruction without reluctance, and of standing without concern amidst the complicated terrours of a naval war, is universally known, and confessed, my lords, even by those whose interest it is to doubt or deny it.
From this it would seem that a Greek merchant vessel could manage on the average fifty miles a day. Besides this, one of Alexander's admirals, named Nearchus, learned to carry his ships from the mouth of the Indus to the Arabian Gulf.
"Exactly so, Willis." "Might they not as well consist of multitudes of insects piled heaps upon heaps?" "It is in a great measure as you say, Willis." "Not I I do not say it quite the contrary." "Well, Willis, you are at liberty to believe it or not, as you think proper." "I hope so; we shall, therefore, put the polypi with Ernest's stars and Jack's admirals."
"Now, I'll tell you what," said the admiral, "I would do. It's quite out of the question for any body to live long unless they see a ship; don't you think so, Miss Flora?" "Why, how can you ask Flora such a question, uncle," said Charles Holland, "when you know she don't care a straw about ships, and only looks upon admirals as natural curiosities?"
Relatively, therefore, the need of Suffren to destroy his enemy was greater than that of his predecessors, D'Aché and others; whereas Hughes could count upon a greater strength in the English possessions, and so bore a somewhat less responsibility than the admirals who went before him.
Similarly, in the sea tales, which began with 'The Pilot' and included 'The Red Rover' , 'The Two Admirals' and 'The Wing-and-Wing' , he made full use of his experiences before the mast and in the navy.
Hearing that the French fleet with a great treasure was in Vigo Bay, our Admirals, Rooke and Hopson, pursued the enemy thither; the troops landed and carried the forts that protected the bay, Hopson passing the boom first on board his ship the "Torbay," and the rest of the ships, English and Dutch, following him.
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