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was not long in getting to work, and his capacity for detail early began to show itself. A month after his appointment he is found writing letters to the Admiralty asking for small things essential to success, which only the man held directly responsible for results appears to have remembered.

Here for instance is his first letter, spelling and all (a practice which will generally be followed in future) as he wrote it:—

'[,] Oct. 31st, 1786. ',—The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having ordered His Majesty's ship Sirius, under my command, to be supply'd with six caronades and four six-pounders, I am to request that you will please to move their Lordships to order ten more of the six-pounders to be put on board, with the ironwork necessary for the cariages. Having the ironwork, the guns can 18