No children had become men and women at his feet; no new race had gone out into the world and fought their battles under his notice.

One set of midshipmen had succeeded to another, but his old comrades in the news-rooms and lounging-places at Devonport had remained the same; and Captain Cuttwater had never learnt to think that he was not doing, and was not able to do good service for his country.
The very name of Captain Cuttwater was odious to every clerk at the Admiralty.

He, like all naval officers, hated the Admiralty, and thought, that of all Englishmen, those five who had been selected to sit there in high places as joint lords were the most incapable.

He pestered them with continued and almost continuous applications on subjects of all sorts.

He was always asking for increased allowances, advanced rank, more assistance, less work, higher privileges, immunities which could not be granted, and advantages to which he had no claim.