In 1770, when Choiseul was dismissed, the royal navy numbered sixty-four of the line and fifty frigates afloat.

The arsenals and storehouses were filled, and a stock of ship-timber laid up.

At the same time the minister tried to improve the efficiency of the officers by repressing the arrogant spirit of those of noble birth, which showed itself both toward superiors and toward another order of officers, not of the nobility, whose abilities made them desired on board the fleet.

This class-feeling carried with it a curious sentiment of equality among officers of very different grades, which injuriously affected the spirit of subordination.
Members, all, of a privileged social order, their equality as such was more clearly recognized than their inequality as junior and senior.
The droll story told by Marryatt of the midshipman, who represented to his captain that a certain statement had been made in confidence, seems to have had a realization on the French quarter-deck of that day.

"Confidence!" cried the captain; "who ever heard of confidence between a post-captain and a midshipman!" "No sir," replied the youngster, "not between a captain and a midshipman, but between two gentlemen." Disputes, arguments, suggestions, between two gentlemen, forgetful of their relative rank, would break out at critical moments, and the feeling of equality, which wild democratic notions spread throughout the fleets of the republic, was curiously forestalled by that existing among the members of a most haughty aristocracy.