Not a man or officer in her I would wish to change....

I am perfectly satisfied with both officers and ship's company." Down to the month before Trafalgar, when, to the bidding of the First Lord of the Admiralty to choose his own officers, he replied, "Choose yourself, my lord; the same spirit actuates the whole profession, you cannot choose wrong," there is rarely, it might almost be said never, anything but praise for those beneath him.

With the "Agamemnon," "We are all well; indeed, nobody can be ill with my ship's company, they are so fine a set." At the Nile, "I had the happiness to command a band of brothers; therefore night was to my advantage.

Each knew his duty, and I was sure each would feel for a French ship.

_My friends_ readily conceived my plan." His ships in the Mediterranean, in 1803, "are the best commanded and the very best manned" in the navy.