He had rowed as far as the leading ship of the enemy; sounding round her, and using a pole when he was apprehensive of being heard.

He reported the practicability of the Channel, and the depth of water up to the ships of the enemy's line.

Had we abided by this report, in lieu of confiding in our Masters and Pilots, we should have acted better.

The Orders were completed about one o'clock, when half a dozen clerks in the foremost cabin proceeded to transcribe them.

Lord Nelson's impatience again showed itself; for instead of sleeping undisturbedly, as he might have done, he was every half hour calling from his cot to these clerks to hasten their work, for that the wind was becoming fair: he was constantly receiving a report of this during the night." It was characteristic of the fortune of the "heaven-born" admiral, that the wind which had been fair the day before to take him south, changed by the hour of battle to fair to take him north; but it is only just to notice also that he himself never trifled with a fair wind, nor with time.
The Orders for Battle, the process of framing which Stewart narrates, have been preserved in full;[30] but they require a little study and analysis to detect Nelson's thought, and their tactical merit, which in matters of detail is unique among his works.