Although he was but a couple of months over fifteen, Nelson gave him at once his commission into the vacancy made by the lieutenant.

One very dark night, the "Victory" being under way, a midshipman, at the imminent risk of his life, leaped into the sea to save a seaman who had fallen overboard, and otherwise would have been drowned.

Nelson gave him, too, his commission the following morning; but, seeing the jubilation among the young man's messmates, and thinking the act might be a dangerous precedent, he leaned over the poop and said, smiling good-naturedly, "Stop, young gentlemen! Mr.
Flin has done a gallant thing today, and he has done many gallant things before, for which he has now got his reward.

But mind, I'll have no more making lieutenants for men falling overboard." The power thus to reward at discretion, and speedily, though liable to abuse, was, he claimed, essential to the due influence of a commander-in-chief; his subordinates must feel that it was in his power to make their future, to distinguish them, and that they were in so far dependent upon him.

Nevertheless, with him as with others, personal interest had a weight which qualified his argument.