Before the final decisive struggle was fought out, there was an interval, during which active operations languished. Both fleets stood in need of repairs; for if the Dutch had lost severely, not a few of our own vessels had been compelled to drag themselves into Portsmouth so severely crippled that they were in need of a thorough refit. The work of getting the English fleet ready for sea once more was not discharged without difficulties and delay. The Navy Committee had many obstacles to overcome before its squadrons could be put in order to continue the war. There was a great want of men. The sailors no longer volunteered in any large numbers, and the press was ill enforced. Colonel Overton, the governor of Hull, found the local magistrates so lax in their discharge of their duty that he was provoked into threatening to send them to sea in default of sailors. The unpopularity of the navy was due to causes of long standing. One of these, at least, endured throughout the whole course of our wars. It was discovered under the rule of the Commonwealth that the seamen had not lost that preference of the privateer to the man-of-war they had shown during the reign of Elizabeth. Blake had complained of the competition of these partisan fighters of the sea at the very beginning of the war. Government was constrained to put a severe check upon them, partly by limiting the issue of letters of marque to vessels of a certain size, and partly by giving men-of-war captains the right to press sailors from the privateers. There were also very genuine causes of discontent to deter men from volunteering into the service of the State. Under the pressure due to the immense demands made upon its treasury, the Commonwealth had become a bad paymaster. Not only were the salaries of officers and men in arrear, but the contractors were slowly paid, and, taking advantage of the power given them by the position of creditor to the State, they supplied their goods late, and of inferior quality. In the summer of 1653 one Captain John Taylor reported to the Admiralty that the men belonging to the ships at Chatham had refused to do anything towards taking the ballast in or getting it out, or, in fact, to put their hand to the work of fitting the ships for sea. Their excuse was the defective state of the victuals and beer. Captain Taylor had to confess that "they have brought me beer, bread, and butter, worse than I ever saw in the dearest times." The beer was particularly vile, and the brewer protested that he could not make it any better, because he was only paid three shillings and sixpence a barrel. The men found it so bad that they actually preferred to drink water. The crews imputed their sickness to the state of the victuals, and there is every probability that they were right.