“The retrospect gave me much thankfulness in every point of view. It was a singular circumstance, that on my journey from Bath to Portsmouth, in June, 1803, one of my companions on the coach was the late Sir Matthew Blakiston, who mentioned a report (an unfounded one) that the Hazard Sloop of war, commanded by Captain Neave, had been taken, and carried into a French Port. I immediately expressed my opinion, that I could hardly conceive a greater misfortune befalling a professional man; and that it would be one of the most difficult to support. In less than a month from that time, I was actually in the very dreaded situation; and lost by it the command of one of the finest frigates in the Navy, with all the bright prospects attendant upon such a position, at the first breaking out of a war, when the ocean is covered by the enemy’s vessels, and few Captains with such commands fail in making fortunes. But the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb—the blow to me was, indeed, a severe one, but I was enabled to support it; and I have since been led to reflect upon the merciful dispensation which attended the event. It is very possible, that the effect of the concussion of the brain, which I had so recently received in the Minerve previously to her capture, might have disabled me, for the arduous duty attending on the command of a cruising frigate; and as I had already been indulged by having two acting Captains appointed to my ship, I could not have expected that a third would have been allowed; and had I been obliged then to retire on half pay, with the little interest I possessed, and the deeds of the new war, throwing into shade the achievements of the last; it is very probable that I might never have succeeded in getting a ship; but must have remained, like many of my brother officers, on half pay for the remainder of my days. I landed as a prisoner in France with the comforting recollection that no honour had been lost with my ship; that it was one of the unavoidable occurrences to which all are exposed in the profession of arms. With these feelings, and gratitude for my protection, under a fire of such duration, and of so complicated a nature, my mind was kept in perfect peace.”