“I was only with him then a couple of months, for I was transferred to another ship, and did not come across him again until he was appointed by Lord Keith to the command of the _Speedy_, lying at Port Mahon. He had done a good deal of knocking about by that time, for the _Hind_ was sent out to the coast of Norway, where it was suspected that French privateers used the fiords as hiding-places. On the return of the _Hind_ from Norway, Cochrane’s uncle was appointed to the _Thetis_, and the _Hind’s_ crew were transferred to her. The _Thetis_ went out with a squadron for the protection of the islands of Nova Scotia, and so well was Cochrane thought of that in January, 1795, he was appointed by the admiral of the station acting third lieutenant of the _Thetis_, and was soon after transferred, with the same rank, to the _Africa_; and in July was confirmed in his rank, though he had been but two years at sea. In the _Africa_ he coasted up and down, between Canada and Florida, looking out for ships of the enemy, but in the following January he rejoined the _Thetis_, whose first lieutenant had just been promoted. He then passed as lieutenant, and was afterwards appointed to the _Speedy_. “The difficulty of his not having served the regulation time had been got over by his uncle in a way which was not uncommon then, and may be still practised for aught I know. His uncle thought that he might one day wish to join the navy, and had therefore entered his name in the books of the various ships he commanded, so that nominally he had formed part of the ship’s complement in the _Vesuvius_, _Carolina_, _La Sophie_, and _Hind_, and had therefore belonged to the service for the regulation period. It is a bad practice, lad, but in the case of Cochrane was the means of providing the king’s navy with as gallant an officer as ever trod quarter-deck. I went down with him from Gibraltar to Port Mahon with another midshipman who, like myself, had just passed, and was to join the _Speedy_. We were hoping to gain an opportunity for distinguishing ourselves, and getting a step. “Our first sight of the craft was a grievous disappointment. She was a brig of 158 tons, and as she carried eighty-four men and six officers, you may imagine how we were crowded on board. Her armament consisted of fourteen four-pounders, ridiculous little weapons that were no more good than as many blunderbusses. I remember Cochrane putting fourteen balls into his pockets, and walking up and down the quarter-deck, saying that he was probably the only commander who had ever carried a whole ship’s broadsides in his pockets.