1784-1793.  Age, 26-34.

Whatever the cause, Nelson’s visit to France ended prematurely and abruptly.  Early in January, 1784, after an absence of two months, he went back to England, announcing to his friends that his coming was only temporary, partly on business, partly for treatment; for his delicate health again occasioned him anxiety.  “The frost, thank God, is broke,” he wrote; “cold weather is death to me.”  But even while speaking confidently of his speedy return to the Continent, he dropped a hint that he was disposed to resume the active pursuit of his profession, although on leaving the “Albemarle,” six months before, he had said that he could not afford to live afloat, in peace times, in the style then prevalent.  “My stay in England will be but very short, without the First Lord in the Admiralty thinks proper to employ me.  I shall offer my services.”  He did see Lord Howe, at that time First Lord, asking him for a ship; and he renewed his cordial relations with Hood, then living in London.  On the 18th of March Howe appointed him to the command of the frigate “Boreas.”  Occupation in peace, with a reduced establishment, was not easy to get, and his brother, an inveterate wirepuller, must needs know to whose favor Nelson owed it.  “You ask,” replied the hero, “by what interest did I get a ship?  I answer, having served with credit was my recommendation to Lord Howe.  Anything in reason that I can ask, I am sure of obtaining from his justice.”  The statement was no more than fair to Howe; but in his knowledge of the merits of Nelson, whose claim lay rather in evident promise than in conspicuous performance, we can probably trace the friendly intervention of Lord Hood.

Nelson’s wish was that the “Boreas” should go to the East Indies.  To this he inclined, apparently, because the station was to be under the command of Commodore Cornwallis, in whose ship he had returned from Jamaica as an invalid in 1780, and to whom on that occasion he was indebted for the most friendly care.  He was not long allowed to indulge this hope, for five days after receiving his appointment he wrote that the ship was bound to the Leeward Islands, and that he had been asked to take as passengers the wife and family of the commander-in-chief, Sir Richard Hughes, who had already gone out.  In a small vessel, for such the “Boreas” was, the request, which he could not well refuse, gave Nelson cause of reasonable discontent, entailing crowding and a large outlay of money.  “I shall be pretty well filled with lumber,” he wrote; and later, on the voyage out, “I shall not be sorry to part with them, although they are very pleasant, good people; but they are an incredible expense.”  The incident, annoying though it was, was not without compensations.  After arriving on the station, he soon became involved in a serious difference with Sir Richard Hughes; and the latter, though a weak man and in the wrong, might have acted more peremptorily, had he not laid himself under such obligations.  On the other hand, Lady Hughes, many years later, shortly after Nelson’s death, committed to writing some recollections of his personal traits and actions during the passage, so characteristic, even though trivial, that we could ill have spared them.