Lord Sandwich’s communication to him was equally kind and prompt.  On the 18th of June, only three days after the action, he wrote to him:—­“After most sincerely condoling with you on the loss of your much-lamented patron and friend, Captain Pownoll, whose bravery and services have done so much honour to himself and his Country, I will not delay informing you that I mean to give you immediate promotion, as a reward for your gallant and officer-like conduct.”

He was made commander into an old and worn-out sloop, the Hazard, in which he was stationed on the eastern coast of Scotland.  Having nothing but the emoluments of his profession, he found it difficult to meet the expenses required by his promotion and appointment.  A tradesman in London, Mr. Vigurs, equally known and respected by the young men from Cornwall, who were generally referred to him for the advice and assistance they required on their first coming to town, not only supplied him with uniforms, though candidly told that it was uncertain when he would be able to pay for them, but offered a pecuniary loan; and Captain Pellew accepted a small sum which made the debt 70L.  In a few weeks he received 160L. prize-money, and immediately sent 100L. to his creditor, desiring that the balance might be given in presents to the children, or, as he expressed it, “to buy ribbons for the girls.”  He never afterwards employed another tradesman.  When he had become a commander-in-chief, it was his practice to prevent a deserving, but necessitous young officer from suffering similar embarrassments, by advancing him a sum equal to his immediate wants when he gave him a commission.

He took command of the Hazard on the 25th of July, 1780, and paid her off in the following January, having been employed between Shields and Leith.  He held his next ship for a still shorter time.  On the 12th of March, 1782, he commissioned the Pelican, a French prize, and a mere shell of a vessel; so low, that he would say his servant could dress his hair from the deck while he sat in the cabin.  He sailed from Plymouth, on his first cruise, April 20th; and next day took a French privateer, with which he returned to port.  On the 24th he sailed again, and stood over to the French coast.  On the 28th, observing several vessels at anchor in Bass Roads, he made sail towards them; upon which a brig and a lugger, of ten or twelve guns each, laid their broadsides to the entrance of the harbour.  He attacked them immediately, and compelled them to run themselves on shore under a battery, which opened on the sloop.  The Pelican tacked, and stood out of the harbour, returning the fire, and the same night arrived at Plymouth.  Her loss was only two men wounded.  A heavy shot which struck her was begged by a friend, who, in a recent letter, makes a jocular allusion to it, and says that it is still doing service in the kitchen as a jack-weight.  The action was most important in its results, for it obtained for him that rank in