him to arrange the affair, if possible, himself.  He accordingly attempted it; but finding no disposition to meet his views, he at length declined the appointment, saying that he would not risk his credit by commanding a worthless ship.  This brought the question to a point; and he was allowed to alter the Indefatigable according to his own plans.  They were entirely successful, for she became an excellent sailer and a most efficient ship.

Sir Edward was remarkably accurate in judging of a ship’s qualities.  For this he was probably indebted in the first place to the practical knowledge of ship-building which he acquired, when he assisted to construct the squadron on Lake Champlain, and to his very close intimacy with Lieutenant (afterwards Rear-Admiral) Schanck, an enthusiast on the subject, and who always regarded him with peculiar pride and attachment, as a pupil of his own.  The general knowledge which he thus obtained, could not fail to be improved in the course of his own service.  Many illustrations may be given of the correctness of his opinion in this respect.  The Bordelais, a French cruiser taken by the Revolutionaire, carrying 24 guns on a flush deck, 149 feet long, was bought into the service, and commissioned by Captain Manby.  She was one of the fastest and most beautiful vessels ever seen, but so dangerous, that she was called, in the navy, “the coffin.”  Sir Edward saw her alongside the jetty at Plymouth, and pointing out to her commander the cause of her dangerous character, recommended the means of guarding against it.  His advice was always acted upon, and the Bordelais survived; while two other captured sloops of war, the Railleur and Trompeuse, built after her model, but on a reduced scale, foundered with their crews on the same day.  When the 10-gun brigs were introduced into the service, he condemned them in the strongest terms; and being asked what should be done with those already built, he replied, “Put them all together, and burn them, for they will drown their crews.”  His prediction has been too correctly fulfilled in the fate of these vessels, of which six were lost in the packet-service in six years and a half, with two hundred and fifty people.  At a much later period, when the beautiful Caledonia, the most perfect ship of her class, was about to be made the victim of an experiment, he implored, but unfortunately in vain, that she might be spared.

The Indefatigable sailed from Falmouth on her first cruise on the 2nd of March; and in the following week, the squadron captured fifteen out of a convoy of twenty-five vessels, which had taken shelter among the rocks of the Penmarcks.  On the 7th of May, she had a most narrow escape from shipwreck.  The extraordinary circumstances connected with the accident, are related in the words of the late Capt.  George Bell, at that time one of the officers.