His quick and correct judgment, which at once saw how an object could be attained, was seconded in the hour of trial by a decision which secured every advantage.  Nothing like hesitation was seen in him.  “His first order,” said an officer who long served with him, “was always his last;” and he has often declared of himself that he never had a second thought worth sixpence.  This would be an absurd boast from a common character, but it is an important declaration from one whose life was a career of enterprise without a failure.  Always equal to the occasion, his power displayed itself the more, as danger and difficulty increased; when, rising with the emergency, his calmness, the animation of his voice and look, and the precision of his orders, would impart to the men that cool and determined energy which disarms danger, and commands success.

Not less striking was his influence in those more appalling dangers which try the firmness of a sailor more severely than the battle.  The wreck of the Dutton is a memorable example.  At a later period, during his command in India, the ship twice caught fire, and was saved chiefly by his conduct.  On one of these occasions, the Culloden was under easy sail off the coast of Coromandel, and preparations had been made for partially caulking the ship, when a pitch-kettle, which had been heated, contrary to orders, on the fore part of the main deck, caught fire, and the people, instead of damping it out, most imprudently attempted to extinguish it with buckets of water.  The steam blew the flaming pitch all around; the oakum caught fire, and the ship was immediately in a blaze.  Many of the crew jumped overboard, and others were preparing to hurry out of her, when the presence and authority of the Admiral allayed the panic.  He ordered to beat to quarters; the marines to fire upon any one who should attempt to leave the ship; the yard-tackles to be cut, to prevent the boats from being hoisted out; and the firemen only to take the necessary measures for extinguishing the fire.  The captain, who was undressed in his cabin at the time of the disaster, received an immediate report of it from an officer, and hastened to the quarter-deck.  The flames were rising in volumes from the main hatchway, but the Admiral was calmly giving his orders from the gangway, the firemen exerting themselves, and the rest of the crew at their quarters, all as quiet and orderly as if nothing had been going on but the common ship’s duty.

His patronage was exerted to the utmost.  The manner in which the navy was chiefly manned through the war made this one of the most delicate and responsible parts of a captain’s care.  The impress brought into it many whom nothing but the strictest discipline of a man-of-war would control; but many also who had entered the merchant service with the view and the prospect of rising in it, some of whom were not inferior in connections and education to the young gentlemen on the quarter-deck.  Nothing could be more gratifying to a commander than to promote these, as opportunity offered, to higher stations.  Some thousands of them became petty and warrant officers in the course of the war, and not a few were placed on the quarter-deck, and are found among the best officers in the service.  Sir Edward brought forward many of them, and his favour has been more than justified by their conduct.