This remarkable encounter is said to have suggested to Marryat the vivid sea picture with which “The King’s Own” ends.  Pellew’s unusual personal endurance was signally illustrated on the same day, very shortly after the safety of the ship from wreck was assured.  Her principal sails had been so torn by shot as to require immediate renewing, and this had scarcely been done when two vessels were sighted, one of which was for the moment supposed to be the Amazon, whose fate was yet unknown.  Pellew gave orders to chase, but his officers represented to him that, whatever he himself was capable of, the ship’s company was too exhausted for present further exertion; and that, besides, the ammunition was very short, almost the last filled cartridge having been expended.  Under these circumstances he was compelled to desist.

The interest of Pellew’s career centres mainly in his command of frigates.  This independent but yet restricted sphere afforded the fullest scope for a conspicuous display of those splendid qualities—­fearlessness, enterprise, sound judgment, instant decision, and superb seamanship—­which he so eminently possessed.  He was, above all, the frigate captain.  “Nothing like hesitation was ever seen in him.  His first order was always his last; and he often declared of himself that he never had a second thought worth sixpence.”  In 1799, by a new Admiralty rule, he was transferred to the Impetueux, a ship-of-the-line, and thenceforth served in that class of vessel until his promotion to admiral.

As a general officer, Pellew had no opportunity to show whether he possessed ability of the highest order.  For five years he held the command in India; and soon after Collingwood’s death he was, in 1811, appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean.  On both stations he evinced that faculty for careful organization, systematic preparation, and sagacious distribution of force which carries success up to the point which administrative capacity can reach.  His ability in planning, while yet a subordinate in command of squadrons, had been recognized by St. Vincent during his management of the Brest blockade.  “The disposition made by Sir Edward Pellew for the descent on a certain point is the most masterly I have ever seen....  Although the naval command in Quiberon may appear too important for a captain, I shall not divest him of it, unless I am ordered to do so; feeling a thorough conviction that no man in His Majesty’s Navy, be his rank ever so high, will fill it so well.”  At the time this was written, June, 1800, he had seven ships-of-the-line under his orders.  After the Peace of Amiens, when war again began in 1803, he commanded a similar division watching the Spanish port of Ferrol, in which, although formally neutral, a French division lay at anchor; and in discharge of this duty, both as a seaman and an administrator, he again justified the eulogium of the old Earl, now at the head of the navy as First Lord.