To the radical difference between his personal standing at this opening of his command, and that which he had at its close, in 1782, may reasonably be attributed the clear difference in his action at the two periods.  The first was audacious and brilliant, exhibiting qualities of which he was capable on occasion, but which did not form the groundwork of his professional character.  The display was therefore exceptional, elicited by exceptional personal emergency.  It was vitally necessary at the outset, if opportunity offered, to vindicate his selection by the government; to strike the imagination of the country, and obtain a hold upon its confidence which could not easily be shaken.  This prestige once established, he could safely rest upon it to bear him through doubtful periods of suspense and protracted issues.  It would have been well had he felt the same spur after his great battle in 1782.  A necessity like this doubtless lies upon every opening career, and comparatively few there be that rise to it; but there is an evident distinction to be drawn between one in the early prime of life, who may afford to wait, who has at least no errors to atone, and him who is about to make his last cast, when upon the turning of a die depends a fair opportunity to show what is in him.  Rodney was near sixty-one, when he took up the command which has given him his well earned place in history.

He experienced at once indications of the attitude towards him; and in two directions, from the Admiralty and from his subordinates.  A month before he was ready, Sandwich urges him, with evident impatience, to get off.  “For God’s sake, go to sea without delay.  You cannot conceive of what importance it is to yourself, to me, and to the public” (this very order of importance is suggestive), “that you should not lose this fair wind; if you do, I shall not only hear of it in Parliament, but in places to which I pay more attention....  I must once more repeat to you that any delay in your sailing will have the most disagreeable consequences.”  On the other hand, he had to complain not only of inattention on the part of the dockyard officials, but of want of zeal and activity in the officers of the fleet, many of whom behaved with a disrespect and want of cordiality which are too often the precursor of worse faults.  Rodney was not the man to put up with such treatment.  That it was offered, and that he for the moment bore with it, are both significant; and are to be remembered in connection with the fast approaching future.

Gibraltar was then at the beginning of the three years siege, and his intended departure was utilized to give him command of the first of the three great expeditions for its relief, which were among the characteristic operations of this war.  He sailed from Plymouth on the 29th of December, 1779, having under him twenty-two sail-of-the-line, of which only four were to continue with him to the West Indies.  With this great fleet, and its attendant frigates, went also a huge collection of storeships, victuallers, ordnance vessels, troop ships, and merchantmen; the last comprising the “trade” for Portugal and the West Indies, as the other classes carried the reinforcements for the Rock.