nothing is sure in a sea fight above all.

It was a saying in the navy at the time, amongst the common seaman, that every man’s comfort afloat depended upon the kind of man a ship had for its First Lieutenant, for that he was the Prime Minister of this small community over which the Captain ruled as absolute monarch, and, as every measure and arrangement was to be carried out by him, it was better to sail with a bad Captain and a good First Lieutenant than to have the conditions reversed.