To J.E. Blacket, ESQ
Excellent, Spithead, Dec 9th 1798
I am waiting here very anxiously for the Admiralty to determine what is to be done with my ship. The report of her defects is before the Navy Board, and they say here that she will require three months repair; so it is not impossible she will be paid off entirely. This, however, I do not wish, for I prefer her to the large new ships. I have hardly time to get through my current business for courts martial, of which I have been confined ever since I was released from quarantine. To-morrow we begin again.
I am impatient to see my beloved family, and I hope that I shall be allowed enjoyment of you all for a few month; and in fact I shall be good for nothing till I have been in the north.
This is a letter from Collingwood. (The Public and Private Correspondence of Vice-admiral Lord Collingwood).
Did the Admiralty always decided what was to be done with a ship in need of repairs?
Collingwood prefers the Excellent to the large new ships. Could every officer refuse being replaced into another ship, and if they could and would, would deciding to do such a thing influence their carrier in a negative way?
Sylvia
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