And yeah, I think it's pretty clear that Forester and Parkinson had insolubly different opinions about the importance of influence in helping you rise in the service. Bush did take an awful long time to get up to captainhood, particularly when you think about how many brilliant victories he took part in as HH's first lieutenant, and it makes me wonder, a little, whether Bush was overshadowed by HH's brilliance.
If you take BH's idea of his career/the notion that's v. strongly suggested by the later books (that he rose up from the ratings via the Master's Mate path), though, he wasn't late to the party at all. I think I read about one guy who came up from the ratings, didn't mkae lieutenant until his forties, but ended up with flag rank. XD
*just soke up from nap*
Ahahah. No. It's a straight-up historical biog of Pellew by the same dude who wrote the "Life and Times." What does HH confess to?
And yeah, I think it's pretty clear that Forester and Parkinson had insolubly different opinions about the importance of influence in helping you rise in the service. Bush did take an awful long time to get up to captainhood, particularly when you think about how many brilliant victories he took part in as HH's first lieutenant, and it makes me wonder, a little, whether Bush was overshadowed by HH's brilliance.
If you take BH's idea of his career/the notion that's v. strongly suggested by the later books (that he rose up from the ratings via the Master's Mate path), though, he wasn't late to the party at all. I think I read about one guy who came up from the ratings, didn't mkae lieutenant until his forties, but ended up with flag rank. XD