quigonejinn

when i read that paragraph it irked me, but then when i thought about it, the "biographer" was kinda right, it is very strange that bush just gets to suddenly captain a 74, and not only command it under a commodore but gets to keep it afterwards. it works well for the storyline and you have to wonder if forester decided to not care about the real logistics of how naval commands are parcelled out.

i always thought that when they return from france bush was promoted to captain and got to skip commander (whic was possible, i think) because he was sent to the dockyard i think forest would have written "commander" since he would not have been referred to honorifically as "captain" since he wasn't on a ship (a fact forester was aware of), so i always thought he got right shoulder epulette rather than the left.

i forget who he was talking to about who he wanted his flag captain to be, but i love the line when HH requests bush and the guy says "we thought u'd say that."

i've chalked up bush's sudden jump from dock to 74 as a case of naval nepotism, but one the admiralty were okay with since they knew he was quality material, despite the missing foot.