Locker, was marked by that tone of quick, eager sympathy, of genial
inclination always to say the kindest thing, that characterized his
correspondence, and, generally, his intercourse with others,--traits
that through life made him, beyond most men, acceptable and beloved.
He was, from first to last, not merely one of those whose services are
forced upon others by sheer weight of ability, because
indispensable,--though this, too, he was,--but men wanted him because,
although at times irritable, especially after the wounds received in
later years, he was an easy yoke-fellow, pleasant to deal with,
cordial and ready to support those above him, a tolerant and
appreciative master to subordinates. It may even be said that, in
matters indifferent to him, he too readily reflected the feelings,
views, and wishes of those about him; but when they clashed with his
own fixed convictions, he was immovable. As he himself said in such a
case, "I feel I am perfectly right, and you know upon those occasions
I am not famous for giving up a point."

Of his connection with the "Lowestoffe" he himself, in the short
autobiographical sketch before quoted, mentions two circumstances,
which, from the very fact of their remaining so long in his memory,
illustrate temperament. "Even a frigate," he says, "was not
sufficiently active for my mind, and I got into a schooner, tender to
the Lowestoffe. In this vessel I made myself a complete pilot for all
the passages through the [Keys] Islands situated on the north side
Hispaniola." This kind of service, it will be noted, was in direct
sequence, as to training, to his handling of the "Triumph's" long-boat
in the lower waters of the Thames, and would naturally contribute to
increase that "confidence in himself among rocks and sands," which
was afterwards to be so "great a comfort" to him. In his later career
he had frequent and pressing need of that particular form of