Admiral Suffren, as well as of the latter's doughty antagonist, Sir
Edward Hughes; for Bickerton arrived in time to take part in the last
of the five pitched battles between those two hard fighters.
Unluckily, a severe accident had befallen the "Albemarle,"--a large
East Indiaman having dragged down upon her during a heavy gale in the
Downs. The injuries received by this collision were so extensive that
the ship was under repairs at Portsmouth for six weeks, during which
time Bickerton sailed.

While thus detained in one of the principal dockyards and naval
stations of the kingdom, another large detachment, belonging to the
Channel fleet, assembled before Nelson's eyes. It comprised twelve
sail-of-the-line, under Admiral Barrington; and among these was the
"Foudroyant," the most famous ship of her time, then commanded by
Captain John Jervis, with whom, as the Earl of St. Vincent, Nelson was
afterwards closely associated; but the young frigate captain did not
now come in contact with his stately superior, who in later years so
highly valued and loved him. It was for him still the day of small
things. Though thus thrown in the midst of the din and bustle of
extensive naval preparations, he had not the fortune to be directly
connected with them; and consequently no occasion arose for becoming
known to admirals who could recognize his worth, and give him the
opportunities without which distinction cannot be achieved. It is,
however, a significant and instructive fact that, while thus
persistently dissociated from the great operations then in progress,
and employed wholly in detached service, Nelson's natural genius for
war asserted itself, controlling the direction of his thoughts and
interests, and fixing them to that broad field of his profession from
which he was as yet debarred. "The height of his ambition," an
acquaintance of this period tells us, "was to command a line-of-battle