'You may rely on it I will express your gratitude to Lord Dalhousie for
his attentions to me the very first time I have an opportunity. I need
not express to you how much I regret the loss of your departed friend
Mrs. Rattray, but her great sufferings in this world made it rather a
blessing than otherwise, especially to one I believe to have been so
truly good. Your advice of the prudence of keeping a ship's head off
shore when near the land at night is a point of my profession I have
long seen the absolute necessity of, especially on the coast of Nova
Scotia where the fogs are so intense, and the shore so dangerous. But if
ever there was in my humble opinion a lubberly series of accidents from
the time she got on shore to the time she was on her beam ends alongside
the wharf, it was on board H.M.S. _Faith_. The first thing she did
after getting on shore was to anchor in Halifax harbour with her B.B.
anchor without a buoy on it, slipped her cable and never buoyed it, took
in moorings, unshipped her rudder and let it go to the bottom; slipped
her anchors without a buoy on them, and to cap the whole, let three of
her guns fall overboard in getting them out alongside the wharf. Sir D.
Milne was furious, no wonder. I am sure I can with pleasure meet you
halfway in your wishes to establish a free intercourse of sentiment
between us, for I am perfectly sure, my dearest Father, I can nowhere
find a better friend and adviser.

'I am exceedingly happy to hear so favourable accounts of the
youngsters, and of Lady Clanricarde and her fair daughter.

'Bermuda is a dull place. I am perfectly at my ease and my own master,
and the only things which annoy me are the tremendous gales of wind
which blow here, and which I, of course, feel much in the _Jane._
The admiral did think of sending me to the West Indies for a cruise, but