![]() ![]() ![]() A man-of-war stripped, dismantled and laid up cannot be manned, equipped and made ready for sea in a matter of weeks and the best vantage-points in Gibraltar were now crowded with gentlemen on half-pay who with others had gathered to watch the long-expected arrival of Commodore Aubrey's squadron from Madeira, a squadron that would do something to refurnish the great bare stretch of water inside the mole - an extraordinary nakedness emphasized by the presence of a few hulks, the Royal Sovereign wearing the flag of the Commander-inChief, and a couple of lonely seventyfours: no stream of liberty-boats plying to and fro, almost no appearance of true wartime life. The sudden rearmament that followed Napoleon's escape from Elba had done little to thin the ranks of unemployed sea-officers by the early spring of 1815.
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