‘I Did Not Wish the Younker to be Favoured’: Reconsidering Nelson’s examination for lieutenant

Abstract

The examination for lieutenant marked a key moment in the eighteenth-century Royal Navy officer’s career. This article scrutinizes the mythologized narrative of the proceedings of Nelson’s 1777 examination for lieutenant. Comptroller of the Navy and Nelson’s own uncle, Maurice Suckling, presided over the examining board in order to ensure his nephew’s success. This article explores why Suckling felt the need to exert his influence in this overt way, despite Nelson’s demonstrated capabilities at sea up to this point; and why Nelson and his biographers endeavoured to conceal this gesture in the decades and centuries that followed.