Bold naval officers and survival bias

Did naval service attract reckless officers, or did the period reward behavior that now looks reckless?

Both. Individual temperament and period norms mattered, and many officers who copied such boldness did not survive to become famous.

A question about whether navies attracted reckless personalities receives a mixed answer: both individual temperament and the period's accepted behavior mattered. Famous survivors can distort the picture because they lived long enough for their exploits to become biographies. Many younger officers attempted similarly bold actions and were killed. This warning keeps the stories of figures such as Cochrane from turning exceptional risk taking into a universal recipe for advancement.