Admiral Boscawen transferred Suckling to the captured French 64-gun ship Lys and sent him across the Atlantic with her armed en flûte. Her reduced armament made room for stores and personnel on the passage home. A posted captain was a captain whose command of a post ship appeared in the Gazette, rather than a separate naval rank. The appointment began Suckling's formal seniority toward possible promotion as an admiral. His ascent was fast but not unprecedented, since Augustus Keppel and Richard Howe had reached this point even sooner. Seniority was also not wholly automatic: sea appointments, administrative jobs, retirement, and promotion to the yellow gave the Navy ways to manage unsuitable captains.
Chapter · 28:23-31:30
A captured ship made Suckling a posted captain
Command of the captured French ship Lys began Suckling's formal seniority as a captain and his path toward flag rank.