Rodney declines personal command for the Chesapeake response

Rodney was offered the choice of going personally to command the Chesapeake response or sending Samuel Hood with part of the fleet. His ships also needed to return for maintenance and preparation for the next season, and Rodney went home. Hood then tried to work with Thomas Graves, who is characterized as a natural second-in-command. The account treats the absence of a more senior fleet commander as an important limitation. The actual balance is given as nineteen British ships against twenty-four French ships, compared with a hypothetical thirty against twenty-four under Rodney. That comparison suggests how his presence might have changed the command and numerical balance, while explicitly leaving the outcome unknowable. Some goods captured at St Eustatius were later lost or taken before reaching home.