How the Navy managed royal officers

Can you give examples of bad promotion choices by patrons?

Plainly bad lieutenants usually stalled, while royal princes were harder to correct and therefore had to be surrounded by capable officers who could steady their commands.

Plainly bad lieutenants usually stalled before senior rank, so the more difficult cases arose when royal princes entered the Navy. Their status made ordinary correction harder, and the service responded by surrounding them with strong lieutenants and officers able to interpret or buffer their commands. Many naval royals proved capable, partly because service offered an escape from court life. A poor one, however, required careful institutional management. Moving from a royal court bubble into a naval one could also leave an officer detached from the wider world.