Samuel Story's experience did not secure authority

Story had served for nearly three decades when the Vlieter crisis began. During the French invasion, orders forbade resistance, so he released around 600 French prisoners and used them to secure his base for the new Batavian Republic. He was later chosen for an unrealized squadron intended to support the Irish Rebellion of 1798. His ship caught fire and drifted out of the line at Camperdown, a serious loss that he could do little to reverse, while his inventory of neglected naval facilities helped prompt a major 1796 shipbuilding programme. His record suggests a capable frigate captain or second-in-command rather than an inventive fleet commander. At Den Helder, that limitation mattered because senior subordinates, including his flag captain, distrusted him and followed their own political loyalties, leaving his orders little more authority than requests.