Years of Frustration
Bowen returned home in 1786, and passed his examination on 7 November 1787. With the prospect of war with the Dutch looming in 1787 he received an appointment to HMS Royal Sovereign, which was being prepared as the flagship of Admiral Hugh Pigot. Bowen hoped for a lieutenant's commission, but was to be disappointed, the war did not materialise and he found himself unemployed again. He went out to the West Indies on the advice of his brother James, and his patron Jervis, and with their recommendations he was able to secure the attention of the commander of the station Commodore Sir Peter Parker. Parker made him acting-lieutenant of the 50-gun HMS Jupiter on his arrival in January 1788, but he was superseded shortly afterwards by the arrival of Lord William Beauclerk. Temporarily shelving hopes for promotion, he took command of the government brig Lord Howe at the request of Sir John Orde, the Governor of Dominica. As captain of the Lord Howe he carried out anti-smuggling operations until July 1789.
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Famous quotes containing the words years of, years and/or frustration:
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
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“As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity ... of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.”
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“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
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