FOR THE first time William arrived home to find his eldest son absent. Clinton had made a quick round trip to Bombay, arriving back in the Downs on 5 October 1757. William was arriving at Cork when Thomas rejoined Clinton for another voyage to Bombay. Thomas must have performed well on his first voyage as Nathaniel Smith, now in command of Clinton, had given him a midshipman's berth. Thomas's young friend Nathaniel Dance was also a midshipman so they were still together. But William had two other sons to occupy him. His namesake, now threeand- a-half years old, was forced to grow up quickly to help look after the younger one, John, now nearly two-and-a-half.

When Royal Duke sailed into the Downs the season's shipping was already assembling. William's hopes of getting a command quickly seemed very slight. Another man's misfortune dramatically changed his prospects. Barely a month after arriving home, he was approached by Captain Slater, an ex-India commander and now managing owner of Delaware, to take over the command. She was lying in the Hope without a commander. The Company's searcher had boarded her on 14 March and found that Captain Quallett's private trade investment included illegal goods. He had been dismissed immediately. Wondering how he was going to pay for his command must have followed quickly in the wake of William's euphoria at his unexpected promotion to captain. So many commanders, like George Cumming and Richard Drake, had made their fortunes in a few voyages that the price of a command had risen sharply to about £5000. No measures introduced by the court to ban the practice had proved effective.

However daunting the immediate implications, William did not hesitate. Within two days of Captain Quallett's dismissal Captain Slater proposed William as Delaware's commander before a few directors; they approved him as ‘fitly qualified for the command of the ship Delaware’ and called him in to take the oath. He had only four days to arrange his domestic affairs for a further two years, to find credit to pay Captain Quallett for his command and to purchase his private trade investment, which amounted to about half the total privilege of twenty-five tons.