VICE-ADMIRAL SIR ALEXANDER COCHRANE wrote a formal acceptance of command from the Asia at Bermuda on 1 April 1814. Much was expected of Warren's successor, although some of his earlier senior officers had found him difficult. Ten years earlier Lord Keith had called him ‘a crackheaded, unsafe man … one with others who endeavoured to stir up dissensions in the fleet’. Conversely, Robert Dundas, Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, was a fellow Scot, and since their two families had been friends for generations Cochrane was not without ‘interest’.

His record was nevertheless impressive. He had commanded successfully the now reseparated Leeward Island station in 1805, and had fought well under Duckworth at the Battle of San Domingo in February 1806. He had led the capture of the French island of Martinique in 1809, and of Guadaloupe in 1810, of which he had since been Governor. His promotion to Vice-Admiral of the Red had come on 4 November 1813, the very day on which Croker had written to Warren to notify him of his recall. Not yet 56 years old, Cochrane was expected to remain energetic.