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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
In 1799 a correspondent to the Oracle and Daily Advertiser complained that all the honours and rewards of the present war were being bestowed on the victors of naval battles — Howe, st. Vincent, Duncan and Nelson — while Rainier's conquests were being forgotten. Comparing the recent celebration of Nelson with the plight of Rainier, he protested that ‘the former is surrounded in a blaze of glory, the latter seems enveloped in a cloud’.
It was no accident that the Oracle's correspondent signed himself ‘an E.I. Proprietor’ and pointed to the ‘immense territories’ and ‘countless treasures’ secured to the East India Company (and hence to Great Britain) by the commander of the East Indies station. ‘The name of Vice Admiral Rainier’, he asserted, ‘will always appear with distinction amongst those officers who have effectually served their country, and signalised themselves in the present war.’
Rainier abundantly demonstrated that he possessed the right qualities for his task. To command effectively the most distant station in the navy, where it could take a year between sending a message and receiving an answer, required patience, great self-confidence and independent spirit. Commanding the widest, as well as the most distant, station also necessitated foresight and organisation.
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