[138] The question of Lady Hamilton"s services on the occasions mentioned by Nelson, vigorously a.s.serted by herself, has been exhaustively discussed by Professor John Knox Laughton, in the "United Service Magazine" for April and May, 1889. His conclusions are decisively adverse to her claims.
[139] See _ante_, p. 275.
[140] That is, with a one and a half knot breeze.
[141] The vocabulary of the telegraphic signal book provides certain words which can be signalled by a single number. Words not in this vocabulary must be spelled letter by letter,--each letter of the alphabet having its own number.
[142] That is, to the westward.