A fascinating account of the life of War of 1812 hero Provo Wallis, who began his career in the Royal Navy as a midshipman at age 9!
http://thechronicleherald.ca/thenovascotian/179814-provo-wallis-halifax-s-grand-old-man-of-victorian-era-royal-navy (http://thechronicleherald.ca/thenovascotian/179814-provo-wallis-halifax-s-grand-old-man-of-victorian-era-royal-navy)
Provo Wallis was one great character.
In the days of the Age of Sail, it was not in the regs that there was a mandatory retirement age. In the state of medical care, and the rigors of going to sea, few lived to old age.
After the Napoleonic Wars, the admiralty recognized that with peace, and increases in medical treatment, people were hanging on to sinecures and ruining the promotion process. So the rules were changed.
But in a moment of weakness, or nostalgia, a paragraph was added that these new rules did not apply to veterans of the last, Great French War (the Napoleonic).
This allowed Wallis and the earl of Dundee's lad, Cochrane the Magnificent, to go on and on and on.
Now in Cochrane's case, this wasn't so bad. He was the inspiration for much of the frigate derring do of Patrick O'Banion's Master and Commander series. (Although my favorite episode, I never found in the novels. Cochrane was had seized a little fort in Spain that dominated a road that the French relied on for supplies. The only way, by land, into the fort was a very restricted path leading up a rough incline. Seeing the French were preparing an assault, Cochrane had his men prepare by boiling up all the bacon they had. Then they went out in the dark, and slathered the rocky path with bacon grease. When the French attacked, it was a Laurel and Hardy act, where they were slipping and sliding through the grease on the path. It would be very funny until you realise that the british were shooting at them the whole time.)
This out of the box thinking was still in evidence forty years later when Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Dundonald, applied for sea duty during the Crimean War, and came up with a plan to destroy the Russian Baltic Fleet using proto chemical warfare.
The Admiralty was rather horrified and did not give him a commission.
Provo Wallis was happy to stay at home.