Paycocke

Admiral Paycocke is a florid-faced and elderly sailor who is despatched in the company of Army Captain Harcourt-Bruce on a combined expedition to evaluate the fitness of Mr Norrell for military duty in the campaign against Napoleon Buonaparte.

Of the two, Captain Harcourt-Bruce is the more disappointed of the pair, having anticipated a heroic figure in the mould of the Raven King, but instead discovering a small, bookish man inclined to complain vociferously about the viscosity of the cream in his tea. So crestfallen is the captain by the discord between his great expectations and Norrell's mediocre reality that the admiral teases him only in moderation.

Both men find Norrell unfit for service, both in constitution and temperament, and make clear that any attempt at actually deploying him in theatre will earn the government the services' enduring enmity[10].