Few of the captains made post at the start of the war were still in employment after the Peace of Paris was signed in 1763, and this chapter examines some of the reasons for this. By comparing the careers of the cohort from their first commissions to their deaths it has been possible to establish the importance of factors such as health, ‘interest’ and timing. After the war every surviving member of the cohort spent periods on half pay, as the needs of the Navy waned. Half the cohort never went back into employment, spending the rest of their lives (some short, some until the end of the century) on half pay. The Navy List of 1766 gives the numbers of ships laid up in ordinary or in commission and the names of their captains, as a snapshot of the peace-time Navy. Of the 115 men who were made post captains between 1756 and 1758, only seventeen (15 per cent) were still employed. However some captains gained employment during the peace, others returning to employment during the re-mobilisations in 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute and 1779 for the American war, while others were unsuccessful despite having asked to be ‘put on the list’.