User blog comment:J Fan/New FA: Theodore Groves/@comment-4967581-20120403175235/@comment-1771352-20120403191521

however, if you take in the context of the situation, it appears that said resignation was more of a formality rather than him conciously doing such. Norrington's loyalty seems to be so strong that I highly doubt he would resign on his own...or at least without some compellance from a higher authority of some sort. Also, it was implied that the Dautnless was destroyed in the storm and usually the commanding officer, if he had not survived the destruction of his vessel, was held responcible for said destruction and would have been Court Martialed. Depending on the type of court martial, it may have been reqcuired of Norrington to redress the admiralty and resign his commission in front of the panel of admirals and officers overseeing the trial.