William Pitt the Younger however, was comfortable with Shelburne, and thus joined his government; he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Fox, who became Pitt's lifelong political rival, then joined a coalition with Lord North, with whom he collaborated to bring about the defeat of the Shelburne administration. When Lord Shelburne resigned in 1783, King George III, who despised Fox, offered to appoint Pitt to the office of prime minister. But Pitt wisely declined, for he knew he would be incapable of securing the support of the House of Commons. The Fox–North coalition rose to power in a government nominally headed by William Cavendish-Bentinck,
Pitt Bank and the deepest areas of the former lagoon reach 44 metres. The much smaller Wight Bank is located 6 km to the SE off the southeastern tip of Pitt Bank. This submerged atoll was named after William Pitt the Younger, who was a British prime minister in 1783–1801 and 1804–1806. A buoy, marked by a radar reflector, is moored on the NW side of the bank. Pitt Bank Pitt Bank is a wholly submerged atoll structure in the Southwest of the Chagos Archipelago. It is almost 56 km long Northwest to Southeast, with a width between 20 and 30 km.