Was Hudson a better captain than Bridger?

A litle perspective is needed, of course. Their situations cannot be compared. Bridger was a scientist, who got his ship he designed to explore, research...he was a friendly father figure, who was tough and stubborn when needed. He was also a "father" to Lucas, he appreciated his ship members and was all around a good guy.

But when they returned after 10 years, the situation changed and it wsa a different world. UEO was no longer just a scientific organisation made for protection of the world oceans but also a sort of military to protect the peace. Bridger decided it was not his world anymore and left. I understand that, he followed his principles and Hudson came instead. Tough, but also a great commander who was willing to also sacrifice everything for his crew.
And this is where I started to like Hudson a bit more. While Bridger was sort of there, keeping the crew in a sort of a limbo...Lucas was "promoted" and got paid, was employed by the UEO but still very much arrogant young teenager, without a real prospect or idea what to do. Hudson came, said "Either join or leave" and weirdly enough, Lucas found himself in a NAVY and made a good officer (I believe he needed some thing to do after he skipped 10 years of growing up and *had to* grow up). He encouraged Picollo to do something more of himself than just to float in the water with his gills. Hudson gave him books, a support and courage to do it. And Dagwood? Yes, he was good in cleaning stuff but what use does he have in the time of a war? Hudson gave him some place to belong maybe more than Bridger did.

I was amazed how much the crew naturally developed, how the characters became more live and believeable under Hudson (and Ironside, who was just splendid). How quickly they adapted and became loyal to Hudson, whom they started to trust after a few hickups in the beginning.

I am not sure if this makes sense but I am rewatching season 3 and it is incredibly good, even by today´s standards. Maybe that´s why the show got cancelled? It was not a friendly captain calling a dolphin for help very five minutes but a real, military submarine with real characters in it?

Not sure but I find it strange that after an episode "Equlibrium", I started to doubt about Bridger a bit - he was still the friendly guy with principles but totally unsuited into the world they lived in. Maybe that was the point?