Duncan

Duncan, ADAM, VISCOUNT, admiral, was born at Dundee, 1st July 1731, and, entering the navy in 1746, commanded the Valiant at the reduction of Havana (1762). Save at the battle of Cape St Vincent (1780), he had little opportunity of distinguishing himself during thirty-three years, though he had risen to be admiral, when in 1795 he was appointed to the command of the North Sea squadron, with the special design of watching the Dutch fleet—Holland and France being both then at war with Britain. Duncan's blockade of the Texel was one of the most effective on record, and the Dutch trade was almost ruined. In the spring of 1797 the mutiny of the Nore spread to Duncan's seamen, and his position was for some weeks very critical. But the insubordination was ultimately quelled; and on the 11th of October he gained the brilliant victory of Camperdown (q.v.). He was rewarded with a pension of £2000 and the title of Viscount Duncan of Camperdown. He died suddenly at Cornhill Inn, near Coldstream, on his way north, 4th August 1804, having some years before succeeded his brother in the Lundie estates, and leaving two sons, the elder of whom was in 1831 made Earl of Camperdown. Duncan was 6 feet 4 inches high, of vast strength, and strikingly handsome. See Life by third earl (1898).