Hood, SAMUEL

Hood, SAMUEL, Viscount Hood of Whitley, admiral, elder brother of Lord Bridport, was born at Thorncombe in 1724, and entered the navy in 1740 under Commodore Smith on board the Romney. He was promoted lieutenant in 1746, commander in 1754 after seeing good service, and post-captain in 1756. While in that rank he commanded the Vestal frigate of 32 guns, in which he took a French frigate of equal force after a fiercely-contested action. After much other service at sea he was made commissioner of Portsmouth dock-yard in 1778. In 1780 he was promoted to flag rank, and sailed almost at once in command of a squadron to reinforce the North American and West Indian stations under the orders of Rodney. He remained in these waters till peace was signed; and, as they were the great scene of the naval war, he had many opportunities of distinguishing himself. In April 1781 he fought an action with De Grasse off the Diamond Rock, and in July of the same year—Rodney having gone on leave—was engaged under Admiral Graves in the battle off the Chesapeake. In January 1782 he was back in the West Indies, and showed himself a tactician of the most brilliant kind by the masterly series of manoeuvres by which he outwitted De Grasse in the actions fought in the Basseterre Roads off the island of St Kitts. When Rodney arrived to take command with the reinforcements from England, Hood became again his second in command. In that rank he had a conspicuous share in the winning of the decisive victory of the 12th April, commonly called the battle of Dominica. The brunt of the preliminary action of the 9th fell on his division, and on the 12th he led the rear of the English line. For his services on this occasion he was made Baron Hood of Catherington in the Irish peerage. In 1784 he stood against Fox for Westminster, and was elected. He became a Lord of the Admiralty in 1788. When the great revolutionary war broke out in 1793, he was appointed to the Mediterranean. In that position he directed the occupation of Toulon and the subsequent operations in the Gulf of Lyons and on the coast of Corsica. He hauled down his flag in 1795. In 1796 he was made Viscount Hood in the peerage of Great Britain, and he died at Bath, 27th June 1816. Lord Hood had the reputation of being a consummate tactician. Nelson, who served under him, considered him the ablest of our admirals in the early years of the war, and it is said that a plan he drew up for an attack on a French fleet at anchor, which was prevented by foul winds, had some share in inspiring the plan of attack adopted in the battle of the Nile. See Naval Chronicle, vol. ii. pp. 1-46; Mundy's Rodney; Nelson's Letters and Despatches; James's Naval History.