2990 x 3817 px | 25,3 x 32,3 cm | 10 x 12,7 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
1726
Altre informazioni:
Admiral Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport, KB (2 December 1726 – 2 May 1814) was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, and the brother of Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood. He served in the House of Commons for a time. Promoted vice-admiral in 1787, he became K.B. in the following year, and on the occasion of the Spanish armament in 1790 flew his flag again for a short time. On 22 October 1790 he was a member of the court that acquitted William Bligh of losing his ship HMS Bounty. On the outbreak of war with France in 1793 he went to sea again. In the War of the First Coalition, on 1 June 1794, in HMS Royal George, he was third in command to Admiral Lord Howe at the battle of the Glorious First of June. For his exploits in this battle he was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Bridport. Henceforth Bridport was practically in independent command. On 23 June 1795, with his flag in HMS Queen Charlotte (100), he fought the inconclusive Battle of Groix against the French under Rear Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse off the Île de Groix and captured three ships. He was much criticized in the navy for his failure to win a more decisive victory. However the British public considered the battle a great victory and Hood's peerage was made English and he was promoted to Vice-Admiral of Great Britain. From 1795 until his retirement in 1800, he was commander of the Channel Fleet. In 1796 and 1797 he directed the war from London, rarely hoisting his flag afloat save at such critical times as that of the Irish expedition in 1797. He was about to put to sea when the Spithead fleet mutinied. He succeeded at first in pacifying the crew of his flagship, who had no personal grudge against their admiral, but a few days later the mutiny broke out afresh, and this time was uncontrollable. For a whole week the mutineers were supreme, and it was only by the greatest exertions of the old Lord Howe
