Alexander Hood (Royal Navy officer)

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Alexander Hood

Death of Captain Alexander Hood
Born 23 April 1758(1758-04-23)
Mosterton, Dorset, England
Died 2 April 1798
Of the coast of Pointe du Raz, Brittany, France
Occupation Royal Navy Officer
Spouse Elizabeth Periam

Captain Alexander Hood (April 23, 1758 – April 2, 1798) was an officer of the Royal Navy, one of several members of the Hood family to serve at sea.

He entered the Royal Navy in 1767, and accompanied Captain James Cook in his second voyage of exploration from 1772 to 1775.[1] [2] During the American Revolutionary War,[3] under Admirals Richard Howe and George Rodney[4] he distinguished himself in the West Indies, and at the Battle of the Saintes on April 12, 1782, he was in command of one of Rodney's frigates.[5] Under his brother, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, he then proceeded to the Mona passage, where he captured the French corvette Ceres. Hood became close friends with the commander of his prize, the Baron de Peroy, and during the peace of 1783–1792[6] paid a long visit to France as his former prisoner's guest. Also married Elizabeth Periam on 11 July 1792.

In the early part of the French Revolutionary Wars, ill health kept him at home [7], and it was not until 1797 that he went afloat again. His first experience was bitter; his ship, the 74-gun third-rate Mars, was unenviably prominent in the Spithead mutiny.

On April 2, 1798 there occurred the famous duel of Mars with the French ship Hercule, fought in the dusk near the Pointe du Raz on the coast of Brittany. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz but the tide was running in the wrong direction and she was forced to anchor, giving Hood the chance to attack at close quarters. The two ships were of equal force, both seventy-fours, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her flag, having lost over three hundred men. On Mars 31 men were killed and 60 wounded. Among the dead was Captain Hood, mortally wounded in the thigh.[8] He is said to have died just as the sword of the French captain L'Hériter was being put in his hand. L'Hériter later died of his wounds.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ As a Midshipman on Resolution
  2. ^ Had an island named after him- Hood's Island.
  3. ^ Promoted:-
  4. ^ Command of cutter Ranger March 1780.
  5. ^ H.M.S. Champion
  6. ^ 1790–1793: Commanded frigate Hebe. Assigned to Channel Fleet.
  7. ^ 1794 Briefly commanded frigate Audacious
  8. ^ cut the femoral artery