Alexander Hood

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Alexander Hood (born April 23, 1758 in Netherbury , Dorset , † April 21, 1798 off Brest , on board the HMS Mars) was a British naval officer.

family

Alexander Hood came from the famous seafaring family Hood . His father was the paymaster Samuel Hood (1715–1805), his mother Anne Hood, b. Bere. His younger brother was Admiral Sir Samuel Hood , his two cousins ​​were Admiral Sir Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport , and Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood . Alexander Hood was baptized on April 27, 1758 in Mosterton, Dorset.

Naval career

In 1767, at the age of nine, Hood joined the Royal Navy . From 1772 he accompanied James Cook as an ensign on the HMS Resolution on his second voyage (1772-1775) to the Pacific . Cook named the island of Fatu Huku "Hood's Island" after him, since Alexander Hood was the first European to see it on April 6, 1774. Hood was promoted to lieutenant in 1777 and served on several ships in the American Revolutionary War . His first command of his own was the Cutter Ranger in the British West Indies sea ​​area in the Caribbean . On July 27, 1781, he was promoted to captain at sea. He became flag captain under the command of his cousin Samuel Hood on the liner HMS Barfleur and took part in the naval battle of St. Kitts . Other commands were the frigate HMS Champion , the frigate Aimable (a French prize ) and the frigate HMS Hebe in the British Canal Fleet.

Commander of HMS Mars

Naval battle between Mars and Hercule

In the first coalition war he was given command of the ship of the line HMS Audacious in 1794 , but fell seriously ill and had to temporarily end his service a few months later. It was not until February 1797 that Hood returned to active service as commander of the liner HMS Mars . The Mars crew was involved in the mutiny in Spithead from April 16 to May 15, 1797, when the crews of 16 ships in the Canal Fleet protested against the living conditions on board and demanded a higher wage . The mutineers put Captain Alexander Hood ashore and refused to leave to fight France. The British King George III. eventually gave in, raised wages and pardoned the insurgents. The incident had no effect on Hood.

On April 21, 1798, around 9:30 p.m., the famous naval battle between the HMS Mars and the French liner Hercule broke out in front of the Pointe du Raz . Both ships were armed about equally and, lying side by side, fought a seventy-minute artillery duel. Hood was hit by a French musket ball that tore his femoral artery apart. He died of his wound towards the end of the battle.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ An ancestral table of the Hood family . Retrieved November 26, 2012
  2. ↑ Leonard F. Guttridge: Mutiny. A History of Naval Insurrection. Ian Allan Books, Annapolis 1992, ISBN 0-7110-2119-8 (German edition: Meuterei. Rebellionen an Bord . Urbes-Verlag, Graefelfing 1996, ISBN 3-924896-35-6 ).
personal data
SURNAME Hood, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British captain and naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1758
PLACE OF BIRTH Netherbury , Dorset
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1798
Place of death off Brest , on board the HMS Mars