Adam Duncan , 1st Viscount Duncan Adam Duncan , 1st Viscount Duncan ( 1 July 1731 – 4 August 1804 ) was a British admiral who defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown ( north of Haarlem ) on 11 October 1797 . This victory was considered one of the most significant actions in naval history . Life . Adam was the second son of Alexander Duncan of Lundie , Angus , ( d . May 1777 ) Provost of Dundee , and his wife ( and first cousin once removed ) Helen , daughter of John Haldane of Gleneagles , was born at Dundee . In 1746 , after receiving his education in Dundee , he entered the Royal Navy on board the sloop " Trial " , under Captain Robert Haldane , with whom , in HMS " Trial " and afterwards in HMS " Shoreham " , he continued till the peace in 1748 . In 1749 he was appointed to HMS " Centurion " , then commissioned for service in the Mediterranean , by the Hon . Augustus Keppel ( afterwards Viscount Keppel ) , with whom he was afterwards in HMS " Norwich " on the coast of North America , and was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant on 10 January 1755 . Seven Years War . In August 1755 he followed Keppel to the " Swiftsure " , and in January 1756 to the " Torbay " , in which he continued till his promotion to commander ' s rank on 21 September 1759 , and during this time was present in the expedition to Basque Roads in 1757 , at the reduction of Gorée in 1758 , and in the blockade of Brest in 1759 , up to within two months of the battle of Quiberon Bay , from which his promotion just excluded him . From October 1759 to April 1760 he had command of the " Royal Exchange " , a hired vessel employed in petty convoy service with a miscellaneous ship ' s company , consisting to a large extent of boys and foreigners , many of whom ( he reported ) could not speak English , and all impressed with the idea that as they had been engaged by the merchants from whom the ship was hired they were not subject to naval discipline . It would seem that a misunderstanding with the merchants on this point was the cause of the ship ' s being put out of commission after a few months . As a commander Duncan had no further service , but on 25 February 1761 he was posted and appointed to the HMS " Valiant " , fitting for Keppel ' s broad pennant . In her he had an important share in the reduction of Belle Île in June 1761 , and of Havana in August 1762 . He returned to England in 1763 , and , notwithstanding his repeated request , had no further employment for many years . Peacetime . During this time he lived principally at Dundee , and married on 6 June 1777 Henrietta , daughter of Robert Dundas of Arniston , Lord President of the Court of Session . It would seem that his alliance with this influential family obtained him the employment which he had been vainly seeking during fifteen years . Towards the end of 1778 he was appointed to HMS " Suffolk " , from which he was almost immediately moved into HMS " Monarch " . In January 1779 he sat as a member of the court - martial of Admiral Keppel for the poor performance of the Channel Fleet during the First Battle of Ushant . During the course of the trial Duncan objected several times to stop the prosecutor in irrelevant and in leading question s , or in perversions of answers . The admiralty was therefore desirous that he should not sit on the court - martial of Sir Hugh Palliser for failure to obey orders during the same battle . The court - martial was set for April . The day before the assembling of the court the admiralty sent down orders for the " Monarch " to go to St . Helens . Her crew , however , refused to weigh the anchor until they were paid their advance ; and as this could not be done in time , the " Monarch " was still in Portsmouth harbour when the signal for the court - martial was made ; so that , sorely against the wishes of the admiralty , Duncan sat on this court - martial also . During the summer of 1779 the " Monarch " was attached to the Channel fleet under Sir Charles Hardy ; in December was one of the squadron with which Rodney sailed for the relief of Gibraltar , and had a prominent share in the action off St . Vincent on 16 January 1780 . On returning to England Duncan quit the " Monarch " , and had no further command till after the change of Ministry in March 1782 , when Keppel became first lord of the admiralty . He was then appointed to HMS " Blenheim " of 90 guns , and commanded her during the year in the Grand Fleet under Howe , at the relief of Gibraltar in October , and the encounter with the allied fleet off Cape Spartel . He afterwards succeeded Sir John Jervis in command of the " Foudroyant " , and after the peace commanded HMS " Edgar " as guardship at Portsmouth for three years . He attained flag rank on 24 September 1787 , became Vice Admiral 1 February 1793 , and was promoted to Admiral 1 June 1795 . In February 1795 he was appointed commander - in - chief in the North Sea , and hoisted his flag on board HMS " Venerable " . In action with the Dutch . During the first two years of Duncan ' s command the work was limited to enforcing a rigid blockade of the enemy ' s coast , but in the spring of 1797 it became more important from the knowledge that the Dutch fleet in the Texel was getting ready for sea . The situation was one of extreme difficulty , for the mutiny which had paralysed the fleet at the Nore broke out also in that under Duncan , and kept it for some weeks in enforced inactivity . Duncan ' s personal influence and some happy displays of his vast personal strength held the crew of the " Venerable " to their duty ; but with one other exception , that of the " Adamant " , the ships refused to quit their anchorage at Yarmouth , leaving the " Venerable " and " Adamant " alone to keep up the pretence of the blockade . Fortunately the Dutch were not at the time ready for sea ; and when they were ready and anxious to sail , with thirty thousand troops , for the invasion of Ireland , a persistent westerly wind detained them in harbour till they judged that the season was too far advanced . For political purposes , however , the French Revolutionaries who controlled the government in Holland , in spite of the opinion of their admiral , De Winter , to the contrary , ordered him to put to sea in the early days of October . Duncan , with the main body of the fleet , was at the time lying at Great Yarmouth revictualling , the Texel being watched by a small squadron under Captain Henry Trollope in HMS " Russell " , from whom he received early information of the Dutch being at sea . He at once weighed anchor , and with a fair wind approached the Dutch coast , saw that the fleet was not returned to the Texel , and steering towards the south sighted it on the morning of 11 October about seven miles from the shore and nearly halfway between the villages of Egmont and Camperdown . The wind was blowing straight on shore , and though the Dutch forming their line to the north preserved a bold front , it was clear that if the attack was not made promptly they would speedily get into shoal water , where no attack would be possible . Duncan at once realised the necessity of cutting off their retreat by getting between them and the land . At first he was anxious to bring up his fleet in a compact body , for his numbers were at best equal to those of the Dutch ; but seeing the absolute necessity of immediate action , without waiting for the ships astern to come up , without waiting to form line of battle , and with the fleet in very irregular order of sailing , in two groups , led respectively by himself in the " Venerable " and Vice - admiral Richard Onslow in the " Monarch " , he made the signal to pass through the enemy ' s line and engage to leeward . It was a bold departure from the absolute rule laid down in the " Fighting Instructions , " still new , though warranted by the more formal example of Howe on 1 June 1794 ; and on this occasion , as on the former , was crowned with complete success . The engagement was long and bloody ; for though Duncan , by passing through the enemy ' s line , had prevented their untimely retreat , he had not advanced further in tactical science , and the battle was fought out on the primitive principles of ship against ship , the advantage remaining with those who were the better trained to the great gun exercise , though the Dutch by their obstinate courage inflicted great loss on the Royal navy . It had been proposed to De Winter to make up for the want of skill by firing shell from the lower deck guns ; and some experiments had been made during the summer which showed that the idea was feasible ; but want of familiarity with an arm so new and so dangerous presumably prevented its being acted on in the battle . Rewards . The news of the victory was received in Britain with the warmest enthusiasm . It was the first certain sign that the mutinies of the summer had not destroyed the power and the prestige of the Royal Navy . Duncan was at once ( 21 October ) raised to the peerage as Viscount Duncan , of Camperdown , and Baron Duncan , of Lundie in the Shire of Perth ( with which came the lands now known as Camperdown Park in Dundee ) , and there was a strong feeling that the reward was inadequate . Even as early as 18 October his aunt , Lady Mary Duncan , wrote to Henry Dundas , at that time secretary of state for war : " Report says my nephew is only made a Viscount . Myself it is nothing , but the whole nation thinks the least you can do is to give him an English earldom . … Am sure were this properly represented to our good king , who esteems a brave , religious man like himself , would be of my opinion . … " . It was not , however , till 1831 , many years after Duncan ' s death , that his son , then bearing his title , was raised to the dignity of an earl , and his other children to the rank and precedence of the children of an earl . Duncan was awarded the Large Naval Gold Medal and an annual pension of £3 , 000 , to himself and the next two heirs to his title - this was the biggest pension ever awarded by the British government . Additionally , he was given the freedom of several cities , including Dundee and London . Death . Duncan continued in command of the North Sea fleet until 1801 , but without any further opportunity of distinction . Three years later , 4 August 1804 , he died quite suddenly , aged seventy - three , at the inn at Cornhill , a village on the border , where he had stopped for the night on his journey to Edinburgh ( ib . 252 ) and was buried in Lundie . He left a family of four daughters , and , besides the eldest son who succeeded to the peerage , a second son , Henry , who died a captain in the navy and K . C . H . in 1835 .