Thomas Louis Rear - Admiral Sir Thomas Louis , 1st Baronet ( " bap . " 11 May 1758 – 17 May 1807 ) was an officer of the British Royal Navy who served in three wars and saw numerous actions , notably as one of Horatio Nelson ' s " Band of Brothers " in the Mediterranean in 1798 who commanded ships at the Battle of the Nile . Louis had previously seen extensive action during the American Revolutionary War and later was to be second in command at the Battle of San Domingo , for which service he was made a baronet . He died of an unknown ailment aboard his flagship in Alexandria harbour in 1807 and was buried in Malta . Early career . Thomas Louis was born in 1758 to John and Elizabeth Louis . John was a schoolmaster in Exeter , and family legend maintained that his grandfather had been an illegitimate son of King Louis XIV , although this cannot be verified . Louis joined the Navy in 1769 aged eleven , and first went to sea aboard the sloop HMS " Fly " . In 1771 he moved to the larger HMS " Southampton " and under her captain John MacBride he subsequently moved to first HMS " Orpheus " and subsequently the ship of the line HMS " Kent " . In 1775 he gained his first experience of foreign service , joining HMS " Martin " on the Newfoundland Station . War with America . In 1776 , at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War , Louis joined the frigate HMS " Thetis " and in her returned to Europe , there joining the ship of the line HMS " Bienfaisant " . In this ship he was promoted to lieutenant the following year , and in 1778 participated at the First Battle of Ushant , a British victory in the Atlantic under Augustus Keppel . In 1780 , " Bienfaisant " was engaged at the Battle of Cape St Vincent , where the ship was badly damaged in a bitter exchange with the larger Spanish battleship " Phoenix " . During the storm which followed the battle , Louis took command of the captured " Phoenix " and saw her safely to Gibraltar . A week before , at the Action of 8 January 1780 , he had performed a similar feat with another captured Spanish ship of the line , the " Guipuzcoana " . After repairs , Louis commanded " Phoenix " on her return to Britain and was rejoined there by the " Bienfaisant " . In this ship , Louis was subsequently involved in the capture of the large French privateer " Comte d ' Artois " , which mounted 60 guns . In 1781 , Louis moved with his captain to the frigate HMS " Artois " and was then given his first independent command , the small armed vessel HMS " Mackworth " and escorted coastal shipping off Plymouth . In 1782 he was posted to the impress service in Sligo and Cork and in early 1783 was made post captain . During the peace , Louis lived on his half - pay in reserve near Torquay . He married Jacquetta Belfield in early 1784 and the couple had seven children . His eldest son , John Louis would later become an admiral in his own right , and his third son fought with the Royal Horse Artillery at the Battle of Waterloo . Captaincy . In 1793 the French Revolutionary Wars broke out and Louis was immediately recalled to service to command HMS " Cumberland " in the Channel Fleet . In 1794 he moved to the new HMS " Minotaur " under the command of Admiral MacBride , and participated in the Atlantic campaign of May 1794 , narrowly missing the Glorious First of June . In 1796 he convoyed supplies to the West Indies and then joined the Mediterranean fleet under Horatio Nelson . Two years later , Louis and " Minotaur " were present at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798 . At the battle , " Minotaur " fought a two hour duel against " Aquilon " , ultimately forcing her surrender and there is a possibly apocryphal story that Louis was personally thanked by the seriously wounded Nelson , who is reported to have said " Farewell dear Louis , I shall never forget the obligation I am under to you for your brave and generous conduct ; and now , whatever may become of me , my mind is at peace " . During 1799 , Louis , under the command of Thomas Troubridge , participated in operations to disrupt the French invasion of Italy , seizing Civitavecchia and Louis personally entering Rome and raising the Union Flag over the city . In 1800 , " Minotaur " was Lord Keith ' s flagship at the Siege of Genoa and the following year Louis commanded her at the invasion of Egypt . Following the Peace of Amiens , Louis briefly took command of HMS " Conqueror " . Less than a year later he was promoted to rear - admiral , raised his flag in the fourth rate HMS " Leopard " , commanded by Francis Austen , and oversaw 40 small craft seeking to disrupt French invasion preparations at Boulogne . Trafalgar and San Domingo . In 1805 , Louis and Austen joined Nelson ' s fleet in the Mediterranean , taking over HMS " Canopus " . " Canpous " participated in the chase across the Atlantic after Villeneuve ' s fleet and the ensuing blockade of Cadiz . On 2 October , Nelson dispatched " Canopus " to Gibraltar to collect supplies for the fleet , despite strenuous objections from Louis that they would miss the forthcoming battle . Despite Nelson ' s assurances that they would not , on 21 October the Franco - Spanish fleet sallied out and was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar without Louis . Disappointed at these events , Louis was sent under John Thomas Duckworth in late 1805 to pursue a French squadron that had reached the West Indies . The British force reached the French in February 1806 off the coast of San Domingo and in a lengthy battle drove the French flagship and another ship of the squadron ashore in flames and captured the rest . In reward of his service at this action , Louis was presented with a gold medal ( his second after the Nile ) and made a baronet . He returned to the Mediterranean later in the year , but had contracted an illness and spent sometime convalescing . This period was disturbed in November 1806 however when Duckworth was sent by Lord Collingwood to reconnoitre the Dardanelles . Three months later Louis led a division of Duckworth ' s force in a major attempt to force passage of the channel in what later became known as the Dardanelles Operation . Although Duckworth ' s force reached Constantinople they were heavily battered by enemy fire and were forced to withdraw soon afterwards , " Canpous " suffering severely from massive stone shot fired from Turkish cannon . For his service in this operation , Louis was highly praised by Duckworth . Louis returned with the fleet to rejoin British forces in Alexandria , Egypt , but the unidentified sickness that had plagued him in the West Indies returned and he became gravely ill . He died in May 1807 and his body was transferred to Malta for burial , being interred at Manoel Island . His death was widely mourned in the fleet , particularly among the common sailors , with whom he had always been popular . Namesakes . The Royal Navy has named two ships after Louis . The first was a destroyer launched in 1913 which saw service during World War I before being wrecked in 1915 . The second , , was a frigate in commission from 1943 to 1946 which saw service during World War II . < br >