Hyde Parker ( admiral ) Sir Hyde Parker ( 1739 – 16 March 1807 ) was an admiral of the British Royal Navy . Biography . He was born in Devonshire , England , the second son of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker , 5th Baronet ( 1714 – 1783 ) . He entered the Royal Navy at an early age , and became lieutenant on 25 January 1758 , having passed most of his early service in his father ' s ships . On 16 December 1762 was promoted to command the " Manila " , from which , on 18 July 1763 , he was posted to the . From 1766 onwards for many years he served in the West Indies and in North American waters , particularly distinguishing himself in breaking the defences of the North River at New York in 1776 . His services on this occasion earned him a knighthood in 1779 . In 1778 he was engaged in the Savannah expedition , and in the following year his ship was wrecked on the hostile Cuban coast . His men , however , entrenched themselves , and were in the end brought off safely . Parker was with his father at the Battle of Dogger Bank , and with Richard Howe in the two actions in the Straits of Gibraltar . He reached flag rank on 1 February 1793 , the same day that war was declared against the new French Republic . As Rear Admiral , he served under Samuel Hood at Toulon and in Corsica . He was promoted to Vice - Admiral on 4 July 1794 and took part , under The Lord Hotham , in the indecisive fleet actions on 13 March 1795 and 13 July 1795 . From 1796 to 1800 he was in command at Jamaica and ably conducted the operations in the West Indies . He became a full Admiral on 14 February 1799 . In 1801 he was appointed to command the fleet destined to break up the northern armed neutrality , with Vice - Admiral Horatio Nelson as his second - in - command . Copenhagen , the first objective of the expedition , fell in the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801 to the fierce attack of Nelson ' s squadron – Parker , with the heavier ships , taking little part due to the shallowness of the channel . At the height of the battle Parker , who was loath to infringe the customary rules of naval warfare , raised the flag to disengage . Famously , Nelson ignored the order from his commander by raising his telescope to his blind eye and exclaiming " " I really do not see the signal " " . Nelson pressed on with the action and ultimately compelled the Danish forces to capitulate . Parker ' s hesitation to advance up the Baltic Sea after his victory was later severely criticised . Soon afterwards he was recalled and Nelson succeeded him . He died on 16 March 1807 . Character assessment . In Parker ' s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography his biographer Clive Wilkinson writes that until the Copenhagen affair he had " a good professional reputation " but after Copenhagen he was " considered irresolute and dilatory . In Wilson ' s opinion " As an officer , Parker was an able administrator rather than a great leader and this was to prove a weakness when it came to having both St Vincent as his chief and Nelson as a subordinate " ; and that " He was evidently a popular man for as Nelson wrote after Copenhagen : " Family . Parker was twice married : first , to Anne , daughter of John Palmer Boteler , and by her and three sons ; an secondly in 1800 he married Frances , a daughter of Admiral Sir Sir Richard Onslow , and made their home at the manor house in Benhall on the Suffolk coast . His son — the third Hyde Parker ( 1786 – 1854 ) — became a Rear - Admiral in turn on 23 November 1841 and Vice - Admiral on 4 June 1852 . From 1853 he served as First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy , and died on 25 May 1854 . His son Hyde , a captain in the navy , commanded the Firebrand in the Black Sea , and was killed on 8 July 1854 when storming a Russian fort at the mouth of the Danube . Two other notable family members who fought in the Napoleonic wars are Parker ' s second brother , John Boteler , died a major - general and C . B . in 1851 ; and the youngest , Harry , a lieutenant in the guards , fell at the Battle of Talavera .