Alexander Hood , 1st Viscount Bridport Admiral Alexander Hood , 1st Viscount Bridport , KB ( 2 December 1726 – 2 May 1814 ) was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars , and the brother of Admiral Samuel Hood , 1st Viscount Hood . Early life . Hood entered the navy in January 1741 and was appointed Lieutenant in HMS " Bridgewater " in 1746 . He was promoted to Commander in 1756 and served as flag captain for Rear Admiral Sir Charles Saunders , first on the HMS " Prince " in the Mediterranean ( the flagship of Rear - Admiral Saunders , under whom Hood had served as a lieutenant ) , then on the frigate HMS " Minerva " . Seven Years ' War . In the Seven Years ' War Hood fought at the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 , and in 1761 " Minerva " recaptured after a long struggle , the 60 - gun HMS " Warwick " of equal force , which had been captured by the French in 1756 . For the remainder of the war , from 1761 to 1763 , he was captain of HMS " Africa " in the Mediterranean . American War of Independence . From this time forward Hood was in continuous employment afloat and ashore . In 1778 he was appointed to HMS " Robust " and fought at the First Battle of Ushant on 22 July . In the court - martial of Admiral Augustus Keppel that followed the battle , although adverse popular feeling was aroused by the course which Hood took in Keppel ' s defence , his conduct does not seem to have injured his professional career . In 1780 Hood was promoted to Rear Admiral of the White , and succeeded Kempenfeldt as one of Howe ' s flag - officers . In the American Revolutionary War , in HMS " Queen " , he took part in Howe ' s relief of Gibraltar in 1782 . French Revolutionary War . Hood served in the House of Commons for a time . Promoted vice - admiral in 1787 , he became K . B . in the following year , and on the occasion of the Spanish armament in 1790 flew his flag again for a short time . On 22 October 1790 he was a member of the court that acquitted William Bligh of losing his ship " " . On the outbreak of war with France in 1793 he went to sea again . In the War of the First Coalition , on 1 June 1794 , in HMS " Royal George " , he was third in command to Admiral Lord Howe at the battle of the Glorious First of June . For his exploits in this battle he was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Bridport . Henceforth Hood was practically in independent command . On 23 June 1795 , with his flag in HMS " Queen Charlotte " ( 100 ) , he fought the inconclusive Battle of Groix against the French under Rear Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse off the Île de Groix and captured three ships . He was much criticized in the navy for his failure to win a more decisive victory . However the British public considered the battle a great victory and his peerage was made English and he was promoted to Vice - Admiral of Great Britain . From 1795 until Hood ' s retirement in 1800 , he was commander of the Channel Fleet . In 1796 and 1797 he directed the war from HMS " London " , rarely hoisting his flag afloat save at such critical times as that of the Irish expedition in 1797 . He was about to put to sea when the Spithead fleet mutinied . He succeeded at first in pacifying the crew of his flagship , who had no personal grudge against their admiral , but a few days later the mutiny broke out afresh , and this time was uncontrollable . For a whole week the mutineers were supreme , and it was only by the greatest exertions of the old Lord Howe that order was then restored and the men returned to duty . After the mutiny had been suppressed , Hood took the fleet to sea as commander - in - chief in name as well as in fact , and from 1798 he personally directed the blockade of Brest , which grew stricter and stricter as time went on . In 1800 he was relieved by John Jervis , 1st Earl of St Vincent . In reward for Hood ' s fine record his peerage was made a viscounty . He spent the remaining years of his life in retirement and died on 2 May 1814 . The viscountcy in the English peerage died with him ; the Irish barony passed to the younger branch of his brother ' s family , for whom the viscountcy was re - created in 1868 .