Samuel Hood Biography

Birth of Samuel Hood

Made a Lieutenant

Appointed Commander of the sloop Jamaica and serves in her on the North American station

Appointed Post Captain and given command of HMS Grafton

Engaged under Rodney in the Raid on Le Havre, destroying the vessels collected by the French to serve as transports in the proposed invasion of Britain

Appointed Commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy

Appointed Commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy

Appointed Rear-Admiral, and sent to the West Indies to act as second in command under Rodney, who knew him personally

Appointed Rear-Admiral, and sent to the West Indies to act as second in command under Rodney, who knew him personally

De Grasse attacks the British islands of St Kitts and Nevis with a force much superior to Hoods squadron

Joins Rodney in his flagship Barfleur, and remains in the West Indies or on the coast of North America until the close of the War of American Independence

Hood joins Admiral Thomas Graves in the unsuccessful effort to relieve the army at Yorktown, when the British fleet is driven off by the French Admiral, the Comte de Grasse, at the Battle of the Chesapeake

The French commander De Grasse, who had been responsible for the victory at Chesapeake is captured and taken back to Britain as a prisoner. Hood takes part in a British fleet under Rodney which defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet which was planning an invasion of Jamaica

Hood takes part in a British fleet under Rodney which defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet which was planning an invasion of Jamaica

Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hoods flagship Barfleur, 98 guns. Hood is made an Irish peer for his role in the victory at the Battle of the Saintes

Enters the British Parliament as Member for Westminster in the election of 1784 where he was a supporter of the Government of William Pitt the Younger

Appointed Vice Admiral

Sent to the Mediterranean Sea as Commander in Chief

Sent to the Mediterranean Sea as Commander in Chief

Hood and his British force withdraw to maintain their blockade of the coast, while the French republicans reoccupy the city. French royalists and other opponents of the revolution take over Toulon and invite Hood, whose fleet was blockading the city, to occupy the town

It is hoped that depriving the French revolutionaries of their maritime resources would cripple the revolution. Hood orders the French fleet burned to prevent them falling back into the hands of the revolutionaries, a task carried out by Captain Sidney Smith.

It was hoped that Toulon could be a centre of French resistance to Paris, and also to take possession of the French Mediterranean fleet of fifty eight warships, which lay in the harbour.

The allies, who did not work harmoniously together, are driven out, mainly by the generalship of Napoleon. Occupies Toulon on the invitation of the French royalists, in co-operation with the Spaniards and Sardinians.

The island is for a short time added to the dominions of George III, chiefly by the exertions of the fleet and the co-operation of Pascal Paoli, who ruled the Kingdom of Corsica

The island is for a short time added to the dominions of George III, chiefly by the exertions of the fleet and the co-operation of Pascal Paoli, who ruled the Kingdom of Corsica. Hood then turns to the occupation of Corsica, which he had been invited to take in the name of the King of Britain by Paoli

Appointed the rank of full Admiral

Appointed Governor of Greenwich Hospital

Appointed Governor of Greenwich Hospital

Created Viscount Hood of Whitley

Death of Samuel Hood