Career
He entered the Royal Navy in 1767, and accompanied Captain James Cook in his second voyage of exploration from 1772 to 1775. During the American Revolutionary War, under Admirals Richard Howe and George Rodney he distinguished himself in the West Indies, and in July 1781 was promoted to captain. Shortly thereafter, he was given command of the 98-gun second rate ship of the line, HMS Barfleur.
lieutenant was not uncommon for an extremely junior captain to find himself commanding a large ship-of-the-line if that ship were the flagship of an experienced admiral, who would be able to keep a close eye on the new captain.
On 5 September they took the Barfleur into battle at the Battle of the Chesapeake, where the ship served as flagship of the Van of Sir Thomas Graves" fleet. Later, again under his brother"s command, he proceeded to the Mona Passage, where he captured the French corvette Cérès, a former British warship that the Navy took into service as HMS Raven.
Also married Elizabeth Periam on 11 July 1792. In the early part of the French Revolutionary Wars, ill health kept him at home, and it was not until 1797 that he went afloat again.
His first experience was bitter.
His ship, the 74-gun third-rate Mars, was unenviably prominent in the Spithead mutiny. On 2 April 1798 Mars fought the Battle of the Raz de Sein with the French ship Hercule in the dusk near the Pointe du Raz on the coast of Brittany. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz but the tide was running in the wrong direction and she was forced to anchor, giving Hood the chance to attack at close quarters.
The two ships were of equal force, both seventy-fours, but Hercule was newly commissioned.
After more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her flag, having lost over three hundred mentor On Mars 31 men were killed and 60 wounded.
Among the dead was Captain Hood, mortally wounded in the thigh. He is said to have died just as the sword of the French captain L"Hériter was being put in his hand.
Hood has a house named after him at The Royal Hospital School, Suffolk.
