lieutenant) and in this command served in the Mediterranean for some time.
Returning home, he was appointed to the "Minerva" frigate, in which he was
present at Hawke's great victory in Quiberon Bay (20th November 1759). In
1761 the "Minerva" recaptured, after a long struggle, the "Warwick" of
equal force, and later in the same year Captain Alexander Hood went in the
"Africa" to the Mediterranean, where he served until the conclusion of
peace. From this time forward he was in continuous employment afloat and
ashore, and in the "Robust" was present at the battle of Ushant in 1778.
Hood was involved in the court-martial on Admiral (afterwards Viscount)
Keppel which followed this action, and although adverse popular feeling was
aroused by the course which he took in Keppel's defence, his conduct does
not seem to have injured his professional career. Two years later he was
made rear-admiral of the white, and succeeded Kempenfeldt as one of Howe's
flag-officers, and in the "Queen" (90) he was present at the relief of
Gibraltar in 1782. For a time he sat in the House of Commons. 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 the outbreak of the war with France in 1793 Sir Alexander Hood
once more went to sea, this time as Howe's second in command, and he had
his share in the operations which culminated in the "Glorius First of
June," and for his services was made Baron Bridport of Cricket St Thomas in
Somerset in the Irish peerage. Henceforth Bridport was practically in
independent command. In 1795 he fought the much-criticized partial action
of the 23rd of June off Belle-Ile, which, however unfavourably it was
regarded in some quarters, was counted as a great victory by the public.
Bridport's peerage was made English, and he became vice-admiral of England.
In 1796-1797 he practically directed the war from London, rarely hoisting
his flag afloat save at such critical times as that of the Irish expedition
in 1797. In the following year he was about to put to sea when the Spithead
fleet mutinied. He succeeded at first in pacifying the crew of his
flag-ship, 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 rest