37

No. II.

ADMIRAL SIR RICHARD GOODWIN KEATS,

G. C. B.

GOVERNOR OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

THIS gallant and distinguished officer was the son of the Rev. R. Keats, rector of Bideford, in Devonshire, and headmaster of the free grammar school at Tiverton. He was born at Chalton, in Hampshire, on the 16th of January, 1757, and at the age of thirteen entered the navy, on board the Bellona, 74, on the home station. The Captain of this ship, John Montague, being promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, and appointed Commander-in-Chief on the Halifax station, took the youngster with him into the Captain, of 60 guns, in 1771. Although hostilities had not actually commenced, this was a busy station, and one well calculated to form the rising officer; and Mr. Keats was very actively employed in boat service, and also in small craft, two of which he commanded. In February, 1776, Admiral Montague received preferment, and hoisted his flag at the fore, in the Romney, 50, as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Newfoundland; Keats joined him, and remained till he was ready to pass the ordeal of examination; after which he was made Lieutenant into the Ramilies, on the 7th of April, 1777.

The Ramilies led the fleet on the larboard tack in the action fought by Keppel against D'Orvilliers, on the 27th of July, 1778, when she had twelve men killed, and twenty-one wounded; and the officer-like conduct of the young Lieutenant was so striking, that when his Captain, the Honourable Robert Digby, received the rank of Rear-Admiral, in the following year, he invited Mr. Keats as a follower into the

Prince George of 98 guns. In this ship his Royal Highness Prince William Henry, his present Most Gracious Majesty, commenced his naval career; and Lieutenant Keats had the honour of being, for upwards of three years, officer of the watch in which his Royal Highness was placed. He had been selected as an able and skilful officer, to whom the professional superintendence of the young Prince might be safely entrusted; and the integrity with which he executed his charge is well known. Speaking of Nelson, his Royal Highness observed: "We visited the different West India Islands together, and as much as the manœuvres of fleets can be described off the headlands of islands, we fought over again the principal naval actions in the American war. Excepting the naval tuition which I had received on board the Prince George, when the present Rear-Admiral Keats was Lieutenant of her, and for whom both of us equally entertained a sincere regard, my mind took its first decided naval turn from this familiar intercourse with Nelson."

Admiral Digby sailed in the fleet destined for the relief of Gibraltar, as second in command under Sir George Rodney; and on the 8th of January, 1780, had the good fortune to fall in with a Spanish convoy of 16 sail, escorted by a 64, four frigates, and two corvettes, which were every one captured.* Nor was this all. Some treacherous spy had informed the Spaniards that Rodney would have but four sail of the line with him, and they therefore sent a force of eleven two-deckers and two frigates, to wait for him off Cape St. Vincent. But the force under Rear-Admirals Digby and Ross was ordered to proceed through to Gibraltar, instead of parting company off Cape Finisterre, as at first intended: Don Juan de Langara was therefore caught in his own snare, 'and the fruits to the British were, four sail of the line taken, two destroyed, and one blown up. The relief of the garrison was then easily accomplished; and, on the 13th of February, Digby quitted Sir G. Rodney, and stood towards England with the prizes;

* Sir George Rodney commissioned the Spanish 64, and named her the Prince William, in honour of the Royal youth, who witnessed her capture.

but, as if this début of his Royal Highness was to be stamped with good fortune, in five days afterwards they fell in with a' French convoy of thirteen West Indiamen, under the care of a couple of line-of-battle ships, a frigate, and two flutes, of which they captured the Prothée, of 64 guns, and three of the finest merchantmen: the rest were so extremely alert, that though pursuit was instantly commenced, and followed up with the greatest alacrity, they were so successful as to

escape.

The Prince George continued from this time employed with the Channel fleet, till the month of March, 1781, when she was one of the nine three-deckers of the powerful fleet with which Vice-Admiral Darby relieved Gibraltar. On this occasion Lieut. Keats had severe labour in the boats; for no less than 7000 tons of provisions, 2000 barrels of gunpowder, and a prodigious quantity of stores and supplies, were landed in the midst of a tremendous cannonade from the enemy. In the following August, Rear-Admiral Digby was ordered to America, where he was to take upon himself the chief command. On the 27th of September he arrived with the Canada and Lion, at Sandy Hook, where he found the ships collected by Admiral Graves for the purpose of forcing the fleet of De Grasse, who was blocking up the Chesapeake, to action. The surrender of Earl Cornwallis rendered this spirited measure unnecessary; for it was planned only in the hope of extricating that nobleman from his toils. The Admiral, however, soon cut out work, as a sail-maker would say, 'for our Lieutenant, who had, by his attention and promptness on all occasions, endeared himself to his commander; he was, therefore, entrusted with the conduct of the naval part of an expedition for the destruction of numerous formidable boats of the enemy, about fourteen miles up a tide river in the Jerseys. This was conducted with such skill and intrepidity as to ensure success: and Keats was rewarded with a commander's commission, dated the 18th of January, 1782, and an appointment to the Rhinoceros, of 12 guns. From this tub of a vessel he was removed by his kind patron into the Bonetta, of 14 guns, a

smart cruiser, somewhat more appropriate, and remained in her on the American station till the peace of 1783.

On the 11th of September, 1782, the Warwick, of 50 guns, Captain the Hon. G. Keith Elphinstone, Lion, 64, Vestal, 28, and the Bonetta, being on a cruise off the Delaware, descried five strangers, whom Capt. Keats had made out to be enemies, the previous evening. The Warwick, in which ship his Royal Highness, Prince William Henry, was now serving, and the Bonetta, chased to windward, and at noon took the Sophie, a fine armed ship of 22 guns and 124 men, quite new, and admirably equipped. From the prisoners Capt. Elphinstone learned that the other vessels consisted of the Aigle and La Gloire, French frigates, a French brig under their convoy, and the British sloop of war, Racoon, their prize. The Lion and Vestal were now approaching; and Capt. Elphinstone sent orders to them to make every effort to reach the Delaware, and to anchor there in such a situation as would most effectually prevent the enemy from entering. On the 13th, at daylight, the strangers were seen at anchor without Henlopen lighthouse, from whence they quickly weighed, and stood into the river. At this instant the wind shifted to the eastward, which enabled the Warwick and Vestal to weather them. Being thus cut off from the proper channel, the French Commodore determined to run in among the shoals called the Shears, having overcome the scruples of the Racoon's pilot, by an offer of 500 louis d'or, to take charge of his ship. Capt. Elphinstone saw the risk, but determined to follow, though none of his ships had a pilot on board; and, accordingly, to the surprise of the French, dashed onwards. About noon the water shallowed so rapidly, that the Warwick was obliged to anchor, together with the Lion, Bonetta, and Sophie prize-ship. The enemy brought up at the same time. The boats of the squadron were then ordered out to sound, and the Bonetta to go ahead, and lead in the best water. In this manner did the ships keep sailing and anchoring, as circumstances permitted, until the 15th; the enemy, all this time, retreating before them with equal precaution and labour.

In the afternoon of that day, the French Commodore was evidently in great confusion, from his frequent yaws; and, about six, Capt. Keats made the signal for shallow water.

The largest of the enemy's ships had now grounded, of which Capt. Elphinstone took instant advantage; for, manning the prize with 150 men from the Warwick and Lion, the Vestal was run aground on the starboard quarter of the Frenchman, the Bonetta within 150 yards on the larboard quarter, and the Sophie placed under his stern. In this untoward predicament, not having a gun that could bear on his assailants, his only course was to surrender when the fire opened.

Thus fell into our hands L'Aigle, of 40 guns and 350 men, the finest ship of her class in the French navy. She was commanded by Count la Touche, who, with the Baron de Viomenil, Commander-in-Chief of the French army in America, the Viscount de Montmorency, the Duc de Lauzan, Viscount de Fleury, and some other officers of rank, escaped to the shore, with a great part of the public treasure which had been shipped, but of which two small casks and two boxes fell into the victors' hands. Besides her ship's company, she was found to have 250 soldiers on board, and all the Racoon's crew, except the pilot, who got off. Both L'Aigle and Sophie were purchased by Government, and added to the Royal Navy.

In later days such an affair might have posted half a dozen commanders: but, though he was also employed on various important services in America till 1785, Capt. Keats did not gain that step till the 4th of June, 1789, and then only at the pressing solicitation of the Duke of Clarence with his royal father was he included in the birth-day promotions. Shortly after this, he was appointed to the Southampton, of 32 guns; from whence he removed into the Niger, another frigate of the same class, attached to the Russian armament of 1791. After the differences between the Courts of London and St. Petersburgh were amicably adjusted, the Niger was retained as a cruiser in the English and Irish Channels till the break