Admiral of the White Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, GCB (16 January 1757 – 5 April 1834) was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator who served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He retired in 1812 due to ill health and was made Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland, serving from 1813 to 1816. In 1821 Keats was made Governor of Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, London. He held the post until his death at Greenwich in 1834. Keats is remembered as a capable and well respected officer, in particular due to his actions at the Algeciras campaign.
Early life Keats was born at Chalton, Hampshire the son of Rev. Richard Keats, the curate, later Rector of Bideford and King's Nympton in Devon and Headmaster of Blundells School, Tiverton, by his wife, Elizabeth. His formal education was brief. At the age of nine, in 1766, he entered New College School, Oxford and was then admitted briefly to Winchester College in 1768 but lacked scholastic aptitude and determined on a career in the Royal Navy.
Early naval career Keats entered the navy as a midshipman in 1770 aboard the 74-gun under Captain John Montagu and followed Montagu when he was promoted rear admiral, given command of the North American Station and the governorship at Halifax. He served in a number of ships on the Newfoundland Station under his patron and his patron's son Captain James Montagu.
In April 1777 he was promoted to lieutenant under Captain Robert Digby in in which he took part in the First Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778. As one of Digby's followers he was moved with him to the second-rate, ninety-gun . Prince William Henry, later William IV, served aboard Prince George as a midshipman for almost two years during this time where Keats was the second, then first lieutenant of his watch. The two formed a life-long friendship, William describing Keats as the one to whom he owed all his professional knowledge.Hannah. p. 14
In 1780 Keats was on Prince George with Admiral Rodney's fleet when the San Julien struck to her at the Moonlight Battle before they proceeded to the relief of Gibraltar. Keats was with the fleet once more when it again relieved the beleaguered rock in 1781. In September 1781 Keats returned to the North American station with Digby in .Hannah. p. 19
Command On 18 January 1782 Keats was put in command of the store ship which was later fitted out as a floating battery in the defense of New York City. By May 1782 he had been transferred to the command of the sloop . He was part of the squadron that in the action of 15 September 1782 captured a French squadron including the 38-gun which was bought into British service. Keats played a pivotal role in the engagement, taking responsibility for his ship when the pilot refused to proceed in shallow waters, chasing the French up the Delaware river for two whole days before they grounded and were forced to surrender.Hannah. p. 20 Keats was subsequently engaged at New York and Nova Scotia until Bonetta was paid off in 1785 and between then and 1789 Keats was unemployed ashore and for much of the time lived in France.Hannah. p. 25
On 24 June 1789 he was promoted to post-captain in , possibly at the behest of the Duke of Clarence (Prince William Henry) as a royal favour to a friend. They were engaged in cruises of observation in the chops of the Channel and a voyage to Gibraltar conveying Prince Edward to his new command, in effective banishment.Hannah. p. 25 Between 1790 and 1793 Keats commanded the frigate on the Channel Station.
Being based in Portsmouth under the orders of Lord Hood he sat under his lordship's presidency on the famous Court Martial of the mutineers who had taken from Lieutenant William Bligh in the Pacific Ocean in 1789.Hannah. p. 31 He commissioned in 1793 as the newly appointed flag-captain to the Duke of Clarence but was to be disappointed when the Board of Admiralty determined that it would be inappropriate for the Prince to be in command and recalled him to London, such that Keats and the London sailed without him in Lord Howe's squadron. London was paid off in March 1794.
Western Frigate Squadron In 1794 Keats was in Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron in the Channel in command of the 32-gun frigate . In her he took part in the running battles along the French, English and Irish coasts that became highly publicized and exemplified the romantic image of naval warfare as it was perceived by the general public. In 1795 Galatea captured La Revolutionnaire.Hannah. p. 35
In the same year Galatea took part in the failed landing of an invasion force at Quiberon Bay. The invasion force consisted of French Royalist émigré, counter-revolutionary troops in support of the Chouannerie and Vendée Revolt. They were landed by the Royal Navy on 23 June. The aim of the invasion was to raise the whole of western France in revolt, bring an end to the French Revolution and restore the French monarchy. The Landing of the émigrés at Quiberon was finally repulsed on 21 July, dealing a disastrous blow to the royalist cause.
On 23 August 1795 Keats in Galatea drove the of 42 guns ashore and set her alight to stop the French refloating her. The squadron was cruising near the entrance to the Garonne when she hove in sight. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the navigation, and although his French pilot declared his incapacity to conduct the ship through the shoals and refused to continue, Keats took charge and chased the enemy through a night of rain squalls and lightning right over the shoals of Arcachon Bay on which she struck and was immediately wrecked early the following morning. Thus far the Galatea had acted alone, but in the morning she was joined by the Artois and Sylph, the latter of which fired into the bottom of the French frigate to prevent her re-floating and whose men assisted in setting her on fire.Hannah. pp. 40–41 Exploits such as this, demonstrating Keats's character in the face of shoal waters, set him apart as one of the few suitable for inshore blockade work off dangerous shores.
In May 1797 Galatea was at the Nore anchorage, and Keats, along with several other captains, was put ashore during the fleet mutiny.Hannah. p. 44
Subsequently, he commissioned the newly built 40-gun . Under Keats she served on the Channel station for several years during which time she was engaged watching the port of Brest and at times cruising for prizes by way of reward for the arduous work of blockade. She captured a great many prizes. The first was the 22-gun Spanish ship Union, which she captured on 14 August 1797. On 9 December 1798 Boadicea captured the 20-gun French privateer L'Invincible General Bonaparte. The Admiralty took this vessel into service as the 18-gun sloop . On 1 April 1799 Keats also captured L'Utile, a brig of 16 guns. During this time Keats was stationed mainly off Brest. He continued there until 1800 when he was reassigned by Earl St. Vincent to Ferrol. Further prizes included Le Milan of 14 guns, the brig Le Requin of 18 guns, the Venus of 32 guns and 200 men, and a large number of merchant ships. The most valuable of these was the Cultivator, a West Indiaman with cargo valued at £20,000.Hannah. pp. 46–53
HMS Superb and the Algeciras campaign
By March 1801 Keats was placed in command of the ship with which he is most associated. was a 74-gun third-rate ship-of-the-line ordered in 1795 and completed in 1798. In July 1801 she was stationed off Cádiz and took part in the Second Battle of Algeciras. As the French and Spanish made to escape Algeciras Bay for Cádiz, Admiral Sir James Saumarez hailed Superb and ordered Keats to catch the Franco-Spanish's fleet rear and engage. Superb was a relatively new ship and had not been long on blockade duty. As a consequence she was the fastest sailing ship-of-the-line in the fleet. As night fell and the wind in the Straits increased to a fresh gale the Superb went at 11.5 knots. Keats rapidly gained on the combined fleet, leaving his compatriots some miles astern.
With lights concealed, and making no signals, he sailed Superb alongside the 112-gun on her starboard side. Another Spanish ship, the 112-gun , was sailing abreast, on the port side, of Real Carlos. Keats fired three broadsides into Real Carlos before any return of fire, so unexpected was the attack. Some shot passed through the rigging of Real Carlos and struck San Hermenegildo. Real Carlos caught fire and Keats disengaged her to continue up the line. In the darkness the two Spanish ships confused one another for British ships and began a furious duel. With Real Carlos aflame the captain of San Hermenegildo determined to take advantage and crossed the stern of Real Carlos in order to deal a fatal broadside that would run the length of the ship through the unprotected stern. A sudden gust of wind brought the two ships together and entangled their rigging.
San Hermenegildo also caught fire and the two enormous three-deck ships eventually exploded. Superb continued on relatively unscathed and engaged the French 74-gun under Commodore Julien le Ray. Saint Antoine struck after a fierce exchange of broadsides. The action came to an end with the intervention of Captain Amable Troude aboard . Troude placed his ship, which had been damaged in the earlier engagement and could not keep up with the main allied fleet, between the escaping allied fleet and the British. He held off four ships, causing significant damage to HMS Venerable, which grounded, before he escaped into Cádiz.Hannah. p. 77 Both Troude and Keats were highly praised by their commanders and the general public. Troude received an audience with Napoleon. Nelson said of Keats in a letter to the Duke of Clarence: "Our friend Keats is quite well in his own person he is equal in my estimation to an additional Seventy-four; his life is a valuable one to the State, and it is impossible that your Royal Highness could ever have a better choice of a Sea friend, or Counsellor, if you go to the Admiralty."
Following the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, Keats and Superb remained in the Mediterranean under Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton. When Nelson relieved Bickerton and took command of the fleet in the Mediterranean Keats remained with him off Toulon. When not watching the French they were sent on a variety of missions – to Naples to secure supplies, during which voyage they surveyed a passage through the Straits of Bonifacio, separating Corsica and Sardinia and three diplomatic missions to Algiers to negotiate with Mustafa Baba, Dey of Algiers to secure reinstatement of British consular representation, the release of ships taken contrary to treaty, and the freedom of enslaved sailors.Hannah. pp. 91–98 He accompanied the fleet to the West Indies in 1805 in the famous chase of Admiral Villeneuve that culminated in the Battle of Trafalgar. After the fleet's return to European waters, Superb was sent to Portsmouth to re-fit. Having been at sea for four years without being in a home port she was described by Nelson as "her stem and the knees of her head are loose and broke – nothing but the great exertions of captain Keats has kept her at sea..."Hannah. p. 109 Unfortunately, she did not rejoin the fleet off Cádiz until November 1805, missing the Battle of Trafalgar, where Keats was to have been Nelson's second, by less than a month. On 9 November 1805 Keats was made an honorary Colonel of Marines.
The West Indies and the Battle of San Domingo