Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/419

 up the success, notwithstanding the pressing remonstrances of Nelson, who had distinguished himself in command of the Agamemnon, and who asserted his belief that, had the victory been pushed home, ‘we should have had such a day as the annals of England never produced’ (cf. letter to his wife, 1 April). It appeared, however, from the admiral's despatch that the French fleet was numerically equal or superior, and its real inferiority was not known at home; two ships had been captured, and the victory won for Hotham and his comrades the thanks of both houses of parliament. On 16 April Hotham was advanced to the rank of admiral, and on 13 July again fell in with the French fleet, under somewhat similar circumstances, in nearly the same locality, and with nearly the same result. The Alcide, a 74-gun ship, struck her flag, but before she was taken possession of she caught fire and was totally destroyed, the greater part of her crew perishing with her; some two hundred were taken up by the English boats. That, with a numerical superiority of twenty-three ships against seventeen, Hotham ought to have brought on a decisive action, has been very generally admitted even by French writers (cf., ii. 198). Nelson in still stronger language spoke of the affair as this ‘miserable action’ (cf. letter to his brother, 29 July).

Hotham had succeeded to the chief command by the accident of Hood's resignation. A good officer and a man of undaunted courage, he had on several occasions done admirably in a subordinate rank; but he was wanting in the energy, force of character, and decision requisite in a commander-in-chief. It does not appear to have been the intention of the admiralty that he should continue in that position; and in November 1795 he was relieved by Sir John Jervis, afterwards Earl of St. Vincent [q. v.], and returned to England. He saw no further service. On 7 March 1797 he was raised to the peerage of Ireland as Baron Hotham of South Dalton, near Hull; and on the death of his nephew, the son of his second brother, he also succeeded to the baronetcy, 18 July 1811. He died on 2 May 1813. He was unmarried, and the titles on his death passed to his younger brother Beaumont [q. v.] 

HOTHAM, WILLIAM (1772–1848), admiral, second son of General George Hotham, and nephew of William, first lord Hotham [q. v.], was born on 12 Feb. 1772, and was educated at Westminster School. He entered the navy in 1786, on board the Grampus, with Captain Edward Thompson, in which he made a voyage to the Guinea coast. He afterwards served at Portsmouth, in the West Indies, and in the Channel; in 1790 in the Princess Royal under his uncle's flag, and in October he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. During the years immediately following he was employed on the coast of North America and in the West Indies, and in January 1794 he joined the Victory, carrying Lord Hood's flag in the Mediterranean. In the following May he served on shore at the siege of Bastia, under the immediate orders of Nelson, on 12 Aug. was promoted to the command of the Éclair, and on 7 Oct. was advanced to post rank, and appointed to the Cyclops, which continued attached to the Mediterranean fleet till the beginning of 1796, when she was sent home with despatches and paid off. In January 1797 Hotham was appointed to the Adamant of 50 guns in the North Sea. When the mutiny broke out the Adamant was the only ship, besides the Venerable, which did not join in it, and for several weeks these two ships alone maintained the blockade of the Texel [see ]. After sharing in the glories of Camperdown on 11 Oct. 1797, the Adamant was attached to the squadron off Havre, under Sir Richard Strachan, and towards the end of 1798 was sent out to the Cape of Good Hope, where she was principally employed in the blockade of Mauritius, and on 12 Dec. 1799, in company with the Tremendous, drove ashore and destroyed the French frigate Preneuse. The Adamant continued on this service till September 1801, when she was sent home with convoy and was paid off. In March 1803 Hotham was appointed to the Raisonnable, employed to watch the enemy's flotilla at Boulogne. On this service his health gave way, and in 1804 he resigned his command, and retired for a while from active service. Subsequently he was for a short time in command of the Sea Fencibles of the Liverpool district, and of the Royal Sovereign yacht, till his promotion to flag rank on 4 Dec. 1813. For several years he was attached to the court as gentleman-in-waiting, and at his leisure drew up an in-