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 struck into another Spanish three-decker, the San Hermenegildo, about a quarter of a mile further to the south. The people of the San Hermenegildo, in the surprise and confusion, assuming that the Real Carlos was an English ship, and that the shot came from her, opened fire on her. On board the Real Carlos they were equally confused, thought they were between two enemies, and fired wildly on both sides. As the Superb fired a second broadside, it was seen that the Real Carlos was on fire, and with a third broadside she passed on. The officers of the San Hermenegildo noticing the fire, and still under the misapprehension that the Real Carlos was an English vessel, resolved to go under her stern and blow her up. In this attempt the two ships fell on board each other, the flames seized them both, and they burnt and blew up, with the loss of almost all their men. The Superb had meantime engaged and captured the Saint Antoine, a French ship with a heterogeneous crew formed out of all the nationalities of Europe, and other English ships coming up completed the victory by driving the combined fleet in headlong rout into Cadiz. Keats's narrative of the exploit was edited by Tucker (cf., Histoire, iii. 59–65).

During the short peace the Superb remained in the Mediterranean under the command of Sir Richard Bickerton, and on the renewal of the war in 1803 was off Toulon, when Nelson assumed the command on 8 July. Nelson knew Keats only by reputation, but only three days after he had joined the fleet he wrote of Keats as ‘one of the very best officers in his majesty's navy;’ ‘I esteem his person alone as equal to one French 74, and the Superb and her captain equal to two 74-gun ships’ (Nelson to Hugh Elliot, 11 July 1803). The Superb continued attached to the fleet under Nelson during the watch off Toulon, and the voyage to the West Indies in the spring and summer of 1805. But the long service had spoiled her once fine sailing, and the ship that in July 1801 had passed ahead of her consorts as if they were riding at anchor, was in May 1805 the dummy of the fleet, though Nelson, to console her commander, told him ‘she did all which is possible for a ship to accomplish’ (Nelson to Keats, 19 May 1805).

On the return from the West Indies and the reinforcement of Cornwallis by the greater part of Nelson's squadron [see ], the Superb returned to Spithead with the Victory on 18 Aug. She was still refitting when Nelson again sailed on 15 Sept.; nor did she join the fleet till 15 Nov., to find that Trafalgar had been fought. Sir John Duckworth [q. v.] had hoisted his flag on board the Superb, and he now took her to the West Indies, to fight in the battle of San Domingo, on 6 Feb. 1806. As the action began, with the band on the poop playing ‘God save the king!’ and ‘Nelson of the Nile,’ Keats brought out a portrait of Nelson, which he hung on the mizen stay, where it remained throughout the battle untouched by the enemy's shot, though dashed with the blood and brains of a seaman who was killed close beside it. The Superb afterwards returned to Cadiz, and in May to England, when Duckworth struck his flag; and Keats, joining Lord St. Vincent off Brest, was sent in command of a squadron of five or six sail of the line to watch Rochefort. In April 1807 he was relieved by Sir Richard Strachan [q. v.], and in August was ordered to hoist a broad pennant on board the Ganges, one of the ships going into the Baltic with Admiral Gambier [see ].

On 2 Oct. he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and the following April, with his flag in the Mars, he convoyed the military expedition under Sir John Moore [q. v.] to Gottenburg, where he joined the fleet under Sir James Saumarez. He then moved into his old ship the Superb, and being left in command of a squadron in the Great Belt, seized a number of Danish merchant ships, and so enabled some ten thousand Spanish troops, till then in the French service, to escape the prison to which they would otherwise have been consigned. These troops he afterwards convoyed to Gottenburg, where they embarked on board transports sent from England to carry them to Spain. In acknowledgment of this important service Keats was made a K.B., and was granted to his arms—Ermine, three mountain cats argent—the honourable augmentation, On a canton argent, the Spanish flag over an anchor surrounded by a wreath of laurel, with the motto ‘Mi patria es mi forte.’

After the sailing of the transports Keats resumed his station in the Great Belt, where, during the early and severe winter, the Superb and several other ships were caught in the ice. With much difficulty they cut their way to Hawke's Road (Winga Sound), and there wintered. The following summer Keats was again joined by Saumarez, and was ordered to convoy the trade to Gottenburg; but his charge having accumulated to upwards of four hundred sail, he proceeded with it to England. He was then appointed second in command of the expedition to the Scheldt, under Sir Richard Strachan, from which he returned in September.

In November 1809 the Superb, then nearly