Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/44

 guns, and in her was again employed in continuous cruising in the Soundings and in the Bay of Biscay till, on the morning of 27 June 1747, having chased an enemy's ship in-shore off Belle Isle, he ran aground, and the Maidstone being a total wreck, Keppel and his men were made prisoners. After a few weeks he was permitted to return to England on parole, and, on being exchanged, was tried by court-martial and honourably acquitted on 31 Oct. He had already been promised the command of another ship still on the stocks, which was launched in October and christened the Anson. He was now formally appointed to her, and on 25 Nov. and following days sat as a member of the court-martial on Captain Fox of the Kent, notable as the first in which depositions taken beforehand were disallowed.

The Anson was employed in active cruising till the peace of 1748, and, being then made a guardship, Keppel with his officers was transferred to the Centurion, reduced from 60 to 50 guns, and in her was sent out as commodore to the Mediterranean, with a special mission to treat with the dey of Algiers, or, if necessary, to compel him to restrain the insolence of his cruisers. The story goes that the dey angrily expressed surprise that ‘the king of Great Britain should have sent a beardless boy to treat with him;’ to which Keppel replied, ‘Had my master supposed that wisdom was measured by the length of the beard, he would have sent your deyship a he-goat.’ Thereupon the dey threatened him with instant death, but Keppel, pointing to the squadron in the bay, said there were Englishmen enough there to make him a glorious funeral pile. The dey then consented to treat; but it was not till June 1751 that the points at issue could be arranged, and in July the Centurion returned to England and was paid off.

In the latter part of 1754 Keppel was ordered to hoist a broad pennant on board the Norwich, and to take command of the ships on the North American station. He arrived in Hampton Roads in February 1755, and during the next few months co-operated with General Braddock and the governors of the several colonies in the measures for the summer campaign. The arrival of Boscawen on the station with several senior captains necessarily superseded him, and he returned to England with the intelligence of Braddock's defeat and death. Keppel was then appointed to the Swiftsure of 70 guns, and in June 1756 was moved to the Torbay of 74, in which, in command of a small squadron, he cruised off Cape Finisterre during the autumn, returning to Spithead in December. In January he sat as a member of the court-martial on Admiral John Byng [q. v.], and, finding that the recommendation to mercy was not likely to receive attention, he vainly exerted himself to procure the intervention of parliament. In September 1757 the Torbay was one of the fleet under Sir Edward (afterwards Lord) Hawke [q. v.] in the expedition to Basque Roads, and continued attached to the grand fleet, under Hawke and Anson, till in September 1758 Keppel was appointed to the command of a squadron of ships of war and transports sent out to reduce the French settlement of Goree. The service was effected with little loss on 29 Dec., and, having reinforced the garrison of Fort Louis on the Senegal, Keppel returned to England. During the summer and autumn of 1759 the Torbay was again attached to the grand fleet off Brest under Hawke, and on 20 Nov. was the leading ship in the battle of Quiberon Bay, and was closely engaged with the French Thésée, which ultimately sank, though whether from the effect of the Torbay's fire, or swamped through her lower deck ports, has been doubted. The Torbay herself took in a great deal of water through the lee ports, and for a short time was in danger of a similar fate.

In March 1761 Keppel was moved from the Torbay to the Valiant, and appointed to command the squadron co-operating with the troops sent to reduce Belle Isle. This squadron, supported by another off Brest under Captain Buckle, and a third under Sir Thomas Stanhope off Rochefort, completely covered the military operations, and the island surrendered in June. Keppel continued in command off Brest and Belle Isle till the following January, when a violent gale forced him to bear up for Torbay. Most of his ships were much damaged; the Valiant, in particular, was making a great deal of water, and had to go round to Portsmouth for repairs. Almost at the same time war was declared with Spain, and Keppel was appointed commodore and second in command, under Sir George Pocock [q. v.], of the expedition against Havana, his brother, George Keppel, third earl of Albemarle [q. v.], being the commander-in-chief of the land forces employed. The fleet arrived off Havana on 5 June, the landing was effected on the 7th, and after a two months' siege by sea and land, in which the climate proved the deadliest enemy, the place surrendered on 14 Aug. The prize-money was estimated at upwards of three millions sterling, of which nearly 25,000l. fell to Keppel's share. His younger brother, a general officer serving on the staff, probably received the same, while the elder brother received