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 Cape of Good Hope and thence to Mauritius. Stretching over to Madagascar, a large French ship was sighted close in shore. Wood stood in towards her, but when still a mile off the Garland struck heavily on a sunken reef, and was irretrievably lost, 26 July. The French ship proved to be a merchantman, which Wood took possession of and utilised, together with a small vessel which he built of the timber of the wreck, to carry his men and stores to the Cape, whence he returned to England. In April 1802 he was appointed to the Acasta frigate of 40 guns, which, on the renewal of the war in 1803, was attached to the fleet off Brest and in the Bay of Biscay under Admiral [Sir] William Cornwallis (1744–1819) [q. v.] In November 1804 the Acasta was sent out to the West Indies in charge of convoy, and there Sir John Thomas Duckworth, wishing to return to England in her, superseded Wood and appointed his own captain. As no other ship was available for Wood, he went home as a passenger in the Acasta, and immediately on arriving in England applied for a court-martial on Duckworth, charging him with tyranny and oppression and also with carrying home merchandise. The court-martial, however, decided that, in superseding Wood, Duckworth was acting within his rights, and, as Duckworth denied that the goods brought home were merchandise, the charge was pronounced ‘scandalous and malicious.’ When Wood's brother Mark moved in the House of Commons that the minutes of the court-martial should be laid on the table, the motion was negatived without a division.

Public opinion, however, ran strongly in favour of Wood, and he was at once appointed to the Uranie, from which, a few months later, he was moved into the Latona, again attached to the fleet off Brest, and again sent with convoy to the West Indies, where in January 1807 he was second in command under [Sir] Charles Brisbane at the reduction of Curaçao—a service for which a gold medal was awarded to the several captains engaged. In December 1808 Wood was moved into the 74-gun ship Captain, in which he took part in the reduction of Martinique in February 1809. In July he was transferred to the Neptune, and sailed for England with a large convoy. On his arrival he was knighted, 1 Nov. 1809, and in the following March he was appointed to the Pompée, one of the Channel fleet, off Brest and in the Bay of Biscay. On 10 March 1812 broad off Ushant he sighted a French squadron some twelve miles distant. Of their nationality and force he was told by the Diana frigate which had been watching them. It was then late in the afternoon, and when, about six o'clock, two other ships were sighted apparently trying to join the enemy's squadron, and that squadron wore towards him as though hoping to cut him off, Wood judged it prudent to tack and stand from them during the night. The night was extremely dark, and in the morning the French squadron was no longer to be seen; but the other two ships, still in sight, were recognised as English ships of the line.

The affair gave rise to much talk; Lord Keith was directed to inquire into it, and as his report was indecisive, the question was referred to a court-martial, which, after hearing much technical evidence—as to bearings, distances, and times—pronounced that Wood had been too hasty in tacking from the enemy, and that he ought to have taken steps at once to ascertain what the two strange ships were; but also, that his fault was due to ‘erroneous impressions at the time, and not from any want of zeal for the good of his majesty's service.’ That the sentence was merely an admonition which left no slur on Wood's character is evident from the fact that he remained in command of the Pompée—sent to join Lord Exmouth's flag in the Mediterranean—till November 1815. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a C.B.; on 19 July 1821 he was promoted to be rear-admiral. He died at Hampstead, apparently unmarried, in July 1829.

[Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. iv. 173; Ralfe's Nav. Chronology, i. 19; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 784; Naval Chronicle (with portrait), xxiv. 177; Gent. Mag. 1829, ii. 177–9; Service Book, and Minutes of Courts-Martial in the Public Record Office.] 

WOOD or WODE, JOHN (fl. 1482), speaker of the House of Commons, is said to have been the son of John Wood or Wode, a burgess for Horsham, Sussex, in 1414, and to have belonged to a family that owned much property in Surrey and Sussex. He was probably the sheriff of those counties of the same name in 1476. A John Wood, described as ‘armiger,’ was returned for Midhurst, Sussex, in 1467; another, or the same, described as ‘senior’ for Sussex in 1472, and John Wood, ‘armiger,’ sat for Surrey in 1477–8. The returns for the parliament of 1482 are lost; it met on 20 Jan., and Wood was chosen speaker.

[Manning's Speakers, pp. 119–20; Official Return of Members of Parl.; Rot. Parl. vi. 197.] 

WOOD, JOHN (d. 1570), secretary of the regent Moray [see ], was the second son of Sir Andrew