pp. 91, 116). He entered the navy in 1770, on board the Bellona, with Captain James Montagu [q. v.], whom he accompanied to the Captain in 1771, when Montagu was promoted to be rear-admiral, and went out as commander-in-chief at Halifax. He then served in the Kingfisher and Mercury sloops with the admiral's son, Captain James Montagu, and in 1776 was moved into the Romney, carrying the flag of Admiral Montagu as commander-in-chief at Newfoundland. In April 1777 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Ramillies, with Captain Robert Digby [q. v.], and in her took part in the action off Ushant on 27 July 1778. In June 1779 he was moved with Digby to the Prince George, in which ship Prince William Henry, afterwards King William IV, was for upwards of two years midshipman of his watch, and contracted with him an admiring and lifelong friendship. In the Prince George Keats was present at the relief of Gibraltar in January 1780, and again in April 1781. In September 1781 the Prince George went out to North America, and Keats, following Digby to the Lion, was promoted on 18 Jan. 1782 to command the Rhinoceros, fitted as a floating battery for the defence of New York. In May he was transferred to the Bonetta sloop, one of the squadron which captured the Aigle frigate and two smaller vessels on 15 Sept. 1782 [see Elphinstone, George Keith, Viscount Keith]. Keats continued in the Bonetta on the North American station after the peace, and till January 1785, when he returned to England, and the ship was paid off. During the next four years he resided for the most part in France, and on 24 June 1789 was promoted to post rank, at the particular request, it is said, of the Duke of Clarence. In September he was appointed to command the Southampton frigate in the Channel, and the next year was moved into the Niger. In April 1793 he commissioned the London, fitting for the Duke of Clarence's flag. It was afterwards determined that the duke should not hoist his flag, and the London was paid off.
In May 1794 Keats was appointed to the Galatea of 36 guns, one of the frigate squadron employed under Sir John Borlase Warren [q. v.] and Sir Edward Pellew [q. v.] on the coast of France, and in June to July 1795 in the disastrous landing of the French royalists at Quiberon. He continued on the same service through 1796, and on 23 Aug. drove the 40-gun frigate Andromaque ashore near the mouth of the Garonne. The pilot, it is said, refused to take the Galatea among the shoals; but Keats, on his own responsibility, followed the French frigate till she struck. The next morning he was joined by the Artois and the Sylph brig, and the wreck of the Andromaque was set on fire. In the mutiny of May 1797 Keats, with several of the other captains, was put on shore; but in June he was appointed to the Boadicea, again for service on the coast of France, and employed for the most part in maintaining a close watch on Brest, and in stopping the coasting trade by which the fleet and arsenal were supplied with stores. In September 1798, when a powerful squadron intended for the invasion of Ireland put to sea, Keats, having no force to stop it, sent the news home with such happy promptitude that Warren, then at Plymouth, was able to intercept it. In writing privately to Warren, he said: ‘My fortune sprung and watched the game, which, notwithstanding your present situation, yours will take you to the death of.’ Keats continued on this difficult and arduous service till 1800, when he was detached by Lord St. Vincent as senior officer off Ferrol, where he had the good fortune to make some rich prizes.
In March 1801 he was appointed to the 74-gun ship Superb, in which in June he joined the squadron off Cadiz, under Sir James Saumarez, afterwards Lord De Saumarez [q. v.] On 5 July, while the Superb was detached off San Lucar, Saumarez received news of a French squadron having anchored at Algeciras, and, without waiting for the Superb, sailed at once in search of the enemy. Keats, understanding that he was purposely left to maintain a watch on Cadiz, remained off that port till the 9th, when the Spanish squadron put to sea, and Keats, preceding it, joined the admiral at Gibraltar. He then first learned of the repulse sustained by Saumarez on the 6th, and was still at Gibraltar, when on the evening of the 12th the allied French and Spanish squadron, now consisting of ten sail of the line, got under way from Algeciras. Saumarez weighed and followed, though with only five sail of the line. In the darkness of the night and a fresh easterly wind his ships were a good deal scattered, the enemy was lost sight of, and about nine o'clock Saumarez, hailing the Superb, directed Keats to make sail ahead and attack the enemy's rear so as to delay them. The result is without a parallel in naval history. As the Superb set her courses and top-gallant sails, going between eleven and twelve knots, she was soon out of sight of the English ships, and about half-past eleven ranged abreast of a three-decker, known afterwards to be the Real Carlos of 112 guns. She shortened sail, and fired her port broadside into what she knew must be an enemy. Many of her shot
