Thomas Louis

Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis, 1st Baronet (bap. 11 May 1758 – 17 May 1807) was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw action during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars. He was one of Horatio Nelson's "Band of Brothers" in the Mediterranean in 1798, commanding a ship at the Battle of the Nile. Later, he was second in command at the Battle of San Domingo, for which service he was made a baronet. Louis died of an unknown ailment aboard his flagship in Alexandria harbour in 1807, and was buried in Malta. Early career Thomas Louis was born in 1758 to John and Elizabeth Louis. John was a schoolmaster in Exeter, and family legend maintained that his grandfather had been an illegitimate son of King Louis XIV, although this cannot be verified. Louis joined the Navy in 1769 aged eleven, and first went to sea aboard the sloop HMS Fly. In 1771 he moved to the larger HMS Southampton and under her captain John MacBride he subsequently moved to first HMS Orpheus and then to the ship of the line HMS Kent. In 1775 he gained his first experience of foreign service, joining HMS Martin on the Newfoundland Station. War with America In 1776, at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Louis returned to Europe aboard HMS Thetis and joined the ship of the line HMS Bienfaisant. He was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1778 participated at the First Battle of Ushant, a British victory under Augustus Keppel. He was present at the action of 8 January 1780, where he took command of a captured Spanish ship of the line, the Guipuzcoana. A week later, he was back aboard Bienfaisant as it engaged the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St Vincent and was badly damaged by the larger Spanish battleship Fenix. During the storm which followed the battle, Louis took command of the captured Fenix and saw her safely to Gibraltar.