HOWE, RICHARD HOWE, EARL British ad miral, was born in London on March 8, 1726. He was the second son of the 2nd Viscount Howe. He entered the navy in 1740, saw much active service, and was rapidly promoted. In 1755 he went with Boscawen to North America as captain of the "Dunkirk" (6o), and his seizure of the French "Alcide" (64) was the first shot fired in the war. From this date till the peace of 1763 he served in the Channel in various more or less futile expeditions against the coast of France, with a steady increase of reputation as a firm and skilful officer. On Nov. 20, 1759, he led Hawke's fleet as captain of the "Magnanime" (64) in the victory of Quiberon.
By the death of his elder brother, killed near Ticonderoga on July 6, 1758, he became Viscount Howe—an Irish peerage. In 1762 he was elected M.P. for Dartmouth. During 1763 and 1765 he was a member of the Admiralty board, and from 1765 to 177o was treasurer of the navy. In that year he was promoted rear admiral, and in vice-admiral. In 1776 he was appointed to the command of the North American station. The rebellion of the colonies was making rapid progress, and Howe was known to be in sympathy with the colonists. He had sought the acquaint ance of Benjamin Franklin, and it was perhaps because of his known sentiments that he was joined in commission with his brother, General Sir William Howe, to make a conciliatory ar rangement. A committee appointed by the Continental Congress conferred with the Howes in September 1776 but nothing was accomplished. The appointment of a new peace commission in 1778 offended the admiral deeply, and he sent in his resignation. Before it could take effect France declared war, and a powerful French squadron was sent to America under the Count d'Estaing. Being greatly outnumbered, Howe had to stand on the defensive, but he baffled the French admiral at Sandy Hook, and defeated his attempt to take Newport in Rhode Island by a fine combina tion of caution and calculated daring. On the arrival of Admiral John Byron from England with reinforcements, Howe left the station in September. Until the fall of Lord North's ministry in 1782 he refused to serve, assigning as his reason that he could not trust Lord Sandwich. He considered that he had not been properly supported in America, and was embittered both by the supersession of himself and his brother as peace commissioners, and by attacks made on him by ministerial writers in the press.
On the change of ministry in March 1782 he was selected to command in the Channel, and in the autumn of that year he carried out the difficult operation of the final relief of Gibraltar. The French and Spaniards had in all 46 line-of-battle ships to his 33, and his ships were ill-equipped and manned. He was, more over, hampered by a great convoy carrying stores. But Howe handled his ships well, the enemy was awkward and unenterprising, and the operation was brilliantly successful. From Jan. 28 to April 16, 1783, he was First Lord of the Admiralty, and again from Dec. 1783 till Aug. 1788, in Pitt's first ministry. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary war in 1793 he was again named to the command of the Channel fleet. In 1794 he won the epoch making victory of the First of June (see FIRST OF JUNE, BATTLE OF). Though Howe was now nearly seventy, and had been trained in the old school, he displayed an originality not usual with veterans, and not excelled by any of his successors in the war, not even by Nelson, since they had his example to follow and were served by more highly trained squadrons than his. In 1797 he was called on to pacify the mutineers at Spithead, and his great influence with the seamen, who trusted him, was con spicuously shown. He died on Aug. 5, 1799, and was buried in his family vault at Langar. His monument by Flaxman is in St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1782 he was created Viscount Howe of Langar, and in 1788 Baron and Earl Howe. In June 1797 he was made a knight of the Garter. His nickname of "Black Dick" was given on account of his swarthy complexion, and the well known portrait by Gainsborough shows that it was apt.
The standard Life is by Sir John Barrow (1838) . Interesting remi niscences will be found in the Life of Codrington, by Lady Bourchier. Accounts of his professional services are in Charnock's Biographia Navalis, v. 457, and in Ralf's Naval Biographies, i. 83. See also Beat son's Naval and Military Annals, James's Naval History, and Cheva lier's Histoire de la Marine frangaise, vols. i. and ii.