DIINDONALD, THOMAS COCHRANE, Earl of, son of the ninth earl of Dundonald, was b. Dec. 14, 1775. He, while Still a boy, entered the 104th regiment. At the age of 17, he joined the Hind corvette, commanded by his uncle, capt. sir Alexander Cochrane. In 1800, he became master and commander of the Speedy sloop-of-war, of 14 guns and 54 men; and in 10 months he took 33 vessels, carrying together 128 guns and 533 men, besides assisting in the capture of many others. D. received his post-rank, 1801, for the capture, by boarding, of El Ganto, a Spanish frigate of 32 guns, off Barcelona. In 1803, he was appointed to the Arab, 22, and served at the blockade of Boulogne. In 1804, he removed to the Pallas frigate, 32, and was sent out to assist his uncle, then employed in the blockade of Ferrol. He made several valuable prizes while cruising off the Spanish coast, among others the Fortuna, with specie to the amount of £150,000, besides mer chandise, but returned 10,000 crowns to the Spanish capt. and supercargo. In 1806, he cut out the Tapaguese corvette, which lay in the Gironde, under the pro tection of two heavy batteries. He destroyed the semaphores along the French coast, and carried by storm the battery at Pointe l'Equilon, which he blew up. Being now transferred to L'Impgrieuse, he took and destroyed, in the month ending Jan. 7, 1807, 15 of the enemy's ships, chiefly laden with wine and provisions. He was next sent to co-operate with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia, and contributed to the surrender of the castle of Mongat. After harassing the French coast, and destroying the sema phores on the coast of Languedoc, he volunteered for the defense of fort Trinidad, at Rosas, on the coast of Catalonia. At the head of 80 of his own men, and the same number of Spaniards, he repelled 1000 of the enemy in an assault made by them upon the castle. He protracted the siege for 12 days, then blew up the magazine, and returned to his ship. In April, 1809, he was selected by the admiralty for the daring and haz ardous service of burning the French fleet then lying at anchor, and blockaded by lord Gambier, in the Basque roads. At night lie went on board one of the fireships, con taining 1500 barrels of gunpowder, and performed the service intrusted to him with characteristic intrepidity. He was rewarded with the knighthood of the bath. He had been chosen M.P. for Westminster in 1807, and his charges of incompetency against lord Gambier led to a court-martial upon that nobleman. Lord Gambier, after a partial trial, was acquitted, and -the professional prospects of his assailant were ruined. Dur ing the rest of the war, the country lost the incalculable benefit of his services at sea, the navy gaining, on the other hand, such small advantage as could in those days be derived from D.'s protest in parliament against naval abuses. Early in 1814; he was accused of complicity in fraudulent stock-jobbing transactions. A rumor of the down fall of Napoleon having caused a sudden rise in the funds, D. and his friends were charged with having fraudulently propagated the rumor, and with having "sold out" to a large amount. He was found guilty of fraud, and was sentenced to pay a fine of £1000, to suffer a year's imprisonment, and to stand in the pillory. The latter part of the punishment was remitted, but he was deprived of the order of the bath, of his rank in the navy, and expelled from the house of commons. A new writ was issued for
Westminster; but his constituents immediately re-elected him, notwithstanding his expulsion from the house; and his daring was shown by his escape from prison, and his re-appearance in the house. He represented Westminster until 1818, when, panting for a more active and eventful career, lie drew his sword in defense of the independence of the South AmeriCah Cob:Mies of Spain. The 6ciiintiiiind of the. fleet of therepublic of Chili was offered to him, and the terror of his name materially contributed to the success of the national cause. Valdivia, the last stronghold of the Spaniards, was captured by him. Another daring exploit was the cutting out of a large 40-gun frigate from under the guns of the castle of Callao, 5th Nov., 1820. The emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro, after wards gave him the command of the Brazilian fleet, and created him a marquis. In 1827 and 1828, he assisted in the Greek war of independence. In 1830, 'the Whig admin istration of earl Grey came into office, and, believing Lim to have been the victim of a cruel and unjust persecution, hastened to restore him to his naval rank. In 1831, he succeeded to the earldom. In 1847, queen Victoria conferred on him the grand cross of the bath. He was also appointed commander-in-chief on the North American and West India station. In 1851, he was vice-admiral of the white, and in 1854, rear-admi ral of the United Kingdom, a distinction which he held until his death. On his retire ment from active service, he devoted himself to scientific inventions. He made improve ments in poop and signal lights, and especially turned his attention to naval projectiles. He declared himself to be in possession of a means of annihilating an enemy7s fleet, and during the Russian war offered to destroy Sebastopol in a few hours with perfect secu rity to the assailants. His plans were, however, rejected. When upwards of 80 years of age, he published his autobiography—the record of a career almost unequaled even by British seamen for desperate service and dauntless He died Oct. 31, 1860, and was interred in Westminster abbey. In his naval expeditions, it was his fate to be constantly opposed to forces greatly superior to his own in numbers and metal. His inventiveness and fertility of resource under such circumstances have perhaps never been equaled. His daring would have been, in a man of less genius, the height of rashness, yet the almost unvarying success of his maneuvers and exploits attests his forethought, and his happy adaptation of slender means to the achievement of great ends and noble enterprises. In person, he was tall and broad built; and a slight stoop, contracted by service in the small sloops and corvettes of his early days, scarcely impaired a height of stature that might be described as commanding. His features were Scottish in character, and strongly marked, bearing in deep lines the traces of struggle, sorrow, and the wear and tear of an unusually long, active, and eventful 1877, a petition was presented to the queen, asking compensation to D.'s heirs for his 18 years' loss of pay and allowances as a naval officer—a petition which was ulti mately granted.