A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hood, William John Thompson
HOOD. (Captain, 1843.)
William John Thompson Hood was born 6 Nov. 1794. He is younger brother of Commander S. T. Hood, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy 16 April, 1805. He served on board the Achille 74, Capt. Rich. King, at the battle of Trafalgar; was in the Daphne 20, Capt. Fras. Mason, at the capture of Monte Video in Feb. 1807, and during the operations on the Rio de la Plata; assisted, when in the Plover and Sheldrake sloops, at the capture of several privateers, and the blockade of the French and Danish coasts; and, on being appointed Master’s Mate of the Malta 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benj. Hallowell, commanded the Spanish gun-boat No. 5, in co-operation, during the latter part of the war, with the patriots on the north coast of Spain. Being advanced to the rank of Lieutenant 25 Feb. 1815 (nearly two years after he had passed his examination), he was successively appointed Senior – 24 May, 1821, of the Helicon 10, Capt. Wm. Robt. Dawkins, stationed in the Channel – and, 24 July and 24 Dec. 1824, of the Romney and Hyperion Coast Blockade ships, both commanded by Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye. He was promoted to the rank of Commander in the Hyperion, 9 Jan. 1828, and continued on the books of that frigate until paid off in Dec. 1829. His next and last appointment was, 27 April, 1842, to the Caledonia 120, flag-ship of Sir David Milne at Plymouth, where he remained until advanced to his present rank 25 Sept. 1843.
Independently of the thanks of the Board of Longitude, Capt. Hood, on 26 May, 1824, received from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., its gold Vulcan medal for his improved screen-glasses for quadrants and sextants for naval use. He has also been voted the silver medal of the same body for his invention of an ice-saw, for facilitating the progress or escape of ships navigating the high Polar latitudes, when surrounded by field-ice. In 1828 he obtained a similar honorary reward for his method of constructing a floating bridge, from the materials to be found on board all ships of war and vessels generally. In 1830 he again received the Society’s medal for his invention of an improved rocket-shaft. Capt. Hood has also invented a rotatory lifting and forcing pump. He married, 16 Dec. 1830, Sophia Janet, second daughter of the late Robt. Henderson, Esq., Physician and Inspector of the Forces. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.