Admiral Sir Thomas Bladen Capel GCB (25 August 1776 – 4 March 1853) was an officer in the British Royal Navy whose distinguished service in the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 earned him rapid promotion and great acclaim both in and out of the Navy. He was also a great friend of Admiral Nelson and can be considered a full member of Nelson's "band of brothers".
Born in August 1776 and raised in London, Thomas Capel was the fourth son of William Anne Capel, 4th Earl of Essex and first child of his second wife, Harriet. His mother also had influence as the daughter of Colonel Thomas Bladen, and Capel received preferential treatment due to his status from a very young age.
Entered onto the books of HMS Phaeton on 22 March 1782 as servant to Captain Waldegrave. He was just five years and 7 months old and this customary practice enabled him to rise rapidly through the ranks when he finally did go to sea.
Capel first served on HMS Assistance on the Newfoundland station in April 1792, then on 1 March 1793, as a midshipman aboard HMS Syren, where he was highly praised for his seamanship and discipline. Following his captain, John Manley, he transferred to the 38-gun frigate HMS Apollo before serving under Lord Hugh Seymour in the 3rd rate vessels HMS Leviathan (74 guns) and HMS Sans Pareil (80 guns), where he saw action at the battle of Groix in 1795. After the battle, San Pareil and her crew returned to the channel and blockade duty. Capel was promoted to acting lieutenant in the May 1796 and on 5 April 1797 he joined the newly built frigate HMS Cambrian as a lieutenant under Captain, the Honourable Arthur Kaye Legge.
In April 1798 he joined the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, the newly refitted 74 gun HMS Vanguard, under Captain Edward Berry. On 8 May the Vanguard, as part of a small squadron, left Gibraltar to re-establish a presence in the Mediterranean and to search for the French fleet. On 20 May, they were struck by a sudden gale in which the Vanguard lost her entire foremast assembly and both her main and mizzen topmasts. Despite the arrival of reinforcements, including ten ships of the line, on 6 June; Nelson remained aboard the jury masted, Vanguard. Therefore, Capel was serving as Nelson's signal lieutenant on 1 August 1798 when Nelson's fleet destroyed the French at the battle of the Nile. He impressed the admiral to such a degree, he was mentioned in dispatches as "a most excellent officer" and presented with the sword of the senior, surviving French admiral.
Capel was made acting commander of the 16-gun brig HMS Mutine, and was given the honour of carrying the second set of dispatches to London despite the claims of a large number of superior officers. The first dispatches, carried by Berry in HMS Leander were captured shortly after leaving, which meant that when Capel arrived in London after passage in the brig[2][5] and overland travel, he was the first to bring news of the victory. His promotion to commander was confirmed when he was given command of the elderly fireship HMS Alecto on the home station, and was subsequently made post captain on 27 December 1798.[5]
Following this promotion, he was then transferred on 5 January from Alecto into the 22-gun post-ship HMS Arab, a sixth-rate frigate which sailed under his command for Jamaica on 23 April 1799. On 19 July 1800 he transferred to command of a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Meleager which was wrecked on the Triangle Rocks in the Gulf of Mexico on 9 June 1801.