Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats (16 January 1757 – 5 April 1834) was a British naval officer who fought throughout the American Revolution, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War. He retired in 1812 due to ill health and was made Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland from 1813 to 1816. In 1821 he was made Governor of Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, London. Keats held the post until his death at Greenwich in 1834. Keats is remembered as a capable and well respected officer. His actions at the Battle of Algeciras Bay became legendary.
Keats entered the navy as a midshipman in 1770 aboard the 74-gun HMS Bellona under Captain John Montagu and followed Montagu when he was promoted rear admiral, given command of the North American Station and the governorship at Halifax. He served in a number of ships on the Newfoundland Station under his patron and his patron's son Captain James Montagu.
In April 1777 he was promoted to lieutenant under Captain Robert Digby in HMS Ramillies in which he took part in the First Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778. As one of Digby's followers he was moved with him to the second-rate, ninety-gun HMS Prince George. Prince William Henry, later William IV, served aboard Prince George as a midshipman for almost two years during this time where Keats was the second, then first lieutenant of his watch. The two formed a life-long friendship, William describing Keats as the one to whom he owed all his professional knowledge.
In 1780 Keats was on Prince George with Admiral Rodney's fleet when the San Julien struck to her at the Moonlight Battle before they proceeded to the relief of Gibraltar. Keats was with the fleet once more when it again relieved the beleaguered rock in 1781. In September 1781 Keats returned to the North American station with Digby in HMS Lion.
On 18 January 1782 Keats was put in command of the store ship HMS Rhinoceros[5] which was later fitted out as a floating battery in the defense of New York City. By May 1782 he had been transferred to the command of the sloop HMS Bonetta. He was part of the squadron that in the action of 15 September 1782 captured a French squadron including the 38-gun Aigle which was bought into British service. Keats played a pivotal role in the engagement, taking responsibility for his ship when the pilot refused to proceed in shallow waters, chasing the French up the Delaware river for two whole days before they grounded and were forced to surrender. Keats was subsequently engaged at New York and Nova Scotia until Bonetta was paid off in 1785 and between then and 1789 Keats was unemployed ashore and for much of the time lived in France.
On 24 June 1789 he was promoted to post-captain in HMS Southampton, possibly at the behest of the Duke of Clarence (Prince William Henry) as a royal favour to a friend. They were engaged in cruises of observation in the chops of the Channel and a voyage to Gibraltar conveying Prince Edward to his new command, in effective banishment. Between 1790 and 1793 Keats commanded the frigate HMS Niger on the Channel Station.
Being based in Portsmouth under the orders of Lord Hood he sat under his lordship's presidency on the famous Court Martial of the mutineers who had taken HMS Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh in the pacific in 1789.
He commissioned HMS London in 1793 as the newly appointed flag-captain to the Duke of Clarence but was to be disappointed when the Board of Admiralty determined that it would be inappropriate for the Prince to be in command and recalled him to London, such that Keats and the London sailed without him in Lord Howe's squadron. The London was paid off in March 1794.