Arthur Cochrane (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir Arthur Auckland Leopold Pedro Cochrane, KCB (24 September 1824 – 20 August 1905) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.

Admiral The Honourable Sir Arthur Cochrane KCB
Born	(1824-09-24)24 September 1824
Died	20 August 1905(1905-08-20) (aged 80)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1839–1886
Rank	Admiral
Commands	HMS Horatio HMS Niger HMS Warrior HMS Cumberland Pacific Station
Battles / wars	Oriental Crisis Crimean War Second Opium War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

Naval career

Born the third son of the tenth Earl of Dundonald, Cochrane joined the Royal Navy in 1839.^[1] He fought at Acre where he was wounded during the Oriental Crisis in 1840^[2] and then served in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War^[1] where he devised a method of towing torpedoes to their target using kites in 1855.^[3]

Promoted to captain in 1854, he was given command of HMS Horatio at Sheerness and then of HMS Niger in which he took part in the destruction of the Chinese Fleet in October 1856 during the Second Opium War.^[2] He later commanded HMS Warrior and then HMS Cumberland.^[1] He was appointed Superintendent of Sheerness dockyard in 1869 and Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station in 1873.^[1] He was promoted to admiral in December 1881, and retired from the navy in June 1886.^[4][5] In retirement he was involved in managing the Trinidad Lake Asphalt Company.^[5]

In 1863 he petitioned for grant of a patent relating to "improvements in propelling and steering ships",^[6] and in 1864 for "improvements in apparatus for heating and evaporating liquids and fluids".^[7] The latter became void in 1873.^[8]

In a letter to The Times in 1902, Admiral Cochrane wrote about attending the enthronement festivities of King Louis Philippe I of the French in Paris in 1830, being present at the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, and the (at that point) recent Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra earlier the same year.^[9]

Cochrane was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and promoted to Knight Commander (KCB) in the 1889 Birthday Honours.^[10]