Nathaniel Day Cochrane was a British naval

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 officer. He was the son of Hon. John Cochrane, third son of Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald

Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald

Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald was a nobleman, army officer and politician.Thomas was born in 1691, the seventh son of William Cochrane of Ochiltree, and his wife Lady Mary Bruce, eldest daughter of Alexander Bruce, 2nd Earl of Kincardine...

. Nathaniel had a sister, Angelica, and two brothers, Colonel James Johnson Cochrane of the 3rd Guards and John Cochrane, an Attorney-at-Law in Madras, India.

Nathaniel Day Cochrane entered the Navy in 1784 and received a promotion to Lieutenant in 1800. In 1805 he was promoted Commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 and assumed command of HMS Kingfisher

HMS Kingfisher (1804)

HMS Kingfisher was a Royal Navy 18-gun Merlin-class ship sloop, built by John King and launched in 1804 at Dover. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, first in the Caribbean and then in the Mediterranean before being broken up in 11816.-Caribbean:Kingfisher was commissioned under Commander...

. While on the West Indies Station he captured several vessels before bringing news to Sir John Thomas Duckworth

John Thomas Duckworth

Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1st Baronet, GCB was a British naval officer, serving during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as the Governor of Newfoundland during the War of 1812, and a member of the British House of Commons during his...

's squadron that three French ships of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 had been sighted sailing towards Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

. He was posted with date of seniority of 26 March 1806, on his return to England with the news of the Battle of San Domingo

Battle of San Domingo

The Battle of San Domingo, in 1806, was a naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars. French and British squadrons of ships of the line met off the southern coast of the French-occupied Spanish Colony of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean...

. He subsequently commanded the frigates and on the North Sea and Cape of Good Hope stations.

In 1812 he took command of the 74-gun third-rate

Third-rate

In the British Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks . Years of experience proved that the third rate ships embodied the best compromise between sailing ability , firepower, and cost...

 ship of the line HMS Asia

HMS Asia (1811)

HMS Asia was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 December 1811 at Frindsbury.In 1828 Asia was reduced to a 50-gun ship, and was eventually broken up in 1865....

, and remained her commander until 1814. He finished his career as a Rear Admiral of the Blue. Admiral Cochrane died in November 1844.