After becoming second-in-command of the East Indies and China Station, he commanded the British squadron in the action with Chinese pirates at the Battle of Fatshan Creek when he sank around 100 enemy war-junks.

He joined the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth as a cadet in February 1822,[1] and was appointed a midshipman in the sixth-rate HMS Tweed on the Cape of Good Hope Station.

[3] He was deployed in operations in support of the liberal forces of Maria Christina, the Regent of Spain at the time of the minority of Isabella II, who had faced a revolt by Carlos, Count of Molina.

The raid was successful but a Portuguese soldier, Roque Barrache, died in the skirmish, three others were injured, and the daughter of a gaoler fell 20 feet to the ground, suffering severe injuries.

The Queen of Portugal was appalled at Britain's affront to her de facto sovereignty over Macao and tempers cooled only after an apology proffered and reparations made by the British.

[3] When the Crimean War broke out on 1854, HMS St Jean d'Acre formed part of the Baltic Fleet and the ship was deployed to the Black Sea.

[3] HMS Raleigh was lost on an uncharted rock near Hong Kong, and, although Keppel was subsequently court-martialed, he was honourably acquitted for the loss of the ship.

[3] Promoted to rear admiral on 22 August 1857,[11] he was appointed a Groom in Waiting to the Queen on 24 September 1859[12] and became Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, with his flag in the frigate HMS Forte, in May 1860.

[15] Promoted to full admiral on 12 July 1869[16] and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 20 May 1871,[17] he took up his last command when he became Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in November 1872.