First going to sea, for the East India Company, in 1772, he entered the navy in September 1774, as able seaman on board the sloop Hunter on the coast of Ireland and afterwards on the North America station.

The order to send him to Paris, signed by Robespierre and other members of the committee of public safety, was dated 13 Prairial (1 June), the very day of Lord Howe's victory.

While engaged on this service he had opportunities of learning that Trinidad was very insufficiently garrisoned; and after the reduction of the revolted islands he suggested to the commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian, the possibility of capturing it by an unexpected attack.

Of four ships of the line which were there, only half manned and incapable of defence, the Spaniards burnt three; Wood was appointed, by acting order, to command the fourth, and sent home with convoy.

The French ship proved to be a merchantman, which Wood took possession of and utilised, together with a small vessel which he built of the timber of the wreck, to carry his men and stores to the Cape.

In April 1802 he was appointed to the 40-gun HMS Acasta, which, on the renewal of the war in 1803, was attached to the fleet off Brest and in the Bay of Biscay under Admiral (Sir) William Cornwallis.

In November 1804 the Acasta was sent out to the West Indies in charge of convoy, and there Sir John Thomas Duckworth, wishing to return to England in her, superseded Wood and appointed his own captain.

Public opinion, however, ran strongly in favour of Wood, and he was at once appointed to Uranie, from which, a few months later, he was moved into HMS Latona, again attached to the fleet off Brest, and again sent with convoy to the West Indies, where in January 1807 he was second in command under (Sir) Charles Brisbane at the reduction of Curaçao — a service for which a gold medal was awarded to the several captains engaged.

The affair gave rise to much talk; Lord Keith was directed to inquire into it, and as his report was indecisive, the question was referred to a court-martial, which, after hearing much technical evidence—as to bearings, distances, and times—pronounced that Wood had been too hasty in tacking from the enemy, and that he ought to have taken steps at once to ascertain what the two strange ships were; but also, that his fault was due to "erroneous impressions at the time, and not from any want of zeal for the good of his majesty's service."

That the sentence was merely an admonition which left no slur on Wood's character is evident from the fact that he remained in command of Pompée — sent to join Lord Exmouth's flag in the Mediterranean — till November 1815.