[1] In Barbados, Cochrane met with General Francisco de Miranda, who had been defeated by Spanish naval forces in an attempt to liberate Venezuela.

As Spain was then at war with Britain, Cochrane and the governor of Trinidad agreed to provide some support for an unsuccessful second attempt to invade Venezuela.

[citation needed] Following the concern in Britain that neutral Denmark was entering an alliance with Napoleon, Cochrane, now a rear admiral, in 1807 sailed in HMS Belleisle (74 guns) as commander of the squadron of ships that were sent to occupy the Danish West Indies.

[12] He landed the force under Major-General Robert Ross that burned Washington and pushed successful naval forays at the same time.

[14] Cochrane approved the plan proposed by Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet to attack Washington, after the latter predicted that "within a short period of time, with enough force, we could easily have at our mercy the capital".

[17] It was aboard Cochrane's flagship, HMS Tonnant, near the mouth of the Potomac on 7 September 1814 that Francis Scott Key and Colonel John Skinner pleaded for and got the release of Doctor William Beanes, a civilian who had been taken prisoner in Upper Marlboro after withdrawing from the assault on Washington.

The next day Key, Skinner and Beanes were transferred to the frigate HMS Surprise, with their truce vessel in tow, as the fleet slowly moved up the Chesapeake toward Baltimore.

Major General Robert Ross was killed by sniper fire in a skirmish that afternoon before the Battle of North Point.

Cochrane transferred his flag to HMS Surprise to facilitate moving up the Patapsco River to direct the 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry outside Baltimore (13 and 14 September), which proved ineffectual.

He ordered a diversionary raid by boats, around 1am on the 14th, to assist the army encamped near Baltimore in their proposed attack on Hampstead Hill (which they cancelled and withdrew), but this diversion had no success.

In the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Cochrane's fleet used bomb vessels and a rocket ship for a long-range bombardment to minimize casualties and damage to the fleet from the fort's return fire, which inspired Francis Scott Key's poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner", the US national anthem.

[clarification needed] In a eulogy to General Edward Pakenham (Wellington's brother-in-law, killed at New Orleans), he said: I cannot but regret that he was ever employed on such a service or with such a colleague.

The Americans were prepared with an army in a fortified position which still would have been carried, if the duties of others, that is of the Admiral (Sir Alexander Cochrane), had been as well performed as that of he whom we now lament.

[1] His son Thomas John Cochrane was entered in the Royal Navy at the age of seven; he rose to become governor of the colony of Newfoundland, and Admiral of the Fleet; he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Bath.

The next brother, Charles, served in the army and was killed at the Siege of Yorktown; he had married to Catherine, the daughter of Major John Pitcairn.