Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key, (18 January 1821 – 3 March 1888) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado in November 1845 during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata and took part at the Battle of Bomarsund in August 1854 and the Bombardment of Sveaborg in August 1855 during the Crimean War. He also went ashore with the naval brigade to take part in the Battle of Canton in December 1857 during the Second Opium War. He later commanded a specially-formed Baltic Fleet created in February 1878 to intimidate Russia from entering Constantinople during the closing stages of the Russo-Turkish War. He became First Naval Lord in August 1879 in which role he was primarily interested in administration and technology rather than strategy: he kept the cost of running the Navy within budgets, sanctioned the construction of six s and ensured the Navy was properly prepared for the Panjdeh Incident in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory at Panjdeh. Early career Astley Cooper Key was the son of Charles Aston Key, a well-known surgeon, and Anne Key (née Cooper). His father was a pupil of the pioneering surgeon Astley Cooper. Key joined the Royal Navy in August 1833. After initial training at the Royal Navy College at Portsmouth, he spent his early career in the third-rate in the Mediterranean Fleet and then, from 1839, in the sixth-rate on the North America and West Indies Station. Promoted to lieutenant on 22 December 1842, Key was posted to the fifth-rate on the South America Station. In February 1844 he transferred to the steam frigate HMS Gorgon and was in acting command of the schooner HMS Fanny at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado in November 1845 during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata. Promoted to commander on 18 November 1845, he was given command of the paddle sloop in the Mediterranean Fleet in May 1847. Promoted to captain on 11 October 1850, he then took command of the steam frigate in November 1853 and saw service in the Crimean War. In May 1854, HMS Amphion and the steam screw frigate captured the town of Liepāja, a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, in Latvia without a shot being fired. He also took part at the Battle of Bomarsund in August 1854 and the Bombardment