A Naval Biographical Dictionary/White, John (a)
WHITE. (Retired Commander, 1645. f-p., 19; h-p., 34.)
John White (a) entered the Navy, 17 Jan. 1794, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Active frigate, commanded in the Channel by the late Sir Edm. Nagle. In the following Aug., having removed with that officer to the Artois of 44 guns and 281 men, he assisted at the destruction, off the Penmarcks, of a French frigate. La Volontaire, and two corvettes, L’Espion and L’Alert; and on 21 Oct. in the same year he took part in an action of 40 minutes which terminated in the surrender, with a loss to the Artois of 3 killed and 5 wounded, of La Révolutionnaire, of 44 guns and 351 men, 8 of whom were killed and 5 wounded. He accompanied the expedition sent in 1795 to Quiberon Bay in support of the French royalists; and he continued otherwise actively employed in the Artois until wrecked on a sand-bank off Rochelle 31 July, 1797. He served afterwards, on the Home station, in the Pallas 32, Capt. Hon. Henry Curzon, Doris 36, Capt. Lord Viscount Ranelagh, Sylph 18, Capt. Chas. Dashwood, and Immortalité 36, Capt. Hon. Henry Hotham; and on 26 April, 1800, he was made Lieutenant into the Wilhelmina troop-ship, Capt. Jas. Lind, whom we find him accompanying to the Red Sea on a mission hostile to the French. He returned home in 1802 in the Romney 50, Capt. Sir Home Popham; and was subsequently appointed – in 1803-4-6, to the Jalouse 18, Capt. Christopher Strachey, Madras 54, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg, and Lively 38, Capt. Graham Eden Hamond, all in the Mediterranean – 30 May in the year last mentioned, to the Vesuvius bomb, Capt. Jas. Lillicrap, in the Channel – 22 Sept. 1806, to the command of the Ignition, on the same station – in Jan. 1807, to the Diomede 50, as Flag-Lieutenant, off Guernsey, to his former Captain, then Rear-Admiral, Sir E. Nagle – in Oct. 1808, to the acting-command, which he retained until the ensuing Dec, of the Albacore sloop, in the Channel – 4 Feb. 1809, for a short time, to the Sea Fencible service at Deal – and 28 Jan. 1811 and 8 March, 1813, to the Boyne 98 and Ville de Paris 110, flagships of Sir E. Nagle in the Channel. In Feb. 1814 he left the Ville de Paris. He was placed on the Junior List of Retired Commanders 23 Jan. 1832; and on the Senior 8 Jan. 1845.
Commander White is at present Vice-Consul at Chili. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.