Royal Naval Biography/Edge, William
WILLIAM EDGE, Esq
A Captain of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich.
[Retired Captain.]
This officer was made a Commander into the Alert, a French brig taken at Toulon, and fitted by the British as a fire-vessel. At the evacuation of that place by the allied forces, the important service of covering the retreat of Sir W. Sidney Smith’s party was confided to Captain Edge, who brought off every man of the different guards and detached parties[1].
The Alert being destroyed on this occasion, Captain Edge was afterwards appointed to the Vulcan fire-ship; and on his return to England, removed into the Prince George of 98 guns, in which vessel he was present at the discomfiture of the French fleet, off l’Orient, June 23, 1795[2]. On the 29th of the same month, he obtained the rank of Post-Captain; from which period we lose sight of him until the establishment of Sea Fencibles in the spring of 1798, when he was appointed to the command of the district between Harwich and Yarmouth, having his residence at South wold. Early in 1809, he succeeded the present Lientenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, as one of the Captains of that establishment; and continuing to hold that appointment, was passed over in the general promotion that took place on the 4th June, 1814.