Royal Naval Biography/Whitaker, Thomas
THOMAS WHITAKER, Esq.
[Commander.]
Lost the sight of an eye while serving as midshipman, occasioned, we have been told, by a biscuit thrown at him while skylarking in the cockpit berth of a 74. He obtained the rank of lieutenant on the 22d Dec. 1809; was fourth of the Kent 74, Captain Thomas Rogers, in one or two slight skirmishes with the Toulon fleet, in 1812; and lost a gallant messmate. Lieutenant Robert Watson, while engaged with the enemy at Ciotat, near Marseilles, June 1st in that year. The Kent having been paid off in Jan. 1813, he was appointed, Sept. 16th following, to the Queen 74, Captain Lord Colville. His commission as commander bears date June 13th, 1815.