John Chambers White
Encyclopedia
Vice Admiral
Sir John Chambers White, KCB
(c. 1770–2 April 1845) was a prominent British Royal Navy
officer of the early nineteenth century, who participated in a number of engagements during the Napoleonic Wars
. He achieved most of his fame in the late 1790s as the commander of HMS Sylph, a small brig operating in Northern European waters. White was able to capture a number of equivalent French, Spanish and Dutch vessels and on one occasion was instrumental in the destruction of a much larger French frigate by a British squadron. In 1798 he was with the squadron that discovered the French invasion attempt on Ireland and acted as a messenger in the campaign to destroy the invasion force that ended at the Battle of Tory Island
. He was later flag captain for Sir John Borlase Warren and participated at the Action of 13 March 1806
and the destruction of the Regulus in 1814. After the war, White largely retired, but retained several shore appointments and rose to the rank of vice-admiral.
merchant Henry White and his wife Eve Van Cortlandt. Henry White was a member of the New York City Council
and President of the New York Chamber of Commerce
in 1772-73. The Whites were ardent Loyalists
during the American Revolutionary War
, and in 1783 the family was forced to abandon their home in New York and move to London
. John White joined the Royal Navy soon afterwards. In 1790 he was promoted to lieutenant and served in the French Revolutionary Wars
, becoming commander of the brig
HMS Sylph in 1795.
Sylph was a highly successful cruiser in home waters, capturing the Dutch brig Mercury and the French privateer Phoenix in 1796, assisted in the destruction of the French frigate
Calliope at the Action of 16 July 1797 and attacked Sable d'Olonne in August. In 1798, White seized six French, Spanish and American ships in the Bay of Biscay
, and during October participated in the opening stages of the Battle of Tory Island
. In 1799, White was rewarded with promotion to post captain and was given command of the ship of the line
HMS Renown
, flagship of his former squadron commander Sir John Borlase Warren
. Renown served in the Mediaterranean, and in 1801 fought an engagement against the defences of Porto Ferrajo.
In 1803, Renown was attached to the blockade of Toulon
, and the following year Warren and White were transferred to the ship of the line HMS Foudroyant
in Britain, later assigned to find and defeat the French squadrons in the Atlantic during the Atlantic campaign of 1806
. These squadrons could not be found, but Foudroyant was engaged at the successful Action of 13 March 1806
, when a separate French squadron was defeated and captured. In 1810, White took command of the first rate HMS Hibernia
under Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, sailing for the Mediterranean, where he took command of HMS Centaur
off Toulon. In 1811 he assisted the Spanish defenders at the first Siege of Tarragona
and subsequently involved in the destruction of the Regulus in 1814.
After the war, White left active service but continued to advance in rank, becoming a rear-admiral in 1830 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1841, by which time he was a vice-admiral. He served as superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard
and in January 1844 was made Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, dying suddenly the following year. His first wife had died in 1809 and he was survived by his second, Charlotte Elizabeth and their son Henry Dalrymple White.
Vice Admiral (Royal Navy)
Vice admiral is a flag officer rank of the British Royal Navy. It equates to the NATO rank code OF-8 and is immediately superior to rear admiral and is subordinate to the full admiral rank.The Royal Navy has had vice admirals since at least the 16th century...
Sir John Chambers White, KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(c. 1770–2 April 1845) was a prominent British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
officer of the early nineteenth century, who participated in a number of engagements during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He achieved most of his fame in the late 1790s as the commander of HMS Sylph, a small brig operating in Northern European waters. White was able to capture a number of equivalent French, Spanish and Dutch vessels and on one occasion was instrumental in the destruction of a much larger French frigate by a British squadron. In 1798 he was with the squadron that discovered the French invasion attempt on Ireland and acted as a messenger in the campaign to destroy the invasion force that ended at the Battle of Tory Island
Battle of Tory Island
The Battle of Tory Island, was a naval action of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 12 October 1798 between French and British squadrons off the northwest coast of Donegal, then in the Kingdom of Ireland...
. He was later flag captain for Sir John Borlase Warren and participated at the Action of 13 March 1806
Action of 13 March 1806
The Action of 13 March 1806 was a naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought when a British and a French squadron met unexpectedly in the mid-Atlantic. Neither force was aware of the presence of the other prior to the encounter and were participating in separate campaigns...
and the destruction of the Regulus in 1814. After the war, White largely retired, but retained several shore appointments and rose to the rank of vice-admiral.
Life
White was born in approximately 1770, the son of wealthy New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
merchant Henry White and his wife Eve Van Cortlandt. Henry White was a member of the New York City Council
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
and President of the New York Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York
The New York Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1768 by twenty New York City merchants, was the first commercial organization of its kind in the country. Attracting the participation of a number of New York's most influential business leaders, such as John Jacob Astor, Peter Cooper, and J...
in 1772-73. The Whites were ardent Loyalists
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, and in 1783 the family was forced to abandon their home in New York and move to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. John White joined the Royal Navy soon afterwards. In 1790 he was promoted to lieutenant and served in the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
, becoming commander of the brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
HMS Sylph in 1795.
Sylph was a highly successful cruiser in home waters, capturing the Dutch brig Mercury and the French privateer Phoenix in 1796, assisted in the destruction of the French frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
Calliope at the Action of 16 July 1797 and attacked Sable d'Olonne in August. In 1798, White seized six French, Spanish and American ships in the Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...
, and during October participated in the opening stages of the Battle of Tory Island
Battle of Tory Island
The Battle of Tory Island, was a naval action of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 12 October 1798 between French and British squadrons off the northwest coast of Donegal, then in the Kingdom of Ireland...
. In 1799, White was rewarded with promotion to post captain and was given command of the ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
HMS Renown
HMS Renown (1798)
HMS Renown was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was to have been named HMS Royal Oak, but the name was changed to Renown on 15 February 1796....
, flagship of his former squadron commander Sir John Borlase Warren
John Borlase Warren
Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet , was an English admiral, politician and diplomat. Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, he was the son and heir of John Borlase Warren of Stapleford and Little Marlow...
. Renown served in the Mediaterranean, and in 1801 fought an engagement against the defences of Porto Ferrajo.
In 1803, Renown was attached to the blockade of Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, and the following year Warren and White were transferred to the ship of the line HMS Foudroyant
HMS Foudroyant (1798)
HMS Foudroyant was an 80-gun third rate of the Royal Navy. She was built at Plymouth Dockyard and launched on 31 March 1798.Goodwin gives the launch date for Foudroyant as 31 March, 25 May, and 31 August. The text highlights this discrepancy and attributes the August date to Lyon's Sailing Navy...
in Britain, later assigned to find and defeat the French squadrons in the Atlantic during the Atlantic campaign of 1806
Atlantic campaign of 1806
The Atlantic campaign of 1806 was a complicated series of manoeuveres and counter-manoeuveres conducted by squadrons of the French Navy and the British Royal Navy across the Atlantic Ocean during the spring and summer of 1806, as part of the Napoleonic Wars...
. These squadrons could not be found, but Foudroyant was engaged at the successful Action of 13 March 1806
Action of 13 March 1806
The Action of 13 March 1806 was a naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought when a British and a French squadron met unexpectedly in the mid-Atlantic. Neither force was aware of the presence of the other prior to the encounter and were participating in separate campaigns...
, when a separate French squadron was defeated and captured. In 1810, White took command of the first rate HMS Hibernia
HMS Hibernia (1804)
HMS Hibernia was a 110-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Plymouth dockyard on 17 November 1804, and was the only ship built to her draught, designed by Sir John Henslow....
under Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, sailing for the Mediterranean, where he took command of HMS Centaur
HMS Centaur (1797)
HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting...
off Toulon. In 1811 he assisted the Spanish defenders at the first Siege of Tarragona
Siege of Tarragona (1811)
In the Siege of Tarragona from 5 May to 29 June 1811, Louis Gabriel Suchet's French Army of Aragon laid siege to a Spanish garrison led by Lieutenant General Juan Senen de Contreras. A British naval squadron commanded by Admiral Edward Codrington harassed the French besiegers with cannon fire and...
and subsequently involved in the destruction of the Regulus in 1814.
After the war, White left active service but continued to advance in rank, becoming a rear-admiral in 1830 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1841, by which time he was a vice-admiral. He served as superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard founded by King Henry VIII in 1512 to build his flagship Henri Grâce à Dieu , the largest ship of its day....
and in January 1844 was made Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, dying suddenly the following year. His first wife had died in 1809 and he was survived by his second, Charlotte Elizabeth and their son Henry Dalrymple White.