# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/White, Peter

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​WHITE. (Lieutenant, 1812. f-p., 28; h-p., 26.)
Peter White was born 1 Aug. 1785.
This officer entered the Navy, 16 July, 1793, on board the Latona 38, Capt. Edw. Thornbrough. In her he assisted at the capture, 27 Nov. following, of La Blonde corvette of 24 guns, and was present in Lord Howe’s action 1 June, 1794. While attached next, from 21 of the latter month until 3 July, 1802, to the Defence 74, Capts. Jas. Gambier, Thos. Wells, Wm. Brown, John Peyton, Thos. Stephenson, and Lord Henry Paulet, he served in the Channel and off Cadiz, fought in Hotham’s second partial action, and at the battle of the Nile, accompanied the expedition of 1801 to Copenhagen, and made a voyage to the West Indies. He saw much boat-service likewise on the coasts of France and Spain. After he left the Defence he joined in succession – 9 Nov. 1802, the Dryad 36, Capts. Thos. Williams and Wm. Domett, stationed in the Channel and on the coast of Ireland – 22 June, 1803, the Prince of Wales 98, flag-ship of Sir Robt. Calder at the blockade of Brest and on the coast of Spain – 2 Aug. 1804, the Wolf sloop, Capt. Hon. John Astley Bennet, employed in affording protection to the trade on the coasts of Spain and Portugal – 25 March, 1805, and 28 Sept. 1806, the Narcissus 32 and Ardent 64, Capts. Ross Donnelly and Edwin Henry Chamberlayne, on the Cape of Good Hope and South American stations – and, 15 Dec. 1807, as Master’s Mate (a rating he had for a period held in the two ships last mentioned), the Sultan 74, Capts. Edw. Griffith and John West. While detached on one occasion in a privateer, Le Prudent, a prize to the Narcissus, he was taken by a French squadron under M. Willaumez, and placed on board La Patriote 74, from which ship however he effected his escape in the Bay of St. Salvador, by opening the quarter lower-deck port and swimming to a pinnace astern. In Feb. 1807, being then Acting-Lieutenant of the Ardent, he landed in command of a party of seamen for the purpose of assisting in a 6-gun breaching battery at the siege of Monte Video. In the Sultan Mr. White united with a squadron under Rear-Admiral Geo. Martin in the pursuit which led to the destruction, in Oct. 1809, of the French ships-of-the-line Robuste and Lion near Cape Cette. He participated also in many boat-affairs in the Gulf of Genoa and along the coast of Italy; where in the early part of 1810 he was in command of the launch when she had 1 man killed and several wounded. In Dec. 1811 he had charge of a boat in an attack made upon three French vessels, Le Castor of 10 guns and 53 men, La Languedocienne of 6 guns and 33 men, and La Rose of 16 guns and 120 men, about at the time to enter the port of Bastia. The Rose escaped, but the two others were boarded and taken. For the conduct he displayed on the occasion Mr. White subsequently received from Lord Exmouth an order to act as Lieutenant. In May, 1812, he landed with a party of seamen and marines and destroyed a large dépôt of timber belonging to the French government up one of the Corsican rivers. In Oct. 1812 (he had been promoted by the Admiralty 16 July in that year) he removed from the Sultan to the Bustard sloop, Capt. Chas. Burrough Strong. He returned to England in the following Dec.: and was appointed afterwards, 11 Aug. 1813, for nine ​months, to the Devonshire 74, Capt. Ross Donnelly, lying at Sheerness – 14 Jan. 1815, as Senior, to the Plover sloop, Capt. John Skekell, with whom he served until Nov. 1816, at Newfoundland, along the shores of Labrador, and on other parts of the coast of North America – 15 April, 1824, to the Coast Blockade, in which he remained as a Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Ramillies 74, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, until Nov. 1825 – and 23 Nov. 1829, to the charge of the Semaphore station on Chatley Heath, near Cohham, in Surrey. The latter appointment he retained until 23 Nov. 1834.
Lieut. White is at present Deputy-Dock-Master in the service of the East and West India Dock Company. He married, first, 17 Aug. 1817, Mary, daughter of Jeremiah Russell, Esq., Master R.N. (1805); and (that lady dying 21 Feb. 1838) secondly, 11 Sept. 1841, Maria, widow of Mr. Wm. Jeeves, Builder, of Hitchin, Herts. By his former marriage he had issue two sons and four daughters. His eldest son died second officer of the West Indian at Jamaica 6 May, 1841.