# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wight, John

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​WIGHT. (Vice-Admiral of the White, 1846.)
John Wight, born about 1776 at Eyemouth, co. Berwick, is son of the late Geo. Wight, Esq., Purser and Paymaster R.N. (1793), who afterwards assumed the name of White; and half-brother of Retired Commander Geo. White, R.N. His mother was a first cousin of Admiral Schanck.
This officer entered the Navy, 7 April, 1789, under the auspices of Admiral Schanck, on board the Culloden 74, Capt. Collins, lying at Plymouth. In 1791 he removed as Midshipman to the Trial cutter, Lieut.-Commander Malbon; and in 1793, after having served with Sir John Thos. Duckworth in the Orion 74, on the Home, West India, and North American stations, he joined the Rose frigate, Capt. Edw. Riou. During the operations of March, 1794, against Martinique, he landed and for six days had charge of a 3-gun battery on Pointe Carriere, within less than 300 yards of Fort Louis; the works of which place he was subsequently, when at the head of a division of seamen, one of the foremost to storm, under Capt. Jonathan Faulknor. As a reward for his gallant conduct he was received by Sir John Jervis on board his own flag-ship the Boyne 98. On his recovery from a severe attack of yellow fever he landed at Guadeloupe with a party of seamen attached to the army under Sir Chas. Grey, and was often engaged with the Republican troops under Victor Hugues. After the evacuation of Grande Terre, the Boyne having proceeded to the relief of Fort Matilda, Mr. Wight was sent on shore at night in the jolly-boat with an officer bearing despatches from Sir C. Grey to General Prescott, who commanded the garrison, and with whom he succeeded in communicating, but not until he had been obliged to run the gauntlet through the enemy. In acknowledgment of his services, which had already been of a distinguished character, he was nominated by Sir John Jervis, in the following Nov., Acting-Lieutenant of the Beaulieu frigate, commanded by his former Captain, Riou; under whom we find him contributing to the destruction of a French store-ship, mounting 24 guns, and laden with military stores, after an action of two hours, with the battery at St. François, Guadeloupe. Removing, 25 June, 1795, again as Acting-Lieutenant, to L’Aimable 32, Capt. Jemmet Mainwaring, and continuing to serve in that ship on the West India station, he was afforded an opportunity of participating, 22 July, 1796, in a gallant conflict of an hour and three quarters (renewed on the following morning for half-an-hour), with the French frigate La Pensée, of 44 guns and 400 men, who in the end made off, with a loss to herself, according to Mr. James, of 90 killed and wounded, and to L’Aimable of only 2 wounded. While in close action with the enemy Mr. Wight, as well as his Captain, was knocked down by the hammocks, &c., set in motion by the enemy’s shot, but he fortunately sustained no material injury. He was confirmed a Lieutenant, 8 Sept. 1796, into the Ariadne 28, Capt. Henry Lidgbird Ball; and towards the close of the same year he returned to England; experiencing during the passage such tempestuous weather that it was found necessary to throw all the guns overboard. After two or three months of half-pay he was again, 20 June, 1797, placed under the command of Capt. Riou in the Augusta yacht. From her, as she had borne the Admiralty flag on the occasion of George III.’s intended visit to the victorious fleet under Admiral Duncan at the Nore, he was promoted to the rank of Commander 3 Jan. 1798. Capt. Wight’s next appointment was, under the Transport Board, to the Admiral Devries, a Dutch 68-gun ship, armée en flûte, in which he embarked 400 of the Irish rebels at Cork and Waterford, and proceeded with them under a detachment of the 60th Regiment to Martinique. Two dreadful explosions took place on the voyage, but his presence of mind enabled him to subdue the fire. The Admiral Devries being found defective he was removed, at Jamaica, to the London transport, and ordered to convey troops to Savanna la Mer, where he received on board a party of the York Hussars for a passage to England. About this period he was again attacked by the yellow fever. He had scarcely recovered when the London sprang a leak under the chess-trees, about four feet beneath the water-line, and was with difficulty kept afloat until she reached Port Royal, where she was discharged from the service. On his return to England Capt. Wight declined an appointment to a frigate under the Transport Board, not wishing to continue in that line of service, and he did not in consequence go afloat again until July, 1800; on 16 of which month he obtained command of the Wolverene, a brig fitted so that, if necessary, she could fight all her guns on one side. On 19 of the ensuing month, accompanied by two gun-brigs and a cutter, he forced two French sloops to seek refuge under two batteries in the Bay of Grand Camp, which he then attacked, while his boats, under Lieut. John Gregory, boarded and set fire to the largest vessel lying aground within half-pistol shot of the beach, on which were posted 200 men with muskets, and 3 field-pieces. The other sloop was so much cut up by the Wolverene’s shot that she was unable to proceed on her voyage. On this occasion Capt. Wight, upon the refusal of his pilot to do so, had placed the Wolverene within pistol-shot of the enemy’s works, and so close, indeed, to the shore that her keel was a few inches only from the ground. Four of the enemy were killed on the beach, but the British escaped without any loss, beyond having 3 men shattered by an explosion on board one of the sloops. In Sept. 1800 the Wolverene captured a vessel laden with naval stores near Havre; and on 4 Nov. she drove a cutter on shore to the westward of Cape Barfleur. During a tremendous storm that took place five days later she struck upon the Goodwin Sands, but, forcing her way into the North Sea, reached Yarmouth in safety. Passing over a very gallant exploit performed by her boats, under Lieut. Gregory, up the river Seine 5 May, 1801, we find her, on 15 June in the same year, driving a sloop on shore under two batteries near St. Valery; and in a few days afterwards offering battle to a powerful division of the French flotilla. Having further signalized himself by his intrepidity in different encounters with the enemy, particularly on one occasion, when he alone attacked and was for nearly an hour engaged with the batteries and with 36 sail of brigs, luggers, and other armed vessels at Havre, Capt. Wight was advanced, 29 April, 1802, to Post-rank. His last appointment was, 7 May, 1805, to the Cleopatra 32, on the North American station, where he made many valuable captures, and continued actively employed until ill-health at length obliged him to return to England. He was placed upon the list of Retired Rear-Admirals 10 Jan. 1837; transferred to the Active List 17 Aug. 1840; and elevated to his present rank 9 Nov. 1846.
In 1824 Vice-Admiral Wight (who was for some ​time a Commissioner of Roads and Bridges at Teignmouth in Devon) invented a rudder “for the more easy and safe conducting all classes of H.M. ships and those in the Merchants’ service.” He married a daughter of his patron, Admiral Schanck, and was left a widower in 1812 with three sons and one daughter.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1800, pp. 951-2.
* ↑ Capt. Wight’s conduct in this affair obtained the high approval of the Admiralty.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1800, p. 1257.
* ↑ For the description of a small vessel, the Lady Nelson, named “His Majesty’s Tinder-box,” fitted with sliding keels, and constructed under the superintendence of Admiral Schanck and Capt. Wight, upon an improved plan, suggested by those officers jointly, we refer our readers to Grant’s ‘Narrative of a Voyage of discovery (to the southern hemisphere) performed in H.M. vessel the Lady Nelson, of 60 tons burthen,’ published, in 1803, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Near Cape Danger there is a tract of land named after Vice-Admiral Wight.