Facts: - other names: thomas johnson - honorific prefix: captain - known for: smuggler ; naval warfare - caption: a 1834 , taken from the frontispiece of '' scenes and sketch stories by a clergyman in debt : written during his of confinement in the debtors ' prisons '' by frederic william thomas naylor bayley . johnstone , dated 10 december - birth name: thomas johnstone - death date: march 1839 - birth date: 1772 - name: thomas johnstone - nationality: british - image: thomas johnstone 1834.png - birth place: lymington , hampshire , england Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of thomas johnstone .
A:
thomas johnstone -lrb- sometimes called tom johnson -rrb- -lrb- 1772 -- 1839 -rrb- was an english sailor , smuggler and admiralty saboteur .he was commonly known as '' johnstone the smuggler '' or '' the hampshire smuggler '' .writing in 1823 biographer john brown described johnstone as a real-life rob roy .johnstone began smuggling aged 15 , fought against the french in the napoleonic wars as a privateer , operated as a british double agent and led teams of divers to plant explosives on enemy shipping and fortifications .he also commanded both hmc '' fox '' -lrb- a revenue cutter -rrb- and the first practical submarine , '' nautilus '' .in 1798 he was imprisoned at the new prison in clerkenwell , london , for smuggling but escaped soon after .further periods of imprisonment followed in france , holland , and fleet debtors ' prison .johnstone managed to escape confinement on each occasion and the 1823 publication '' the historical gallery of criminal portraitures , foreign and domestic '' reported : '' no prison has yet been found strong enough to hold him . ''in 1820 , johnstone was allegedly recruited by french agents to rescue napoleon bonaparte from st. helena .the operation involved using a submarine to pick up napoleon from near the shore and then transferring him to a waiting sail boat for onward transport to the united states .napoleon died before the plan was put into effect .