John Perkins (Royal Navy Officer) (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Captain John Perkins, Royal Navy (d. 27 January 1812) was a British naval officer. Perkins, nicknamed Jack Punch, was the first black commissioned officer in the Royal Navy. He rose from obscurity to be one of the most successful ship captains of the Georgian navy. He captained a 10-gun schooner during the American War of Independence and in a two year period captured at least 315 enemy ships. Later in his career Perkins acted for the navy as a spy and undertook missions to Cuba and Saint Domingue (modern day Haiti). At the start of the slave revolt in Saint Domingue he was captured in Cap-Fran ois and sentenced to death for supplying the rebel slave army with weapons. After his rescue he was promoted commander in 1797 and then to post-captain in 1800. Perkins went on to cause an international incident with the Danish when he fired on two of their ships during peacetime.