Martin White (Royal Navy officer)

Canada and Alexander were returning from escort duty when they encountered a French squadron under Joseph-Marie Nielly consisting of five 74-gun ships of the line, three frigates, and a brig.

Having gained his freedom White was appointed in 1796 to Topaze, which successfully engaged and captured the 36-gun French frigate Elizabeth.

White is known to have performed surveys on Pigmy while blockading the ports of Le Havre, St Malo, and Granville.

However, she ran aground on the River Ems on the eastern border of East Frisia in January 1806 due poor navigation by the pilot.

[1] White was unemployed for a short while in 1812,[6]: 74  before later in that year being assigned the 16-ton vessel Fox[Notes 2] for survey work around Jersey.

[8] Captain White worked with Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré mapping the coast of France and is mentioned in the French Maritime Atlas.

[9] His promotion to Admiral may post retirement may have been for the purposes of increasing his pension, though when he died in 1865 three years after his wife he left a relatively small personal estate of £200.

His daughter Ellen Elisabeth, who had acted as secretary for him without remuneration, and remained a spinster, came into financial difficulties and was helped by Sir John Le Couteur arranging an annuity from the Royal Naval Annuitant Society.