John Perkins (died 27 January 1812), nicknamed Jack Punch, was a British Royal Navy officer. Perkins was perhaps the first mixed race commissioned officer in the Royal Navy. He rose from obscurity to be a successful ship's captain in the Georgian Royal 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-Français and sentenced to death for supplying the rebel slaves with weapons.
After his rescue he was promoted commander in 1797 and then post-captain in 1800. Perkins went on to cause an international incident with Denmark when he fired on two of their ships during peacetime. Toward the end of his career he participated in the capture of the islands of Saint Eustatia and Saba from the French. Perkins also attacked a 74-gun ship-of-the-line with a 32-gun frigate.
Early life and career
John Perkins was probably born in Kingston, Jamaica in the middle of the 18th century. Very little is known of his birth or early life. One account written 30 years after his death described him as of mixed race. At the time in the colonial West Indies, mixed-race people typically became slaves like their black parent. But occasionally a mixed-race son of a prominent white man was acknowledged by his father and given an education to prepare him for a clerical or administrative career; this may have been the case with Perkins.
In 1775 Perkins first appears in the records of the Royal Navy when he was appointed to the 50-gun , the flagship of the commander-in-chief of the Jamaica station as an extra pilot. "His knowledge of the different ports, &C. in the West Indies was, perhaps, seldom equalled, and never surpassed."
In 1778 he was placed in command of the schooner Punch, a ship probably armed with ten 2 or 4-pounder guns, though no detailed records survive. At this time he received his nickname Jack Punch, most probably earned because of the name of his command. During the next two years Perkins claimed to have captured 315 ships, an average of three per week, a claim that was later endorsed by the Jamaican House of Assembly.
Admiral Sir Peter Parker, and subsequent admirals, used Perkins in clandestine missions against the French at Cap-Français, a province on the north coast of Saint-Domingue, and the Spanish in Havana, Cuba. Parker eventually commissioned Perkins as a lieutenant and gave him command of . The 12-gun Endeavour was an American-built schooner with a keel of 60 feet and beam of 20. Governor Archibald Campbell stated in a letter of recommendation that "By the gallant exertions of this officer some hundred vessels were taken, burnt, or destroyed, and above three thousand men added to the list of prisoners of war in favour of Britain; in short, the character and conduct of Captain Perkins were not less admired by his superior officers in Jamaica, than respected by those of the enemy."
In 1782 Perkins captured a much larger vessel containing several important French officers. The commander of the Jamaica station, Admiral George Rodney, promoted Perkins to master and commander of Endeavour, and added two guns to her raising her armament to fourteen guns, thus putting her on the official Navy List as a sloop-of-war. Rodney's promotion of Perkins was disallowed. Rodney wrote later to Philip Stephens, First Secretary to the Admiralty, in an attempt to confirm the promotion. "I must therefore desire you will please represent to their Lordships, that on my arrival at Jamaica, I found Mr. Perkins lieutenant and commander of the Endeavour schooner – that he bore an excellent character, and had done great service." Despite his request Perkins was demoted back to the rank of lieutenant and the guns ordered to be removed. At the end of the American War of Independence he was "on the beach" (meaning that he was without a posting on a ship) as a half-pay lieutenant.
For several years between 1783 and 1790 Perkins disappeared from the books of the Royal Navy. It may be during this time that he turned to piracy as there is a French source and several English records that describe him as such.
In 1790, fifteen years after he had first joined the navy, Perkins made an application to the Jamaican House of Assembly for their assistance in achieving his promotion. After presenting his certificates to the assembly, the assembly investigated Perkins' claim and resolved to make an application to the Admiralty for his promotion to post-captain.