Captain John Perkins (died 27 January 1812), nicknamed Jack Punch, was a Royal Navy officer who served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The first Black officer in the British navy, he rose from obscurity to enjoy a successful naval career in which he captured at least 315 enemy ships.
Later in his career, Perkins acted as a spy for the Royal Navy and undertook missions to Cuba and Saint-Domingue. At the start of the Haitian Revolution, he was captured in Cap-Français and sentenced to death for supplying the rebel slaves with weapons, but British pressure forced French colonial authorities to release him.
After his rescue, he was promoted to commander in 1797 and then to captain in 1800. Perkins went on to cause an international incident with Denmark when he fired on two Danish warships during peacetime. Toward the end of his career, Perkins participated in the capture of the islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba from the French. He resigned from the British navy in 1804 and settled down in Jamaica where he died in 1812.
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 HMS Antelope, 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 Endeavour on 25 February 1782. 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's claim and resolved to make an application to the Admiralty for his promotion to post-captain.
In 1790, Perkins volunteered once more and served under Admiral Philip Affleck. For several years there is no record that he held an official command but in 1792, Captain Thomas McNamara Russell of the 32-gun frigate HMS Diana, on a relief mission to the authorities on Saint-Domingue, was informed that a British officer was under arrest and due to be executed in Jérémie for supplying arms to the rebel slaves. Officially, Britain and France were not at war and Russell requested that Perkins be released. The French authorities promised that he would be and then later refused. After numerous letters had been exchanged, Russell determined that the French had no intention to release Perkins. Russell sailed around Cap-Français to Jérémie and met with the 12-gun HMS Ferret under Captain Nowell. It was agreed that Nowell's first lieutenant, an officer named Godby, would go ashore and recover Perkins while the two ships remained offshore within cannon shot, ready to land an invasion force if need be. Lieutenant Godby landed and, after negotiations, Perkins was released. Perkins then disappears once more from the records for a short time.
In September 1793, Perkins returned to the books of the Navy. Perkins is listed as commanding HMS Spitfire, a 4-gun schooner. He accompanied Commodore John Ford's squadron when the British, at the request of French Royalists, mounted a campaign against Saint-Domingue. On arrival, Ford's squadron captured, amongst other vessels, a schooner belonging to the French Navy named Convention Nationale. She was renamed HMS Marie Antoinette and Ford gave command of her to Perkins. Ford described Perkins as "an Officer of Zeal, Vigilance and Activity." In 1794, Marie Antoinette made up part of the squadron commanded by the newly promoted Rear Admiral Ford that accompanied Brigadier General John Whyte that briefly captured Port-au-Prince. At the time, some forty-five vessels lay in harbour and these were all captured. In 1796, Marie Antoinette made up part of a small squadron that captured the schooner Charlotte and brig Sally. Perkins remained with her until he was promoted to master and commander.
The circumstances of his promotion are unrecorded, but in 1797, Admiral Hyde Parker promoted Perkins to commander of HMS Drake, a brig of 14 guns. Subsequently, HMS Drake, in company with a squadron under Captain Hugh Pigot, consisting of the 32-gun frigates HMS Hermione and HMS Quebec, and the cutter HMS Penelope, were involved in the cutting out of eight enemy ships at Port-de-Paix on 20 April 1797. On 25 October 1798, Drake captured the French privateer La Favorite. The prize money for Perkins (amounting to 2/8 of the total value of the vessel) was 53 pounds, 13 shillings and 9 pence. In inflation-adjusted terms, this would be approximately £5,800 as of 2026.
In Drake, in company with Solebay, Captain Poyntz, Perkins captured four French corvettes, the 18-gun Egyptienne, the 16-gun Eole, the 12-gun Levrier and the 8-gun Vengeur on 24 November 1799 off Cape Tiburon.
Perkins was promoted on 6 September 1800 to captain in the 32-gun frigate HMS Meleager. In early 1801, Perkins moved to the 22-gun HMS Arab.
In March 1801, Arab, in company with the 18-gun British privateer Experiment, caught and challenged two Danish vessels, the brig Lougen, under the command of Captain Carl Wilhelm Jessen, and the schooner Den Aarvaagne (The Vigilant). Arab approached the two Danish vessels and, according to Danish accounts, without warning, fired several broadsides at Lougen before the Danish ship was able to return fire. Lougen, which had escaped serious damage, began to return fire steadily. Experiment initially attempted to capture Aarvaagne, but Aarvaagne obeyed orders to stay out of the fight and instead escaped south to Christiansted on St Croix with its intelligence on British actions. Experiment then joined Arab in the attack on Lougen, with the two British ships sandwiching the Danish ship. During the engagement, which lasted for over an hour, one of Lougen's shots struck the Arab's cathead and loosed the bower anchor. (Perkins reported that it was the first shot from Lougen that loosed the bower anchor.) Arab's crew was unable to cut the anchor free, leaving Arab unable to manoeuvre effectively. This allowed Jessen to steer a course that brought him under the protection of the shore batteries and then into St Thomas. Captain Jessen of the Lougen was awarded a presentation sword made of gold, a medal and 400 rixdollars (the equivalent of a whole year's salary for a Captain in the Danish Navy) by the Danish government for his actions.