| rdfs:comment | - Thomas Johnstone (sometimes called Tom Johnson) (1772 – 1839), commonly known as Johnstone the Smuggler or the Hampshire Smuggler, was a British sailor, smuggler and Admiralty saboteur. 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 (a Revenue Cutter) and the first practical submarine, Nautilus.
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| abstract | - Thomas Johnstone (sometimes called Tom Johnson) (1772 – 1839), commonly known as Johnstone the Smuggler or the Hampshire Smuggler, was a British sailor, smuggler and Admiralty saboteur. 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 (a Revenue Cutter) 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.
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