I'M IN CHARGE HERE!

The regular wombat couldn't make it, so you answer to ME today. Pop quiz! You're playing today for the chance to get your lady (or gent) jacked up on cheap champagne and let the good times all roll out. One guess per post, but as many posts as you want. Ready? Here we go:

In 1794, Britain and France were at war for the umpteenth time. In the West Indies, a civilian British captain of a private ship was unlucky enough to be moored in a town known as Point-a-Pitre just as it was taken by the French. He was taken aboard a French ship, questioned, and identified himself as John Anderson, a trader. The French imprisoned him immediately on their ship, suspecting (correctly) he was someone other than who he said. This 53 year-old man assumed (correctly) that he was going to be executed, so he pried up several floorboards in his cabin, constructed a small raft, lowered himself out the window, and hand-paddled to a nearby rowboat. He muffled the oars therein with some of his own clothing, and silently made his way past several French ships, thence to safety on a British naval ship moored off another part of the island.

Who was this British captain?

As usual, no googling, no searching eBay for a copy of the game Broadside.