Page "William Brown (admiral)" Paragraph 5

During the Napoleonic wars, Brown is said to have escaped the galley, and scuttled the ship however, the French, not believing he had assisted them, took him prisoner and sent him to Lorient.

On being transferred to Metz, he succeeded in escaping disguised in a French officer's uniform.

He was recaptured, however, and then imprisoned in the fortress of Verdun.

From there, in 1809, he escaped in the company of a British colonel named Clutchwell and eventually reached German territory.