Peter Rainier (Royal Navy officer, born 1784)

Captain Peter Rainier CB (24 August 1784 – 13 April 1836) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Due to the patronage of his uncle, Vice-admiral Peter Rainier, he was promoted quickly through the ranks so that by the age of twenty Rainier was already a post-captain. He was given command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Caroline and in the action of 18 October 1806 captured the 36-gun Dutch frigate Maria Reijersbergen off Batavia.

Rainier captured the Spanish treasure ship San Rafael in January 1807 off the Philippines, which had on board £500,000 worth of bullion coin. He left Caroline later in the year and received his next command, the 38-gun frigate HMS Niger, in June 1813. Commanding Niger, Rainier participated in the capture of the 44-gun French frigate Ceres off the Cape Verde Islands in January 1814. He left Niger at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and did not receive another command until 1831 when Rainier was given command of the 120-gun ship of the line HMS Britannia, in which he served in the Mediterranean Fleet until 1835. Rainier died on April 1836 in Southampton after a short illness.