Career
Catherine II of Russia drew on the experience of British naval personnel through the networking in London of the British Ambassador in Saint St. Petersburg from 1769 to 1771, Lieutenant-General Charles Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart. The vanity of Count Orlov, who having no experience at naval warfare, tried to minimise the importance of the support of the British admirals led him to resign his post, and he returned home at the end of the war against the Turks. Russian naval history, however, tells that he did not resign by his own choice but rather was put out of command after his ship-of-line, Svyatoslav, sat on the reef and was subsequently burned after six-days efforts to move her.
The pilot for this unhappy and not approved by Orlov raid was British and Elphinstone"s protegee, court-martialled and sentenced to death later, but somehow managed to escape and flee.
Elphinstone himself never was sentenced, but was dismissed from the service and had to return home. His memoirs were understandably biased after that and met with harsh reprimand from Yekaterina The Great, who went even to calling him a madman.
Later, John Elphinstone held several further commands, including the 74-gun HMS Magnificent during Admiral Sir George Rodney"s West Indian Campaign of 1779-1780. There is no mention of his role in the catching of Louisiana Havane in 1762.