A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Boyack, Alexander
BOYACK. (Lieut., 1804. f-p., 19; h-p., 33.)
Alexander Boyack entered the Navy, 18 April, 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Ambuscade 82, Capt. Geo. Duff, attached to the fleet in the North Sea; served, from March, 1796, to Sept. 1801, (in June of which year he passed his examination,) as Midshipman, under the same officer and Capt. John Talbot, in the Glenmore 36, employed on the former and Irish stations; and then proceeded with Capt. Duff, in the Vengeance 74, to the West Indies, where Rear-Admiral John Thos. Duckworth promoted him, from the Leviathan 74, to be Acting-Lieutenant of the Theseus 74, Capt. John Bligh, 23 June, 1802. After participating in the chase of Le Duquesne 74, and Oiseau schooner (both ultimately captured) – in the cutting out also of from 12 to 15 merchant vessels at Jeremie and Aux Cayes, St. Domingo – and in the reduction of Port Dauphin, where Fort Labouque was silenced, the guns brought off, and La Sagesse, of 28 guns, taken, Mr. Boyack was detached, in command of a prize schooner, Les Deux Amis, with orders to “sink, burn, and destroy” everything hostile that fell in his way. Before, however, he had captured more than one vessel, he was sent home with prisoners in charge of the Mars transport, where, soon after his arrival, he received, 3 May, 1804, an Admiralty commission appointing him to the Warrior 74, Capt. Wm. Bligh, engaged in blockading the Rochefort squadron. He next, on 6 March, 1805, joined the Prospero bomb, Capt. Jones, employed in watching the Boulogne flotilla, but was removed on 21 May following to the command of the Dove cutter, in which, on 5 Aug. in the same year, he had the misfortune to be captured, while on his passage to Malta, by La Gloire French frigate. He remained in painful captivity from that period until the general exchange in 1814; since which period he has not been employed.