A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Gourly, John
GOURLY. (Captain, 1817. f-p., so; h-p., 36.)
John Gourly entered the Navy, 17 Feb. 1781, as Ordinary, on board the Belle Poule 38, Capt. Philip Patton, and on 5 of the following Aug., after having assisted, in company with the Berwick 74, at the capture of the Cologne French privateer, of 32 guns and 215 men, commanded by the famous Luke Ryan, was present in Sir Hyde Parker’s action with Admiral Zoutman, off the Dogger Bank. In Nov. 1782 he removed to the Scipio, Capts. Mann and Fitzgerald, on the Home station, where, and in the West Indies, he was further employed during the peace, as A.B., Midshipman, and Master’s Mate, in the Dictator 64, Capt. Wm. Parker, Elizabeth 74, Capt. Bourmaster, Goliath 74, Capt. Arch. Dickson, Chichester, Capt. Chas. Craven, Victory 100, flagship of Lord Hood, Bedford 74, Capt. Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, and Duke 98, Capt. Geo. Murray. At the commencement of the war in 1793 he sailed for the Mediterranean in the Alcide 74, Capt. Robt. Linzee; shortly after his re-transference from which ship to the Victory, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, by commission dated 13 Sept. in the same year, and sent to command a floating battery, mounting 4 long 24-pounders and a 10-inch howitzer, stationed above all the shipping in the N.W. arm of the harbour of Toulon. He then opened his fire upon a neighbouring encampment, and with so much effect, that the enemy, in order to get rid of him, threw up three field-batteries, and continued to cannonade the vessel, until, having received about 40 shot under water, and more than 60 above, she went down with her colours nailed to the head of her tottering mast. After cruizing in command of the Vigilant, of 10 guns, and co-operating in the reduction of St. Fiorenza and Calvi, Mr. Gourly joined the Britannia 100, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Wm. Hotham, by whom, on 8 Nov. 1794, he was invested with the command of the Vanneau armed-brig, recently captured from the French, and employed in carrying despatches to various parts of Italy. In June, 1796, when Buonaparte took possession of Leghorn, the Lieutenant contributed by his exertions to the rescue of the British Factory, with property of considerable value; and on 10 of the following month he witnessed the surrender of Porto Ferrajo, in Elba, to the forces under Commodore Nelson and Major Duncan, R.A., the latter of whom had sailed from Corsica under the protection of the Vanneau. He also, in the ensuing Sept., bore an important part in the capture of the island of Capraja, where his zeal and intelligence rendered him most conspicuous. The Vanneau being shortly afterwards wrecked on a sunken and previously unknown rock, near Porto Ferrajo, Mr. Gourly was next appointed, in March, 1797, to L’Aurore, Capt. Geo. Clarke, from which vessel, lying at Gibraltar, he was speedily removed to the command of the Thunder bomb. In July of the same year we find him earning the commendations of Sir Horatio Nelson by the effectiveness of his aid at two consecutive bombardments of Cadiz. He invalided home about the close of the year, but after a few months of relaxation was appointed, 27 June, 1798, to the Fortitude, we believe a prison-ship at Portsmouth, the charge of which he retained until April, 1802. While next in command, from 5 April, 1803, until Jan. 1805, of the Mary tender, Mr. Gourly was presented by the owners of some Greenland ships, resident at Leith, with a gold watch, for the care with which he had attended to them on their voyage outward; and on one occasion he was treated in the most handsome and flattering manner by the Dutch Admiral Verdroon, in compliment to the seamanship and perseverance he had exhibited in entering the Nieuwe Diep, under circumstances of the greatest difficulty and danger. On leaving the Mary he joined the Texel, bearing the flag in the North Sea of Rear-Admiral Jas. Vashon, to whom, on 13 Sept. 1806, he became Signal-Lieutenant. Returning, about the end of 1807, to the Mediterranean in the Trident 64, Capt. Campbell, Mr. Gourly, on the arrival of that ship at Malta, was sent by the Governor, Sir Alex. Ball, to the coast of Barbary, in command of the Tuscan brig. On his return from that mission he received, dated 14 Sept. 1808, an Admiralty commission promoting him to the command of the San Juan, formerly a Spanish 74, then lying at Gibraltar, without guns and with only men enough for a single boat’s crew belonging to her. On 9 Nov. 1808 Capt. Gourly removed to the Acting-Captaincy of the Atlas 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral John Child Purvis, whom he assisted in equipping the Spanish men-of-war at Cadiz, and in removing them out of the reach of the invading French army. In March, 1809, he went back to Gibraltar, where he soon completed the crew of the San Juan, and also fitted out a small frigate for the Emperor of Morocco. He further undertook the superintendence of the dockyard, the victualling office, and other naval establishments on the rock; restored 20 decayed gun-vessels to a serviceable state; and, indeed, did all that the most indefatigable exertions could accomplish. His health obliging him to invalid in June, 1810, he remained on half-pay from that period until Feb. 1812. He then, acting under the orders of the Admiralty, raised for the service about 200 men and boys from among those employed in the Scotch fisheries; and he afterwards, from 16 Sept. 1814 until paid off, 2 Sept. 1815, commanded the Pelorus 18, on the coast of Ireland. He acquired Post-rank 1 Jan. 1817, and accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
A short time previous to his junction of the Pelorus, Capt. Gourly elicited the encomiums of the civil authorities of Aberdeenshire for the aid he had rendered in the suppression of two very serious riots. He published in 1838 a work ‘On the great Evils of Impressment.’ His only son, Lieut. John Gourly, R.N., was drowned, 18 Dec. 1815, while endeavouring to save the life of a boy in Loch End, near Edinburgh.