A Naval Biographical Dictionary/McCoy, Robert
M‘COY. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 20; h-p., 33.)
Robert M‘Coy is son of Daniel M‘Coy, Esq., Master R.N. (1788), who died in April, 1835, at Southsea, aged 75.
This officer entered the Navy, in Nov. 1794, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Hannibal 74, Capt. John Colpoys, attached to the force in the Channel, whence, in 1794, he sailed for the West Indies in the Ganges 74, Capt. Wm. Truscott. Quitting that ship in June, 1795, he next, between 1797 and Oct. 1801, served on the Home and Mediterranean stations as Midshipman in the Juste 80 Capt. Hon. Thos. Pakenham, Royal William, bearing the flag of Sir Peter Parker, Snake sloop, Capt. John Mason Lewis, Pearl 32, Capt. Sam. Jas. Ballard, and Foudroyant 80, flag-ship of Lord Keith, under whom he took part in the operations connected with the expedition to Egypt. Being confirmed a Lieutenant (after having acted for six months as such in the West Indies on board the Defence 74, Capt. Lord Henry Paulet) by commission dated 3 July, 1802, Mr. M‘Coy was subsequently appointed in that capacity – 22 Nov. 1803, to the Raisonnable 64, Capts. Wm. Hotham, Robt. Barton, Chas. Malcolm, and Josias Rowley, in which ship, prior to serving on shore at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope, he fought in Sir Robert Calder’s action 22 July, 1805 – in Feb. 1806, to the Narcissus 32, Capt. Ross Donnelly, under whom he witnessed the fall of Buenos Ayres – 17 July, 1807 (after nine months of half-pay), to the Resolution 74, Capts. Geo. Burlton and Temple Hardy, part of the force employed in 1809 at the destruction of the French shipping in Basque Roads and at the capture of Flushing – 14 Aug. 1811, to the Swiftsure 74, Capts. T. Hardy, Andrew King, Wm. Stewart, Jeremiah Coghlan, and Edw. Stirling Dickson, stationed in the Mediterranean, where he shared in one of Sir Edw. Pellew’s partial actions with the Toulon fleet – and, 16 July, 1814, to the Tremendous 74, Capt. Robt. Campbell. In the following Nov. Mr. M‘Coy, who had been altogether upwards of seven years First-Lieutenant of the Narcissus, Resolution, Swiftsure, and Tremendous, took up a Commander’s commission dated 15 of the previous June. With the exception of an appointment held in the Coast Guard from 6 April, 1831, until the commencement of 1834, he has since been on half-pay.
His only daughter is the wife of Capt. W. L. Castle, R.N.