Royal Naval Biography/Boyle, Courtenay
HON. COURTENAY BOYLE.
One of the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty’s Navy; and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
[Retired Captain.]
This officer is the third son of Edmund, seventh Earl of Cork ami Orrery, by his first Countess, Anne, daughter of Kelland Courtenay, Esq. and niece to John, fourth Earl of Sandwich.
He was born Sept. 3, 1769, and entered the naval service Feb. 19, 1781, as a Midshipman, on board the Latona frigate, commanded by the late Sir Hyde Parker, in this ship he witnessed the action between the squadron under the command of his Captain’s veteran father, and that of Holland under Admiral Zoutman[1]; some time after which he had the misfortune to fall from the booms into the orlop, and was obliged to go on shore for his recovery. He subsequently joined the Goliah 74, and remained in that vessel until April 8th, 1783, when he was sent to the Naval College at Portsmouth, where he continued until March 1784; at which period he re-commenced his professional career, under the auspices of the great Nelson, in the Boreas frigate, and sailed in her to the West Indies, from whence he returned to England in the summer of 1787.
The Boreas having been put out of commission, Mr. Boyle was received, at the recommendation of Captain Nelson, on board the Barfleur 98, bearing Lord Hood’s flag; and in that ship he continued until the 25th Nov. 1788, when he was removed into the Leander 50, the flag-ship of Admiral Peyton, by whom, on the 5th June 1789, he was appointed to act as Lieutenant in the Aquilon frigate, on the Mediterranean station. He subsequently served in the same capacity on board the Vanguard 74, and was at length confirmed in that rank and appointed to the Roebuck, a 44 on two decks.
At the commencement of the war against revolutionary France, in 1793, we find Mr. Boyle fourth Lieutenant of the Egmont, of 74 guns, commanded by the late Sir Archibald Dixon, This ship, after fitting at Plymouth, proceeded with the squadron under Rear-Admiral Gell, to convoy the East India fleet to a certain latitude; and then cruised between the Western Isles and the coast of Spain. On the 14th April, the squadron captured the General Dumourier, French Privateer of 22 guns and 196 men, and retook the St. Jago register ship, her prize, which, after a tedious litigation, was condemned, when the captors shared largely, each of the Lieutenants receiving 1,400l.[2]
On the 27th of the following month, Lord Hood, then at Gibraltar, appointed Lieutenant Boyle to the Fox cutter, and charged him with despatches for the Admiralty. Our officer afterwards served in the Excellent and Saturn ships of the line j and in the spring of 1795, accompanied Commodore Payne in the Jupiter of 50 guns, to bring over H.S.H. the Princess Caroline of Brunswick from Cuxhaven. On his return from that service, he was promoted, April 1795, to the rank of Commander; and during the month of October following, obtained an appointment to the Kangaroo, a new brig of 18 guns, in which he cruised with considerable success against the enemy’s privateers and other armed vessels on the Lisbon and Irish stations. He obtained post rank. June 30th, 1797.
From this period until the beginning of the ensuing year, Captain Boyle remained on half-pay. He was then appointed to the Hyaena, of 24 guns, and served in her off Cherbourg, St. Maloes, and the Isle of Bas, until March 1799, when he was obliged to resign his ship in consequence of the injury he had sustained from being thrown out of a carriage, when about to sail for Lisbon.
His next appointment was, in the ensuing month of June, to the Cormorant, of 24 guns; in which;ship, after being for some time in attendance upon the royal family at Weymouth, he was sent to the Mediterranean, and on the passage out captured a Spanish brig of 14 guns and 87 men, and retook an English West Indiaman. On the 20th May, 1800, the Cormorant was wrecked off Damietta, on the coast; of Egypt, when on her way to Alexandria, with despatches from Lord Keith to Sir W. Sidney Smith, containing the ratification of the treaty of El Arish. Contrary to the usages of war, Captain Boyle was kept in close confinement for nearly three months, during which period the French General Menou, into whose power he had fallen, treated him in the most savage manner, telling him that he must consider himself as an hostage for the safety of Bodot, who had been an aide-de-camp to Buonaparte, and was then in the hands of the Grand Vizier.
Having at length recovered his liberty, Captain Boyle joined Sir W. Sidney Smith at Cyprus, and from thence went to Minorca, where a court martial assembled, Nov. 17th, 1800, to inquire into the circumstances by which the loss of the Cormorant was occasioned. The court were unanimously of opinion, that it arose from an error in the reckoning, occasioned by the great incorrectness of the charts, and that the conduct and exertions of Captain Boyle, were highly meritorious and exemplary on the unfortunate occasion; and did therefore adjudge him to be fully acquitted of all blame.
From this period, our officer remained unemployed till the spring of 1803, when he was appointed to the Seahorse frigate, and ordered to the Mediterranean, where he was most actively employed under the immortal Nelson, during a most important part of his Lordship’s command on that station. In the summer of 1805, Captain Boyle exchanged into the Amphitrite, a Spanish prize frigate, and returned to England. His last appointment afloat was May 31, 1806, to the Royal William, bearing the flag of the Port Admiral at Spithead, the command of which ship he retained until the month of June, 1809, when he succeeded the late Captain Towry as a Commissioner of Transports. The controul of the dock-yard at Sheerness was confided to him in the summer of 1814; and some time after he was appointed, by an order in council, to superintend the bringing up of the arrears of the accounts left unaudited by the Transport Board at the time of its dissolution. He has recently obtained a seat at the Navy Board.
Commissioner Boyle married, in 1J99, Caroline Amelia, daughter of the late William Poyntz, of Midgham House, co. Berks, Esq. His son is a Lieutenant R.N.