Sir Courtenay Boyle, KCH was an officer of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars.
15 Facts About Courtenay Boyle
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Courtenay Boyle was born in 1770, the 3rd but 2nd surviving son of Edmund Boyle, 7th Earl of Cork by his first wife Anne Courtenay, second daughter and co-heiress of Kellond Courtenay of Painsford in the parish of Ashprington in Devon, a niece of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.
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Courtenay Boyle was a relative of Commodore Robert Boyle, who died in a hurricane off Jamaica while commanding a squadron dispatched to the West Indies.
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Courtenay Boyle was sent to cruise off the Texel and Coruna for the protection of English packets, where he destroyed several row-boats.
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Courtenay Boyle captured a French privateer of eight guns and 48 men, and the 14-gun Spanish lugger Purisima Concepcion.
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Shortly before the French expedition to Ireland in support of the Irish patriots, the Kangaroo was driven by bad weather into Bantry Bay, and had soon after sighted a French fleet, which Courtenay Boyle believed to consist from nineteen to twenty-two sail.
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Contrary to the usages of war, Captain Courtenay Boyle was kept in close confinement for nearly three months.
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Courtenay Boyle was frequently chased away by the French ships, but carried out his duties.
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Courtenay Boyle sailed to communicate the news that the French had put to sea to Lord Nelson, who was lying at anchor north of Sardinia.
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On 4 May 1805, while cruising off the southern Spanish coast, Courtenay Boyle received intelligence that a Spanish convoy, chiefly laden on government account with gunpowder for the gun-boats at Malaga, Ceuta and Algeciras, was upon the coast.
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Courtenay Boyle then kept close along the Spanish coast, and at 2 pm the convoy was sighted from the mast-head of the Seahorse.
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Courtenay Boyle observed that the Spanish vessels hauled into San Pedro, an anchorage to the eastward of Cape de Gata, under the protection of a fort and several schooners and mortar launches.
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Courtenay Boyle then sent his first lieutenant, George Downie, and other men of his crew in a cutter to board the vessels.
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Courtenay Boyle was promoted to rear-admiral on the retired list on 22 July 1830, but in 1840 was restored to the active list, and was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral of the red in November 1841.
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In 1825 Courtenay Boyle was a director of the New Zealand Company, a venture chaired by the wealthy John George Lambton, Whig MP, that made the first attempt to colonise New Zealand.