In February, 1799, our officer was appointed to the Canada, of 74 guns, attached to the Channel fleet, one of the ships sent on an expedition against Quiberon in the summer of 1800[1].
On the 10th April, 1801, the Canada was off the Black Rocks, when the Mars carried away her head, bowsprit, foremast, main-top-mast, and main-yard, by running foul of the Centaur. Captain De Courcy immediately took the disabled ship in tow; but the wind blowing hard from the northward, right on the shore, and the Canada’s top-sails being blown to rags, he was obliged to cut the hawser, determined however to remain by the Mars to the last extremity. That fine vessel was nearing the shore very fast, and Captain De Courcy had made preparations for taking out her officers and men, when the wind suddenly lulled, and shifted to E.N.E., by which providential change, and getting up a sail on the stump of the fore-mast, she was enabled to gain an offing, and the Canada succeeded in towing her safe into Plymouth, where she arrived ten days after the accident. At the conclusion of the war, our officer commanded the Namur, a second rate.
Soon after the renewal of hostilities, in 1803, Captain De Courcy was appointed to the Plantagenet, a 74-gun ship built without a poop, on a plan suggested by Lord Gambier[2]. After cruizing some time on the coast of Ireland, he convoyed the outward bound East India fleet to St. Helena; and on his return from thence with several China ships under his protection, was presented by the Court of Directors with 500 guineas, for the purchase of a piece of plate.
On the 28th Nov. 1804, he commissioned the St. George of 98 guns, at Plymouth; and soon after proceeded in her to the Jamaica station, where he continued until promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, Nov. 9, 1805. Early in 1808, we find him, with his flag in the Tonnant, 80, accompanying Sir John T. Duckworth to the West Indies and coast of America, in chace of a French squadron; which, however, eluded the vigilance of its pursuers, who anchored in Cawsand bay on the 18th April, after traversing upwards of 13,000 miles.
In January, 1809, Rear-Admiral De Courcy commanded the squadron that covered the embarkation of the ill-fated
