Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/267

CURRY. Maitland – and 25 June, 1833, and 16 Feb. 1834, of the 50, and  52, Capts. Sir Geo. Augustus Westphal and Jas. Scott, employed in North America and the West Indies. Commander Currie, who, for some months in 1831, had held the acting command of the sloop at Jamaica, obtained his second promotal commission 7 Aug. 1835. . His last appointment was, 18 March, 1836, to the Second-Captaincy of the 80, Capt. Hon. Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie, fitting for the Mediterranean, from which ship he was superseded 1 Sept. following. – J. Hinxman.

 CURRY. 

, born at Gorlston, North Yarmouth, is second son of

This officer entered the Royal Naval College 6 Feb. 1823. He embarked in Dec. 1824, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 18, Capts. Hon. Chas. Abbot (now Lord Colchester) and Lewis Davies; and while afterwards cruizing, as Midshipman, in the Archipelago, witnessed several encounters with piratical vessels, on one of which occasions the boat he was in suffered a loss of 1 man killed and 2 wounded. Participating, next, in the battle of Navarin, 20 Oct. 1827, Mr. Curry on that day took command of the ’s pinnace, and sustained a severe fracture of both bones of the right leg while in the act of boarding a Turkish fire-vessel, which blew up with destructive effect, killing or wounding all around. In consequence of this disaster he was unfortunately confined for many months, first to Malta and then to Haslar Hospital. He then, however, joined the 74, Capt. Hon. Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie, in the Mediterranean; and passing his examination on his return to England, 12 June, 1829, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, by commission dated the same day. He was subsequently appointed – 17 Aug. 1830, to the 28, Capt. Sir John Franklin, again in the Mediterranean – 7 May and 25 June, 1834, to the  24, Capt. Jas. Tomkinson, and, as First, to the 28, Capt. Follett Walrond Pennell, on the Home and South American stations – and, 18 Nov. 1837, also as Senior, to the  36, Capt. Edw. Boxer, in which frigate he sailed for North America and the West Indies, and ultimately returned to the Mediterranean. During the operations of 1840 on the coast of Syria, Mr. Curry commanded the ’s boats, and assisted in destroying the guns on the ramparts of Caiffa 17 Sept. – was spoken of in the highest terms for his conduct in levelling the approach to the town of Tsour, on the occasion of its capture, 25 Sept. – and afterwards (Capt. Boxer being otherwise employed) carried the into action at St. Jean d’Acre. For these services he was promoted to the rank of Commander on 4 Nov. in the same year, and appointed, 15 Dec. following, Second-Captain of the 72, Capt. John Lawrence, which ship he paid off 8 Feb. 1842. He obtained an Inspectorship in the Coast-Guard 24 March, 1843, and from 31 Jan. 1846, until the attainment of his present rank, which took place on 9 Nov. in the same year, commanded the 12, in the Mediterranean.

Capt. Curry, who possesses a certificate of his ability in the art of steam-navigation, has been in the receipt, since June, 1829, of a pension for his wounds of 91l. 5s. He married, 9 Feb. 1843, Mary Ann, only child of the late Chas. F. H. Rowe, Esq., of Willicote, near Stratford-on-Avon, co. Warwick, and was left a widower, 1 Jan. 1844.

 CURRY, C.B.

, born in 1772, is son of the late Thos. Curry, Esq., of Gosport, Hants, for more than years a zealous and active Magistrate for that county; and cousin of the late Capt. Jonathan Faulknor, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, 22 March, 1780, as Captain’s Servant, on board the 24, Capt. Robt. Biggs, from which vessel he was discharged 2 April, 1782. Re-embarking, 12 Aug. 1786, on board the 74, Capt. Archibald Dickson, guard-ship at Portsmouth, he afterwards served on the Mediterranean, Halifax, West India, and Home stations, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate in the  38, Capt. Geo. Dawson, troop-ship, Lieut.-Commander Joseph Hanwell,  100, and  98, flagships of Hon. Sam. Barrington and of Rear-Admiral Faulknor, 32, Capt. Patrick Sinclair, and, of 38 guns and 192 men, commanded by his relative Capt Jonathan Faulknor. While in the, we find Mr. Curry, in Feb. 1793, conducting into port L’Elizabeth, the second privateer captured during the war; and on his removal to the , taking part, 27 May following, in a very severe action of two hours and a half (the third fought with the republicans at sea) which terminated in the separation of the combatants, after a loss to the British frigate of 2 killed and 20 wounded, and to the Frenchman (the Semillante, of 40 guns and 300 men) of 12 killed and 20 wounded. Obtaining his first commission 14 March, 1794, he soon accompanied Capt. Faulknor into the 38, and on 23 Aug. in the same year he witnessed the apparent destruction, near the Penmarcks, by a squadron under Sir Edw. Pellew, of the 36-gun frigate Volontaire, and corvettes Espoir and Alert. After serving for three years and a half, latterly as First-Lieutenant, on board the 80, flag-ship in the Channel of Lord Hugh Seymour, he was ultimately promoted, 30 Nov. 1798, to the command of the  bomb. In that vessel he appears to have taken a very conspicuous share in the expedition to Holland in 1799, during which he bombarded a military post near the Holder Point – covered the landing of the army under Sir Ralph Abercromby – accompanied Vice-Admiral Mitchell’s flotilla to the Zuyder Zee – co-operated with Capt. Wm. Carthew in removing a large quantity of naval stores from Medenblik, the dockyard at which place and two frigates were burnt – and was the last but one to quit the Texel on its evacuation. On afterwards repairing to the Mediterranean, Capt. Curry, early in March, 1801, joined in the hostilities then commencing against the French in Egypt. After assisting at the debarkation of the troops, he bombarded and reduced the castle of Aboukir, on 8 of that month, by which event 12 guns and 190 of the enemy fell into the hands of the British. On 19 April, with a division of gunboats under his orders, he further contributed to the surrender, at the close of a siege of three days, of the castle of Jullien, although defended by 15 pieces of cannon and a garrison of nearly 400 men. Ascending the Nile, he subsequently, on 9 May, commanded a force of four flats and three launches in an action of six hours with the enemy’s forts at Rahmanieh, the eventual capture of which, after occasioning the British a loss of 4 men killed and 7 wounded, cut off all communication between the French armies at Grand Cairo and Alexandria, secured the command of the Nile, and contributed in a great degree to the final expulsion of the enemy from the country. For these services Capt. Curry was presented by the Capitan Pacha with several pieces of rich silk stuff, embroidered with gold in various patterns, and, as a mark of particular distinction, he received from the Grand Vizier a handsome pelisse of camel’s hair lined with rich fur. On the capitulation of Grand Cairo, towards the close of June, a few days previously to which he had constructed a bridge for the passage of the army across the Nile, Capt. Curry was sent in his cutter down that river with the intelligence to Lord Keith, then in Aboukir Bay. In consequence of the strong recommendations of which he was the bearer, he was immediately ordered home with the despatches; and on his arrival at the Admiralty he was awarded the sum of 500l., usually given on such occasions. Having rejoined the in the Mediterranean,