Henry Bryne (c1741-80)

Henry Bryne managed to secure the command of two frigates during the American Revolutionary War but lost his life in the Great Hurricanes of 1780 before having an opportunity to attain distinction.

Byrne was born in Buckden, Huntingdonshire to another Henry Bryne (possibly a prosperous brewer) and Ann Ireland. He was one of four surviving children; his three sisters all made good marriages, and one of his nephews was Major-General Sir Robert Sale, famous for his involvement in the First Afghan War.

Following employment in the merchant marine, Bryne was commissioned lieutenant on 14 September 1762 and in July 1763 he was appointed a junior lieutenant of Dreadnought 60, Captain Thomas Lee. In October the ship sailed for Jamaica carrying Rear-Admiral Sir William Burnaby, the newly- appointed commander-in-chief of that station. The Dreadnought, presumably with Bryne still aboard, was paid off three years later.

Captain Bryne was present at the Battle of Ushant in 1778

Despite the fact the country was at peace, Bryne was promoted commander of the sloop Pomona 18 on 21 January 1771, serving out of Lough Swilly in home waters. In July his command joined a squadron that undertook a cruise and practised evolutions in the Channel, and during April 1773 she went out to Gibraltar with dispatches. Bryne was ordered to inspect the state of the French fleet at Toulon and of the Spanish fleet at Cartagena, reporting that neither force seemed ready for sea. The Pomona returned to Portsmouth in July after an 8-day passage from Gibraltar, and she was paid off in August.

With trouble in the American colonies looming, Bryne was reappointed to the Pomona in January 1775. In April She sailed from Portsmouth bound for North America with a number of Army officers. Contrary winds soon forced her back, and when she did depart at the end of the month, her destination was changed to the West Indies.

On 20 November 1775 at the age of 34, he was posted captain of the frigate Hind 28 by Vice-Admiral James Young in the Leeward Islands. His first days in command were unpromising, since he was briefly a virtual prisoner aboard his vessel at Antigua to avoid legal actions arising from the impressment of local men serving in local privateers. During the early summer of 1776, having been dispatched to St. Augustine, Georgia, Bryne sent boats into the Sunbury River to destroy two vessels on the stocks, being built to serve as privateers against British shipping.

On 2 March 1777, whilst cruising on the North American coast, the Hind engaged a rebel privateer (later identified as the Bay of Fundy privateer, Sweepstakes) which, despite being faster than Bryne’s frigate, lay to and awaited her. The Hind lost her mizzen topmast to the enemy’s opening broadside, but after trading further broadsides the American suffered the worst of the engagement and set sail. A running fight developed with the privateer gradually drawing away, until she suddenly drove aground. The Hind then had the misfortune to take the ground herself, just when securing the prize seemed certain. Eventually Bryne’s command got off with the tide, by which time the enemy had also reached deep water and sailed away. Later it was learned that the privateer had lost one man killed and seventeen wounded in the brief engagement; the Hind lost the captain’s servant killed and sixteen men wounded.

In June 1777 the Hind escorted 140 ships in a convoy from St. Kitts to Portsmouth. When they arrived at the end of August, Bryne received the thanks of the West Indies merchants for his care and attention of their vessels.

In early September 1777 Bryne was appointed to commission the frigate Andromeda 28, which had been just launched built at Cowes. After several months fitting out his new command, he sailed for North America with government dispatches, arriving at New York on 21 April 1778. He then gave passage home to General Sir William Howe, who had resigned the chief command in North America after his failure to subdue the rebellion. In the course of this voyage the Andromeda captured and set afire the Boston-based rebel privateer Angelica 16. She reached Portsmouth on 1 July; after landing the general and being careened the frigate was sent to meet the incoming East Indiaman convoy. Now part of the Grand Fleet, she was present at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July, though she saw no action.

In August 1778 the Andromeda sailed from Portsmouth to Plymouth with a convoy, and she saw further service in the Channel, capturing in September (among other prizes) the Bordeaux privateer Guerrière 10. On 17 October she arrived at Plymouth from the Channel Fleet with urgent dispatches from Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel, and she saw further service with that force during the summer of 1779, followed by employment in the North Sea in the autumn.

In December 1779 the Andromeda departed Spithead for the Leeward Islands, arriving at Barbados after a passage of 48 days. Taking on board a thousand troops, she sailed for Antigua to join an expeditionary force, and she was later present at the Battle of Martinique on 17 April 1780, where she provided assistance to the disabled Montagu 74, Captain John Houlton. Remaining in the Leeward Islands, she participated in Admiral Sir George Rodney’s campaign from May to July.

Approaching his fortieth year, Captain Bryne lost his life with all his crew in the Great Hurricanes of 1780, when the Andromeda overset and foundered some twenty miles to the west of Martinique on 11 October.

While Bryne was not married, he seems to have had a partner, Mary Maria Wady (1755-1804), who lived in Portsea, where Bryne also lived when he was in Britain. (At the time of Bryne’s death, his address was 54, Saint George’s Square, Portsmouth Common.) In 1779 Bryne secured an annuity of £40 for Mary Maria against what appear to be holdings in a brewing company. The National Maritime Museum holds a locket with a painted classical figure, inscribed on the back ‘ In Memory of Henry Bryne of the Andromeda’. The piece is clearly intended to be worn as a brooch by a woman, probably one of his sisters rather than Mary Maria Wady. Just a year after Bryne’s death Mary Maria had a son, Thomas Henry MacKenzie, with Rear-Admiral Thomas MacKenzie, a Scot in the Russian service. The youngster joined the Royal Navy in 1800 and rose to the rank of commander before his death in 1856.