Admiral Sir Henry Coey Kane (3 December 1843 – 30 January 1917) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer. He was the second son of Sir Robert Kane, the Irish chemist, and entered the

as a cadet in 1853 having been educated at St. Vincent's College, Castleknock, County Dublin (

Castleknock College Castleknock College ( ga, Coláiste Caisleán Cnucha) is a voluntary Vincentian secondary school for boys, situated in the residential suburb of Castleknock, west of Dublin city centre, Ireland. Founded in 1835 by Philip Dowley, it is one o ...

). He was promoted to captain in 1882, Rear-Admiral in 1897, and Admiral in 1907. He saw active service during the

1882 Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...

, and from 1883 to 1887 he was a

Naval Attaché A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...

. In 1887 he was appointed to command the new cruiser HMS ''Calliope'' in the Pacific, and after service in China and Australia was sent to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

to watch over a growing international

crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

there. This posting is generally remembered for a remarkable act of seamanship; when ''Calliope'' was in harbour, the island was struck by a powerful cyclone. Of the eleven ships present, only ''Calliope'' was able to successfully escape the harbour and ride out the cyclone at sea; the others were beached or wrecked, with over two hundred lives lost. He was later made CB in the

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...

for 1891, and given command of that year. In 1894, he was appointed as the Director of Naval Ordnance, holding the office until 1897. He retired from the Navy in 1899, and made a

Knight Commander of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in 1911.

References

*Obituary: p. 158, ''The Annual Register: a review of public events at home and abroad, for the year 1917''. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1918.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kane, Henry 1843 births 1917 deaths Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath