Henry Coey Kane

Who was Henry Coey Kane?

Admiral Sir Henry Coey Kane, KCB, was a Royal Navy officer.

He was the second son of Sir Robert Kane, the Irish chemist, and entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1853 having been educated at St. Vincent's College, Castleknock, County Dublin -. 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, and from 1883 to 1887 he was a Naval Attaché. 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 to watch over a growing international crisis 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.

This event made Kane's career; he was made CB in the Queen's Birthday Honours for 1891, and given command of HMS Victory, a highly prestigious posting, the following year.