Captain of HMS Ajax. Captain Boyd joined the Royal Navy in 1825 at the tender age of thirteen as a naval cadet. He was appointed a lieutenant in 1841. During the storm of 1861 a great many vessels were wrecked inside the harbor due to the exposure of the northern weather. Captain John McNeil Boyd from County Derry was the Master of the Royal Naval guard-ship Ajax that was stationed in Kingstown. He and five of his men lost their lives trying to rescue the crew from the Neptune. A large wave swept them under as they were pulling a man from the water as he was struggling to make it ashore. The coroner announced the next day that the men from the Ajax crew had drowned while trying to save the crew of the Neptune. The search continued for Boyd’s body but only parts of his clothing were found. A public meeting was held to decide on a suitable memorial for Captain Boyd and the men of Ajax who had been lost. It was also a reward for the men of the Ajax who had participated in the rescue and survived. On February 25, 1861 the body of Captain Boyd was found, it wasn't far from where the wrecks occurred. His body was placed aboard a carriage and taken to Dublin. A number of medals were awarded. The R.N.L.I. silver medal was awarded posthumously to Captain Boyd and was received by his widow Cordelia. She was also given the Board Of Trade medal on his behalf, these events are also known as The Boyd Disaster. HMS Ajax was built in 1809 as a seventy four gun wooden ship, she was stationed in the Mediterranean until 1814 and she was fitted with an auxiliary steam engine in 1846. She was stationed at Cork until 1853. In 1858 she came to Kingstown as the Guard ship, under the command of Captain Boyd, where she remained until 1864 when she was de-commissioned and broken up. It has been estimated that 135 ships were posted as missing around the British Isles during the storm. At least 15 of these were wrecked in Dublin Bay. Bodies were washed ashore for weeks afterwards.