King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855

E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton

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• Publié par: higaj
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 31
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855, by E. Keble Chatterton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 Author: E. Keble Chatterton Release Date: January 21, 2006 [eBook #17563] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING'S CUTTERS AND SMUGGLERS 1700-1855*** E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs, Jeannie Howse, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) Two obvious typographical errors were corrected in transcribing this text. For a complete list, please see the Transcriber's note at the end of the file. REVENUE CRUISER CHASING SMUGGLING LUGGER. Before firing on a smuggler the cruiser was bound to hoist his Revenue colours—both pennant and ensign—no matter whether day or night. (from the original painting by Charles Dixon, R.I. ) ToList KING'S CUTTERS AND SMUGGLERS 1700-1855 BY E. KEBLE CHATTERTON AUTHOR OF "SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY," "THE ROMANCE OF THE SHIP" "THE STORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY," "FORE AND AFT," ETC. WITH 33 ILLUSTRATIONS AND FRONTISPIECE IN COLOURS LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & COMPANY, LTD. 44 & 45 RATHBONE PLACE 1912 [All rights reserved] Printed by B ALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh PREFACE I have in the following pages endeavoured to resist the temptation to weave a web of pleasant but unreliable fiction round actual occurrences. That which is here set forth has been derived from facts, and in almost every case from manuscript records. It aims at telling the story of an eventful and exciting period according to historical and not imaginative occurrence. There are extant many novels and short stories which have for their heroes the old-time smugglers. But the present volume represents an effort to look at these exploits as they were and not as a novelist likes to think they might have occurred. Perhaps there is hardly an Englishman who was not thrilled in his boyhood days by Marryat and others when they wrote of the King's Cutters and their foes. It is hoped that the following pages will not merely revive pleasant recollections but arouse a new interest in the adventures of a species of sailing craft that is now, like the brig and the fine old clipper-ship, past and done with. The reader will note that in the Appendices a considerable amount of interesting data has been collected. This has been rendered possible only with great difficulty, but it is believed that in future years the dimensions and details of a Revenue Cutter's construction, the sizes of her spars, her tonnage, guns, &c., the number of her crew carried, the names and dates of the fleets of cutters employed will have an historical value which cannot easily be assessed in the present age that is still familiar with sailing craft. In making researches for the preparation of this volume I have to express my deep sense of gratitude to the Honourable Commissioners of the Board of Customs for granting me permission to make use of their valuable records; to Mr. F.S. Parry C.B., Deputy Chairman of the Board for his courtesy in placing a vast amount of data in my hands, and for having elucidated a good many points of difficulty; and, finally, to Mr. Henry Atton, Librarian of the Custom House, for his great assistance in research. E. KEBLE CHATTERTON. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. INTRODUCTION THE EARLIEST SMUGGLERS THE GROWTH OF SMUGGLING THE SMUGGLERS' M ETHODS THE HAWKHURST GANG THE REVENUE CRUISERS CUTTERS AND SLOOPS PREVENTIVE ORGANISATION CUTTERS' EQUIPMENT THE INCREASE IN SMUGGLING THE SMUGGLERS AT SEA THE WORK OF THE CUTTERS THE PERIOD OF INGENUITY SOME INTERESTING ENCOUNTERS A TRAGIC INCIDENT ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS SMUGGLING BY CONCEALMENTS BY SEA AND LAND ACTION AND COUNTER-ACTION FORCE AND CUNNING 1 14 40 56 82 94 121 138 157 182 199 215 239 257 276 295 320 339 361 379 403 APPENDICES ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES REVENUE CRUISER CHASING SMUGGLING LUGGER Colour frontispiece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THE SMACK "TAM O'SHANTER" SHOWING M ETHOD OF CONCEALMENT FLAT-BOTTOMED BOAT FOUND OFF SELSEY PLAN OF THE SCHOONER "GOOD INTENT" SHOWING M ETHOD OF SMUGGLING CASKS THE SCHOONER "SPARTAN" DECK PLAN AND LONGITUDINAL PLAN OF THE "LORD RIVERS" "THE CRUISER'S GUNS HAD SHOT AWAY THE M IZZEN-M AST" "THE 'ADMIRAL HOOD' WAS HEAVING TUBS OVERBOARD" "GETTING A 329 332 334 336 337 348 358 365 373 377 383 385 392 398 FIRM GRIP, PUSHED HIM ... INTO THE WATER" "LET'S ... HAVE HIM OVER THE CLIFF" "UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS TOOK ON BOARD ... FORTY BALES OF SILK" "ANOTHER SHOT WAS FIRED" M ETHODS EMPLOYED BY SMUGGLERS FOR ANCHORING TUBS THROWN O VERBOARD THE "RIVAL'S" INGENIOUS DEVICE "TAKEN COMPLETELY BY SURPRISE" King's Cutters & Smugglers CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ToC Outside pure Naval history it would be difficult to find any period so full of incident and contest as that which is covered by the exploits of the English Preventive Service in their efforts to deal with the notorious and dangerous bands of smugglers which at one time were a terrible menace to the trade and welfare of our nation. As we shall see from the following pages, their activities covered many decades, and indeed smuggling is not even to-day dead nor ever will be so long as there are regulations which human ingenuity can occasionally outwit. But the grand, adventurous epoch of the smugglers covers little more than a century and a half, beginning about the year 1700 and ending about 1855 or 1860. Nevertheless, within that space of time there are crowded in so much adventure, so many exciting escapes, so many fierce encounters, such clever moves and counter-moves: there are so many thousands of people concerned in the events, so many craft employed, and so much money expended that the story of the smugglers possesses a right to be ranked second only to those larger battles between two or more nations. Everyone has, even nowadays, a sneaking regard for the smugglers of that bygone age, an instinct that is based partly on a curious human failing and partly on a keen admiration for men of dash and daring. There is a sympathy, somehow, with a class of men who succeeded not once but hundreds of times in setting the law at defiance; who, in spite of all the resources of the Government, were not easily beaten. In the novels of James, Marryat, and a host of lesser writers the smuggler and the Preventive man have become familiar and standard types, and there are very few, surely, who in the days of their youth have not enjoyed the breathless excitement of some story depicting the chasing of a contraband lugger or watched vicariously the landing of the tubs of spirits along the pebbly beach on a night when the moon never showed herself. But most of these were fiction and little else. Even Marryat, though he was for some time actually engaged in Revenue duty, is now known to have been inaccurate and loose in some of his stories. Those who have followed afterwards have been scarcely better. However, there is nothing in the following pages which belongs to fiction. Every effort has been made to set forth only actual historical facts, which are capable of verification, so that what is herein contained represents not what might have happened but actually did take place. To write a complete history of smuggling would be well-nigh impossible, owing to the fact that, unhappily through fire and destruction, many of the records, which to-day would be invaluable, have long since perished. The burning down of the Customs House by the side of the Thames in 1814 and the inappreciation of the right value of certain documents by former officials have caused so desirable a history to be impossible to be written. Still, happily, there is even now a vast amount of material in existence, and the present Commissioners of the Board of Customs are using every effort to preserve for posterity a mass of data connected with this service. Owing to the courtesy of the Commissioners it has been my good fortune to make careful researches through the documents which are concerned with the old smuggling days, the Revenue cutters, and the Preventive Service generally; and it is from these pages of the past and from other sources that I have been enabled to put forth the story as it is here presented; and as such it represents an attempt to afford an authentic picture of an extremely interesting and an equally exciting period of our national history, to show the conditions of the smuggling industry from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, and the efforts