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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
[Illustration: 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._)]
London
George Allen & Company, Ltd.
44 & 45 Rathbone Place
1912
[All rights reserved]
Printed by Ballantyne, 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. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE EARLIEST SMUGGLERS 14
III. THE GROWTH OF SMUGGLING 40
IV. THE SMUGGLERS' METHODS 56
V. THE HAWKHURST GANG 82
VI. THE REVENUE CRUISERS 94
VII. CUTTERS AND SLOOPS 121
VIII. PREVENTIVE ORGANISATION 138
IX. CUTTERS' EQUIPMENT 157
X. THE INCREASE IN SMUGGLING 182
XI. THE SMUGGLERS AT SEA 199
XII. THE WORK OF THE CUTTERS 215
XIII. THE PERIOD OF INGENUITY 239
XIV. SOME INTERESTING ENCOUNTERS 257
XV. A TRAGIC INCIDENT 276
XVI. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS 295
XVII. SMUGGLING BY CONCEALMENTS 320
XVIII. BY SEA AND LAND 339
XIX. ACTION AND COUNTER-ACTION 361
XX. FORCE AND CUNNING 379
APPENDICES 403
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
REVENUE CRUISER CHASING SMUGGLING LUGGER _Colour frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
A REPRESENTATION OF YE SMUGGLERS BREAKING OPEN YE KING'S
CUSTOM HOUSE AT POOLE 86
MR. GALLEY AND MR. CHATER PUT BY YE SMUGGLERS ON ONE
HORSE NEAR ROWLAND CASTLE 88
GALLEY AND CHATER FALLING OFF THEIR HORSE AT WOODASH 88A
CHATER CHAINED IN YE TURFF HOUSE AT OLD MILLS'S 89
CHATER HANGING AT THE WELL IN LADY HOLT PARK, THE )
BLOODY VILLAINS STANDING BY )
) 90
THE BLOODY SMUGGLERS FLINGING DOWN STONES AFTER THEY )
HAD FLUNG HIS DEAD BODY INTO THE WELL )
H.M. CUTTER "WICKHAM," COMMANDED BY CAPTAIN JOHN
FULLARTON, R.N. 178
H.M. CUTTER "WICKHAM" 179
IN TEXT
PAGE
"DOW SENT HIS MATE AND TEN MEN ON BOARD HER" 72
"CAME CHARGING DOWN ... STRIKING HER ON THE QUARTER" 102
"A GREAT CROWD OF INFURIATED PEOPLE CAME DOWN TO THE BEACH" 187
"THE 'FLORA' WITH THE 'FISGARD,' 'WASSO,' AND 'NYMPH'" 202
"THE 'CAROLINE' CONTINUED HER COURSE AND PROCEEDED TO LONDON" 211
HOW THE DEAL BOATMEN USED TO SMUGGLE TEA ASHORE 213
"THE 'BADGER' WAS HOISTING UP THE GALLEY IN THE RIGGING" 265
"FIRE AND BE DAMNED" 278
THE SANDWICH DEVICE 314
THE SLOOP "LUCY" SHOWING CONCEALMENTS 324
CASK FOR SMUGGLING CIDER 326
THE SMACK "TAM O'SHANTER" SHOWING METHOD OF CONCEALMENT 329
FLAT-BOTTOMED BOAT FOUND OFF SELSEY 332
PLAN OF THE SCHOONER "GOOD INTENT" SHOWING METHOD OF
SMUGGLING CASKS 334
THE SCHOONER "SPARTAN" 336
DECK PLAN AND LONGITUDINAL PLAN OF THE "LORD RIVERS" 337
"THE CRUISER'S GUNS HAD SHOT AWAY THE MIZZEN-MAST" 348
"THE 'ADMIRAL HOOD' WAS HEAVING TUBS OVERBOARD" 358
"GETTING A FIRM GRIP, PUSHED HIM ... INTO THE WATER" 365
"LET'S ... HAVE HIM OVER THE CLIFF" 373
"UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS TOOK ON BOARD ... FORTY BALES
OF SILK" 377
"ANOTHER SHOT WAS FIRED" 383
METHODS EMPLOYED BY SMUGGLERS FOR ANCHORING TUBS THROWN
OVERBOARD 385
THE "RIVAL'S" INGENIOUS DEVICE 392
"TAKEN COMPLETELY BY SURPRISE" 398
King's Cutters & Smugglers
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
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 to put a stop to the same. We shall soon find that this
period in its glamour, romance, and adventure contains a good deal of
similarity to the great seafaring Elizabethan epoch. The ships were
different, but the courage of the English seamen was the same. Nor
must we forget that those rough, rude men who ran backwards and
forwards across the English Channel in cutters, yawls, luggers, and
sometimes open boats, stiffened with a rich ballast of tea, tobacco,
and brandy, were some of the finest seamen in the world, and certainly
the most skilful fore-and-aft sailors and efficient pilots to be found
anywhere on the seas which wash the coasts of the United Kingdom. They
were sturdy and strong of body, courageous and enterprising of nature,
who had "used" the sea all their lives. Consequently the English
Government wisely determined that in all cases of an encounter with
smugglers the first aim of the Preventive officers should be to
capture the smugglers themselves, for they could be promptly impressed
into the service of the Navy and be put to the good of the nation
instead of being to the latter's disadvantage.
As everyone familiar with the sea is aware, the seamanship of the
square-rigged vessel and of the fore-and-aft is very different. The
latter makes special demands of its own which, for the present, we
need not go into. But we may assert with perfect confidence that at
its best the handling of the King's cutters and the smuggling craft,
the chasing and eluding in all weathers, the strategy and tactics of
both parties form some of the best chapters in nautical lore. The
great risks that were run, the self-confidence and coolness displayed
indicated quite clearly that our national seafaring spirit was not yet
dead. To-day many descendants of these old smugglers remain our
foremost fore-and-aft sailors, yet engaged no longer in an illicit
trade but in the more peaceful pursuits of line fishermen, oyster
dredging, trawling during the winter, and often shipping as yachts'
hands during the summer.
But because we are to read fact and not fiction we shall scarcely find
the subject inferior in interest. Truth often enough is stranger, and
some of the tricks and devices employed by the smuggling communities
may well surprise us. And while we shall not make any vain attempt to
whitewash a class of men who were lawless, reckless, and sometimes
even brutal in their efforts, yet we shall not hesitate to give the
fullest prominence to the great skill and downright cleverness of a
singularly virile and unique kind of British manhood. In much the same
way as a spectator looks on at a fine sporting contest between two
able foes, we shall watch the clashing exploits of the King's men and
the smugglers. Sometimes the one side wins, sometimes the other, but
nearly always there is a splendidly exciting tussle before either
party can claim victory.
No one who has not examined the authentic records of this period can
appreciate how powerful the smugglers on sea and land had become. The
impudence and independence of some of the former were amazing. We
shall give instances in due course, but for the present we might take
the case of the Revenue cutter which, after giving chase to a
smuggling vessel, came up to the latter. Shots were exchanged, but the
smuggler turned his swivel guns on to the Government craft with such a
hot effect that the Revenue captain deemed it prudent to give up the
fight and hurry away as fast as possible, after which the positions
were reversed and the smuggler _actually chased the Revenue cutter!_
In fact during the year 1777 one of the Customs officials wrote sadly
to the Board that there was a large lugger off the coast, and so well
armed that she was "greatly an overmatch" for even two of the Revenue
cruisers. It seems almost ludicrous to notice a genuine and
unquestionable report of a smuggling vessel coming into a bay, finding
a Revenue cruiser lying quietly at anchor, and ordering the cruiser,
with a fine flow of oaths, immediately to cut his cable and clear out;
otherwise the smugglers promised to sink her. The Revenue cutter's
commander did not cut his cable, but in truth he had to get his
anchor up pretty promptly and clear out as he was told.
It was not till after the year 1815 that the Government began
seriously to make continuous headway in its efforts to cope with the
smuggling evil. Consider the times. Between the years 1652 and 1816
there were years and years of wars by land or by sea. There were the
three great Anglo-Dutch wars, the wars with France, with Spain, to say
nothing of the trouble with America. They were indeed anxious years
that ended only with the Battle of Waterloo, and it was not likely
that all this would in any way put a stop to that restlessness which
was unmistakable. Wages were low, provisions were high, and the poorer
classes of those days had by no means all the privileges possessed
to-day. Add to this the undoubted fact that literally for centuries
there had lived along the south coast of England, especially in the
neighbourhood of the old Cinque ports, a race of men who were always
ready for some piratical or semi-piratical sea exploit. It was in
their blood to undertake and long for such enterprises, and it only
wanted but the opportunity to send them roving the seas as privateers,
or running goods illegally from one coast to another. And it is not
true that time has altogether stifled that old spirit. When a liner
to-day has the misfortune to lose her way in a fog and pile up on rock
or sandbank, you read of the numbers of small craft which put out to
salvage her cargo. But not all this help comes out of hearts of
unfathomable pity. On the contrary, your beachman has an eye to
business. He cannot go roving nowadays; time has killed the smuggling
in which his ancestors distinguished themselves. But none the less he
can legally profit by another vessel's misfortune; and, as the local
families worked in syndicate fashion when they went smuggling, so now
they mutually arrange to get the cargo ashore and, incidentally, make
a very handsome profit as well.
We need not envy the Government the difficult and trying task that was
theirs during the height of the smuggling era. There was quite enough to
think of in regard to foreign affairs without wanting the additional
worry of these contraband runners. That must be borne in mind whenever
one feels inclined to smile at the apparently half-hearted manner in
which the authorities seemed to deal with the evil. Neither funds nor
seamen, nor ships nor adequate attention could be spared just then to
deal with these pests. And it was only after the wars had at last ended
and the Napoleonic bogey had been settled that this domestic worry could
be dealt with in the manner it required. There were waiting many evils
to be remedied, and this lawlessness along the coast of the country was
one of the greatest. But it was not a matter that could be adjusted in
a hurry, and it was not for another forty or fifty years, not, in fact,
until various administrative changes and improvements had taken place,
that at last the evil was practically stamped out. As one looks through
the existing records one cannot avoid noticing that there was scarcely a
bay or suitable landing-place along the whole English coast-line that
did not become notorious for these smuggling "runs": there is hardly a
cliff or piece of high ground that has not been employed for the purpose
of giving a signal to the approaching craft as they came on through the
night over the dark waters. There are indeed very few villages in
proximity to the sea that have not been concerned in these smuggling
ventures and taken active interest in the landing of bales and casks.
The sympathy of the country-side was with the smuggling fraternity.
Magistrates were at times terrorised, juries were too frightened to
convict. In short, the evil had grown to such an extent that it was a
most difficult problem for any Government to be asked to deal with,
needing as it did a very efficient service both of craft and men afloat,
and an equally able and incorruptible guard on land that could not be
turned from its purpose either by fear or bribery. We shall see from the
following chapters how these two organisations--by sea and land--worked.
If we exclude fiction, the amount of literature which has been
published on smuggling is exceedingly small. Practically the whole of
the following pages is the outcome of personal research among
original, authentic manuscripts and official documents. Included under
this head may be cited the Minutes of the Board of Customs, General
Letters of the Board to the Collectors and Controllers of the various
Out-ports, Out-port Letters to the Board, the transcripts from
shorthand notes of Assizes and Promiscuous Trials of Smugglers, a
large quantity of MSS. of remarkable incidents connected with
smuggling, miscellaneous notes collected on the subject in the Library
of the Customs House, instructions issued at different times to
Customs officers and commanders of cruisers, General Orders issued to
the Coastguard, together with a valuable précis (unpublished) of the
existing documents in the many Customs Houses along the English coast
made in the year 1911 by the Librarian to the Board of Customs on a
round of visits to the different ports for that purpose. These
researches have been further supplemented by other documents in the
British Museum and elsewhere.
This volume, therefore, contains within its pages a very large amount
of material hitherto unpublished, and, additional to the details
gathered together regarding smuggling methods, especial attention has
been paid to collect all possible information concerning the Revenue
sloops and cutters so frequently alluded to in those days as cruisers.
I have so often heard a desire expressed among those interested in the
literature of the sea to learn all about the King's cutters, how they
were rigged, manned, victualled, armed, and navigated, what were their
conditions of service at sea, and so on--finally, to obtain accounts
of their chasing of smuggling craft, accounts based on the narratives
of eye-witnesses of the incidents, the testimony of the commanders and
crews themselves, both captors and captives, that I have been here at
some pains to present the most complete picture of the subject that
has hitherto been attempted. These cutters were most interesting craft
by reason both of themselves and the chases and fights in which they
were engaged. The King's cutters were employed, as many people are
aware, as well in international warfare as in the Preventive Service.
There is an interesting letter, for instance, to be read from
Lieutenant Henry Rowed, commanding the Admiralty cutter _Sheerness_,
dated September 9, 1803, off Brest, in which her gallant commander
sends a notable account to Collingwood concerning the chasing of a
French _chasse-marée_. And cutters were also employed in connection
with the Walcheren expedition. The hired armed cutter _Stag_ was found
useful in 1804 as a despatch vessel.
But the King's cutters in the Revenue work were not always as active
as they might be. In one of his novels (_The Three Cutters_) Captain
Marryat gives the reader a very plain hint that there was a good deal
of slackness prevalent in this section of the service. Referring to
the midshipman of the Revenue cutter _Active_, the author speaks of
him as a lazy fellow, too inert even to mend his jacket which was out
at elbows, and adds, "He has been turned out of half the ships in the
service for laziness; but he was born so, and therefore it is not his
fault. A Revenue cutter suits him--she is half her time hove-to; and
he has no objection to boat-service, as he sits down in the
stern-sheets, which is not fatiguing. Creeping for tubs is his
delight, as he gets over so little ground."
But Marryat was, of course, intentionally sarcastic here. That this
lazy element was not always, and in every ship, prevalent is clear
from the facts at hand. It is also equally clear from the repeated
admonitions and exhortations of the Board of Customs, by the
holding-out of handsome rewards and the threatenings of dire
penalties, that the Revenue-cutter commanders were at any rate
periodically negligent of their duties. They were far too fond of
coming to a nice snug anchorage for the night or seeking shelter in
bad weather, and generally running into harbour with a frequence that
was unnecessary. The result was that the cutter, having left her
station unguarded, the smugglers were able to land their kegs with
impunity.
But we need not delay our story longer, and may proceed now to
consider the subject in greater detail.