THE NORTH SEA PACKETS.
Thus far, for the sake of clearness, the narrative has concerned itself
with the Falmouth Packets alone. The successive developments by which
the root of the mischief existing on the Cornish station gradually
revealed itself to all the world were too important to be complicated
with the affairs of other stations, especially when those affairs, with
very few exceptions, were neither interesting nor considerable. In fact,
it is only on the stations whence the North Sea Packets sailed that one
is tempted to linger at all after leaving Falmouth. The record of the
Irish Packets is incomparably dull. Squabbles between the Post-Office of
Great Britain and the Post-Office of Ireland about the precise amount of
influence which each should exercise over the Holyhead or the Milford
boats, interminable arguments concerning the regulations under which
noblemen’s carriages might be stowed on deck during the voyage, lengthy
surveys of the coast, complaints from the agent that the captains were
disrespectful and from the captains that the agent interfered
unwarrantably in their private affairs—such were the subjects of the
bulky reports which filled the pigeon-holes devoted at the General
Post-Office to the affairs of the two lines of communication with the
opposite side of St. George’s Channel.
The Irish Packets, so far as we know, were never in action during the
years of which this volume treats. Almost the same remark indeed might
be made of the North Sea Packets; but here an interest of another kind
arises. The Harwich and Dover boats played manfully a part in a drama of
the greatest moment to this country. It was a game in which shot and
powder had scarcely any part; yet it called for courage of the highest
order, and for resource and seamanship such as British sailors have
always shown themselves possessed of in time of need.
The Continental system which called out these faculties was as yet only
a dream in Napoleon’s heart; and the story of the North Sea Packets
might have been left untouched until that system began to develop
itself, had it not happened by a curious chance of fortune that in the
year 1798 a sort of rehearsal occurred of the dangers of that troublous
time which was yet to come. The winter proved to be of extraordinary
severity. The shores of Holland and Northern Germany were beset with
ice; the rivers were all closed, and by a sudden turn of temperature the
Post-Office was confronted with the identical situation which the
masterful hostility of Napoleon created a few years afterwards.
Before proceeding to speak of the difficulties thus created, it will be
necessary to explain that the North Sea Packets by no means corresponded
to the Falmouth model. Small as the Cornish Packets must appear in the
eyes of our generation, accustomed to the vast dimensions of the
floating palaces in which travellers of to-day make the Atlantic voyage,
the Harwich and Dover boats were smaller still. Many of them indeed were
of only fifty tons, while none exceeded eighty tons. The Harwich boats,
which plied to Helvoetsluis as their normal port of call, were a trifle
larger than the Dover Packets which undertook the shorter voyage to
Calais, and they carried somewhat heavier guns. Three-pounders were
found to be too heavy for the Dover boats, and had to be exchanged for
two-pounders; but the Harwich Packets always carried four four-pounders,
and at a later period some of them were allowed a couple of extra guns
of the same calibre.
In 1793, when the war broke out, the port of Calais was of course closed
to English ships, and the mails for Italy and the Mediterranean could no
longer cross France. The situation thus created was too familiar in the
last century to occasion any embarrassment at the General Post-Office.
In fact, the relations between the Postal authorities in London and
Paris were in those days so much the reverse of cordial, even when the
two countries were at peace, that the outbreak of hostilities seems to
have been not altogether unwelcome at Lombard Street, as closing a
channel of communication which had never been used without friction and
dispute.
The Dover station was at once closed, and the Packets transferred to
Harwich, whence, after a short interval, the whole fleet of both
stations was removed to Yarmouth, a port which was supposed to be more
conveniently situated for the duties which lay before them. All the
mails were forwarded to Helvoetsluis. The relations between the
Post-Offices of England and Holland had always been good; and the
Service worked well and smoothly until the French power menaced the
integrity of Holland.
Throughout the year 1794 the rupture of relations with Holland loomed
through the troubled atmosphere, and early in 1795 it became an
accomplished fact. Town after town declared for the French. Pichegru’s
cavalry, careering over the frozen waters of the Texel, captured the
Dutch fleet; the English troops retreated; the Batavian Republic was
proclaimed; the resources of Holland were added to those of France, and
another outlet for the Continental mails must be found, Helvoetsluis
being henceforth closed against us as rigidly as any port in France
itself.
In this emergency the British Post-Office naturally looked to Hamburg,
with which ancient city it had been in alliance for many generations.
The mails were despatched to Cuxhaven, and were there landed and
despatched _via_ Hamburg into the interior without obstruction for more
than three years. A great frost set in, however, during December, 1798,
and before Christmas the severity of the weather had already produced
serious difficulties for the Post-Office. The mails began to arrive at
very irregular intervals; and each Packet as she reached Yarmouth
brought fresh reports of the alarming speed with which ice was forming
not only in the Elbe, but even beyond the estuary of the river, so as in
a great degree to threaten interruption of all access to the coast.
Meantime the frost grew daily more severe. On the 28th December four
Hamburg mails were due, and London had been without trustworthy news
from the Continent for the best part of a fortnight.
Such an interruption of the regular course of post would have been
serious enough at any time; and if commerce only had been injured by it,
would have called for the promptest remedy possible. But far greater
interests were at stake than those of Threadneedle Street and Mincing
Lane. Political events were occurring on the Continent of which
intelligence reached London all too slowly at the best of times; and it
was quite possible that in the bags lying idle in the Hamburg
Post-Office there might be despatches containing news which, whether for
good or evil, touched the very existence of the country.
The forethought of the directors of the Hamburg Office had provided to
some extent for such a contingency as had now occurred. They had
established an agent on the island of Heligoland, whose instructions
were to receive the mails whenever the Packets were unable to reach
Cuxhaven, and to use any means suggested by his experience for
forwarding them to their destination. It was scarcely likely that
officials in London could quicken this agent’s apprehension of the
urgency of the situation, or suggest any expedient which he had left
untried; and yet the uneasiness both in Downing Street and the City was
rising to such a pitch that it was resolved to send an energetic officer
to attempt both these tasks.
This resolution was hardly taken when the “Champion” frigate, having on
board Mr. Grenville, a diplomatist charged with a mission of some
importance, put back to Yarmouth, from which port she had sailed for
Cuxhaven about a week before. The officers reported having encountered
head winds against which they had vainly struggled to make their port,
or even to reach the Holstein coast, where the envoy might have landed
with some prospect of reaching his destination. They had sighted three
Post-Office Packets beating about in the neighbourhood of Heligoland,
apparently unable to proceed, while the master of a Bremen galliot had
informed them that both the Elbe and the Weser had been frozen up for
three weeks.
The prospect appeared hopeless. Where the “Champion” had failed, it
seemed useless to expect that a Post-Office clerk would succeed. For a
few days, therefore, the matter drifted; but on the 4th January Mr.
Freeling was summoned to Downing Street, and in the course of the
interview which he had with Ministers so much stress was laid on the
necessity of making a great immediate effort to obtain the mails and
despatches which were lying at Cuxhaven, that on his return to the city
he at once selected Mr. Henry Chamberlayne for the duty, and instructed
him to make ready for an immediate departure.
At Downing Street the opinion was held that the conditions of weather
which rendered it impracticable to reach the mouth of the Elbe might
admit of a landing at Norden in Friesland, from which place a journey
overland to Hamburg ought to offer no insuperable difficulties.
A sloop of war was sent round to Yarmouth, where it took up Mr.
Chamberlayne, with two King’s messengers, and at once set sail in
company with a Post-Office Packet and a lugger. The latter craft was to
be detached to obtain the mails at Heligoland, and bring them on to
Norden, whither the sloop and the Packet were to proceed direct. The
scheme failed hopelessly however. It proved absolutely impossible to
land either at Norden or elsewhere within striking distance of Hamburg;
and after beating about the North Sea for ten days, wearing themselves
out in ineffectual efforts to accomplish their mission, Mr. Chamberlayne
and the King’s messengers returned with the report that the thing was
impracticable, and that no mails must be looked for until the weather
moderated.
Their report, though in the main true enough, and made only after very
great efforts to succeed, was already partially disproved in advance. A
daring officer of the Yarmouth station had demonstrated that the ice
blockade was not impenetrable, and had shown that on a service of this
nature the proper person to despatch was a seaman, and one moreover to
whom the navigation of the stormy North Sea was thoroughly familiar.
Captain Bridge, commander of the “Prince of Orange,” had received two
mails for Cuxhaven on board his Packet on the 9th of December; and it
may be interesting to readers of our own day who by long experience have
gained confidence in the speed and certainty of mails, to observe how
long these mails remained in Captain Bridge’s possession, and how he
fared in his efforts to dispose of them.
It was by no means in the power of a Packet captain a hundred years ago
to proceed to sea whenever he pleased. He was under the necessity of
waiting on the winds; and for a full week after Captain Bridge had
received his mails, those winds blew so fiercely from the east that it
was quite impossible for the “Prince of Orange” to set out on her
voyage.
Nothing short of absolute necessity kept the Packets lying idle. If any
craft afloat got out to sea they were expected to do so; but not the
best will or the finest seamanship around the coast could take a Packet
from Yarmouth upon her course for Hamburg in the teeth of an easterly
gale. And so the “Prince of Orange” lay at anchor, while more mails
continually collected in the agent’s office, until, when at last the
wind veered round, and blew from the south, there were three other
Packets also ready to put out to sea.
All four set sail in company; but almost before they had weighed anchor
they were suddenly enveloped in a dense fog, in which they separated. At
the same time the wind shifted again into the north-east, and rose
quickly to a strong gale, with showers of snow and sleet, against which
the four Packets beat vainly throughout two nights and a day, when,
finding it absolutely impossible to make progress, they returned once
more to Yarmouth. Two days afterwards the wind again became favourable,
and the Packets, once more hoisting their anchors, went out of Yarmouth
Roads with a strong breeze from west-south-west. The fair weather lasted
long enough to bring the “Prince of Orange” in sight of Heligoland,
where she remained throughout the night, making signals for a pilot,
which were not responded to.
Now Captain Bridge was well aware of the critical importance of the
service he was engaged on, and by no means intended to be prevented from
executing it by the cowardice or sloth of the Heligoland pilots. He knew
the coast well, and resolved to attempt a landing. Possibly he might
succeed as well without a pilot as with one, since the case was one
demanding resolution and daring rather than an exhaustive knowledge of
the coast. He was venturing a good deal; for the risks of the sea were
his, the Government accepting only those of capture or damage by the
enemy.
At daybreak Captain Bridge took in his signals, and made all sail for
the mouth of the Elbe. The voyage proved unexpectedly easy. The “Prince
of Orange” met with no obstacles. The ice, possibly, had shifted by the
action of the tide; but however that may be, the “Prince of Orange”
succeeded where others had failed, and at 2 P.M. shot the ice close to
Cuxhaven Pier.
This was well enough; but the dangers of the voyage were by no means
over. With great difficulty and no small danger a line was got ashore
across the pack ice; but this occupied some time. The tide was ebbing
like a chain; the Packet had already begun to drift down stream; and
before the line could be made fast by the helpers on the quay, it
parted, and the “Prince of Orange” lay at the mercy of the stream.
Her position was now highly dangerous. The ice floes closed around her,
and navigation was impossible. There was nothing for it but to wait
until she grounded, which she did at last upon a sandbank some
considerable distance below the town, and not far from the village of
Doos.
The “Prince of Orange” lay upon her side at some distance from the
shore. Night was falling; the winter darkness was thick, and nothing
could be done until daybreak. During the night the ice bore down on the
Packet so heavily as to threaten momentarily to capsize her; but though
at times it seemed impossible that she could stand the strain of the
floes grinding against her timbers, she was still in much the same
position when morning came. Moreover, the tide had fallen so far during
the night that it was possible to reach the land; and Captain Bridge at
once put the mails in safety, and ordering his crew to get ashore
whatever they could of value from the ship, which still seemed only too
likely to go to pieces, he hired a wagon in the village, and himself
delivered the mails and despatches at the agent’s office in Cuxhaven.
He made no long delay in Cuxhaven, being in great anxiety about his
ship, but taking over all the bags which the agent had in charge, drove
back in his wagon to Doos. The position there had changed for the better
during his absence. The Packet had floated off the sandbank, and
appeared on examination to be uninjured. The mails were put on board
without delay, and Captain Bridge set sail for Yarmouth, where he
received great credit for his plucky exploit.
The Yarmouth commanders were all bold seamen, but few of them were
willing to take the risks which Captain Bridge had run. The frost
continued week after week, and with one exception, when Captain Hammond
in the “Carteret” repeated Captain Bridge’s feat, bringing home three
mails in triumph, all intercourse with Northern Europe was cut off until
the end of January.
It must appear to our modern ideas scarcely possible to exaggerate the
inconvenience and distress proceeding from this long stoppage of
political and commercial intercourse with the Continent. Such an event
occurring at the present day would assuredly bring down to the ground
many an old business house, and even shake the foundations of public
credit. But our ancestors traded before the days of speedy answers and
quick transactions. They were well used to the loss or long delay of
letters, and had adjusted their affairs to the conditions of their time.
The loss to them, therefore, cannot be measured by what it would impose
on us; yet, after making all allowances, it remained very severe, and
caused great anxiety to the Government.
As January sped away, bringing with it no change for the better, various
suggestions were laid before the Postmaster General by persons who
conceived themselves qualified to advise. Among these the most curious
was considered to be one for the use of balloons. Great merriment was
made in Lombard Street over this idea. It was brought before Lord
Auckland in a jocular report, and he, minuting the case in the same
spirit, professed his readiness to appoint the inventor of the notion to
the post of “Controller of Balloons,” on the usual conditions of
personal service, and of being paid after the return voyage. The project
seems to us less mad than Lord Auckland thought it; but few men would
have been found a century ago to whom the possibilities of ballooning
had revealed themselves.
However, whilst one suggestion was being rejected after another, it was
certainly desirable to do something, if only to avoid the reproach of
inertness; and the receipt of letters of advice from several Greenland
merchants in the city seemed to offer ideas which were worth pursuing.
These merchants pointed out that it would be easy to collect a number of
sailors who were accustomed to find themselves entangled in the ice, and
whom experience had taught how to make the best of such a situation. A
few such men were hastily brought together, and added to the crews of
two of the Packets, each of which was also provided with an ice-boat. At
Heligoland preparations were made for more carefully organized attempts
to reach the mainland. All these designs were, however, formed too late,
for while they were still being perfected, the thaw came, the ice broke
up, and the postal communication fell back into its normal course.
So great a difficulty does not seem to have been caused by frost on any
other occasion. But the time was drawing near when the will of one man
was to erect and hold against English ships a barrier more impenetrable
than that of winter, and during those years of doubt and of anxiety, the
experience gained by the Post-Office in 1798 and 1799 was turned to good
account.