MAIL-PACKETS.
The employment of vessels for the conveyance of mails seems to have
passed through three several stages, each no doubt merging into the
next, but each retaining, nevertheless, distinct features of its own.
First, there was the stage when Government equipped and manned its own
ships for the service; then there was an age of very heavy subsidies to
shipping companies who could not undertake regularity of sailing without
some such assistance; and now there is the third stage, when, through
the great development of international trade and the consequent
competition of rival shipowners, regularity of sailing is ensured apart
from the post, and the Government is able to make better terms for the
conveyance of the mails.
It is curious to take a glimpse of the conditions under which the early
packets sailed, when they were often in danger of having to fight or
fly. The instructions to the captains were to run while they could,
fight when they could no longer run, and to throw the mails overboard
when fighting would no longer avail. In 1693, such a ship as then
performed the service was described as one of "eighty-five tons and
fourteen guns, with powder, shot, and firearms, and all other munitions
of war." A poor captain, whose ship the 'Grace Dogger' was lying in
Dublin Bay awaiting the tide, fell into the hands of the enemy, a
French privateer having seized his ship and stripped her of rigging,
sails, spars, and yards, and of all the furniture "wherewith she had
been provided for the due accommodation of passengers, leaving not so
much as a spoone or a naile-hooke to hang anything on." The unfortunate
ship in its denuded state was ransomed from its captors for fifty
guineas. If we may judge from this case, the fighting of the packets
does not seem always to have been satisfactory; and the
Postmasters-General of the day, deeming discretion the better part of
valour, set about building packets that should escape the enemy. They
did build new vessels, but so low did they rest in the water that the
Postmasters-General wrote of them thus: "Wee doe find that in blowing
weather they take in soe much water that the men are constantly wet all
through, and can noe ways goe below to change themselves, being obliged
to keep the hatches shut to save the vessel from sinking, which is such
a discouragement of the sailors, that it will be of the greatest
difficulty to get any to endure such hardshipps in the winter weather."
These flying ships not proving a success, the Postmasters-General then
determined to build "boats of force to withstand the enemy," adopting
the bull-dog policy as the only course open in the circumstances. It may
be interesting to recall how these packets were manned. In May 1695 the
crews of the packets between Harwich and Holland were placed on the
following footing:--
Per mensem.
Master and Commander, L10 0 0
Mate, 3 10 0
Surgeon, 3 10 0
Boatswain, 3 5 0
Midshipman, 1 15 0
Carpenter, 3 5 0
Boatswain's mate, 1 15 0
Gunner's mate, 1 15 0
Quartermaster, 1 15 0
Captain's servant, 1 0 0
11 Able seamen at L1, 10s., 16 10 0
Agent's instrument, 2 0 0
----------
In all, L50 0 0
These wages may not have been considered too liberal considering the
risks the men ran; and as an encouragement to greater valour in dealing
with the enemy, and as an additional means of recompense, the crew were
allowed to take prizes if they fell in their way. They also "received
pensions for wounds, according to a code drawn up with a nice
discrimination of the relative value of different parts of the body, and
with a most amusing profusion of the technical terms of anatomy. Thus,
after a fierce engagement which took place in February 1705, we find
that Edward James had a donation of L5 because a musket-shot had grazed
on the tibia of his left leg; that Gabriel Treludra had L12 because a
shot had divided his frontal muscles and fractured his skull; that
Thomas Williams had the same sum because a Granada shell had stuck fast
in his left foot; that John Cook, who received a shot in the hinder part
of his head, whereby a large division of the scalp was made, had a
donation of L6, 13s. 4d. for present relief, and a yearly pension of the
same amount; and that Benjamin Lillycrop, who lost the fore-finger of
his left hand, had L2 for present relief, and a yearly pension of the
same amount." Some other classes of wounds were assessed for pensions as
follows: "Each arm or leg amputated above the elbow or knee is L8 per
annum; below the knee is 20 nobles. Loss of the sight of one eye is L4,
of the pupil of the eye L5, of the sight of both eyes L12, of the pupils
of both eyes L14; and according to these rules we consider also how much
the hurts affect the body, and make the allowances accordingly."
But between different parts of the United Kingdom, not a century ago, it
is remarkable how infrequent the communications sometimes were.
Nowadays, there are three or four mails a-week between the mainland and
Lerwick, in Shetland, whereas in 1802 the mails between these parts were
carried only ten times a-year, the trips in December and January being
omitted owing to the stormy character of the weather. The contract
provided that there should be used "a sufficiently strong-built packet,"
and the allowance granted for the service was L120 per annum. It may
perhaps be worthy of notice that the amount of postage upon letters sent
to Shetland in the year ended the 5th July 1802 was no more than L199,
19s. 1d. It was also stipulated, by the terms of the agreement, that the
contractors should adopt a proper search of their own servants, lest
they should privately convey letters to the injury of the revenue; and
they were also required to take measures against passengers by the
packet transgressing in the same way. On one occasion the good people in
these northern islands, when memorialising for more frequent postal
service, suggested that the packets would be of great use in spying out
and reporting the presence of French privateers on the coast; but the
Postmaster-General of the period took the sensible view that the less
the packets saw of French privateers the better it would be for the
packet service.
Difficulties are experienced even in the present day in communicating
with some of the outlying islands of the north of Scotland, weeks and
occasionally months passing without the boats carrying the mails being
able to make the passage. The following is from a report made by the
postmaster of Lerwick on the 27th March 1883, with reference to the
interruption of the mail-service with Foula, an outlying island of the
Shetland group:--
"A mail was made up on the 8th January, and several attempts made to
reach the island, but unsuccessfully, until the 10th March. Fair Isle
was in the same predicament as Foula, but the mail-boat was more
unfortunate. A trip was effected to Fair Isle about the end of December,
but none again until last week. About 9th March the boat left for Fair
Isle, and nothing being heard of her for a fortnight, fears were
entertained for her safety. Fortunately the crew turned up on 23d March,
but their boat had been wrecked at Fair Isle. During the twenty years I
have been in the service, I have never been so put about arranging our
mails and posts as since the New Year; we have had heavier gales, but I
do not think any one remembers such a continuation of storms as from
about the first week of January to end of February; indeed it could
hardly be called _storms_, but rather one continued storm, with an
occasional lull of a few hours. I cannot recall any time during the
period having twenty-four hours' calm or even moderate weather. If it
was a lull at night, it was on a gale in the morning; and if a lull in
the morning, a gale came on before night. The great difficulty in
working Foula and Fair Isle is the want of harbours; and often a passage
might be made, but the men dare not venture on account of the landing at
the islands." This statement gives a fair idea of the difficulties that
have to be overcome in keeping up the circulation of letters with the
distant fragments of our home country.
In the packet service deeds of devotion have been done in the way of
duty, as has been the case on occasions in the land service. At a period
probably about 1800, a Mr Ramage, an officer attached to the Dublin
Post-office, being charged with a Government despatch, to be placed on
board the packet in the Bay of Dublin, found, on arriving there, that
the captain, contrary to orders, had put to sea. Mr Ramage, being unable
to acquit himself of his duty in one way, undertook it in another; and
hiring an open boat, he proceeded to Holyhead, and there safely landed
the despatch. Another instance is related in connection with the
shipwreck of the 'Violet' mail-packet sailing between Ostend and Dover;
the particulars being given as follows in the Postmaster-General's
report for 1856:--
"Mr Mortleman, the officer in immediate charge of the mail-bags, acted
on the occasion with a presence of mind and forethought which reflect
honour on his memory. On seeing that the vessel could not be saved, he
must have removed the cases containing the mail-bags from the hold, and
so have placed them that when the ship went down they might float; a
proceeding which ultimately led to the recovery of all the bags, except
one containing despatches, of which, from their nature, it was possible
to obtain copies."
It has already been mentioned that at the close of the seventeenth
century a mail-packet was a vessel of some 85 tons--a proud thing, no
doubt, in the eyes of him who commanded her. The class of ship would
seem to have remained very much the same during the next hundred years;
for, in the last years of the eighteenth century, a mail-packet on the
Falmouth Station, reckoned fit to proceed to any part of the world, was
of only about 179 tons burthen. Her crew, from commander to cook,
comprised only twenty-eight persons when she was on a war footing, and
twenty-one on a peace footing; and her armament was six 4-pounder guns.
The victualling was at the rate of tenpence per man per day; the whole
annual charge for the packet when on the war establishment, including
interest on cost of ship, wages, wear and tear of fittings, medicine,
&c., being L2112, 6s. 8d.; while on the peace establishment, with
diminished wear and tear, and reduced crew, the charge was estimated at
L1681, 11s. 9d. The packets on the Harwich station, performing the
service to and from the Continent, were much less in size, being of
about 70 tons burthen.
During the wars with the French at this period the mail-packets were not
infrequently captured by the enemy. From 1793 to 1795 alone four of
these ships were thus lost--namely, the 'King George,' the
'Tankerville,' the 'Prince William Henry,' and the 'Queen Charlotte.'
The 'King George,' a Lisbon packet, homeward bound with the mails and a
considerable quantity of money, was taken and carried into Brest. The
'Tankerville,' on her passage from Falmouth to Halifax, with the mails
of November and December 1794, was captured by the privateer 'Lovely
Lass,' a ship fitted out in an American port, and probably itself a
prize, there having been some diplomatic correspondence with the United
States shortly before on the subject of a captured vessel bearing that
name. Before the 'Tankerville' fell into the hands of the enemy, the
mails were thrown overboard, in accordance with the standing orders
which have already been referred to. The officers and crew were carried
on board the 'Lovely Lass,' and then the 'Tankerville' was sunk. Soon
afterwards the captive crew were released by the commander of the
privateer, and sent in a Spanish prize to Barbadoes.
But though the mail-packets were intended to rely for safety mainly upon
their fine lines and spread of canvas, and were expected to show fight
only in the last resort, we may be sure that, when the hour of battle
came upon them, they were not taken without a struggle. Nor, indeed, did
they always get the worst of the fray, as will be seen by the following
account of a brilliant affair which took place in the West Indies,
copied from the 'Annual Register' of 1794:--
"The 'Antelope' packet sailed from Port Royal, Jamaica, November 27,
1793. On the 1st of December, on the coast of Cuba, she fell in with two
schooners, one of which, the 'Atalanta,' outsailed her consort; and
after chasing the 'Antelope' for a considerable time, and exchanging
many shots, at five o'clock in the ensuing morning, it being calm, rowed
up, grappled with her on the starboard side, poured in a broadside, and
made an attempt to board, which was repulsed with great slaughter. By
this broadside, Mr Curtis, the master and commander of the 'Antelope,'
the first mate, ship's steward, and a French gentleman, a passenger,
fell. The command then devolved on the boatswain (for the second mate
had died of the fever on the passage), who, with the few brave men left,
assisted by the passengers, repelled many attempts to board. The
boatswain, at last observing that the privateer had cut her grapplings,
and was attempting to sheer off, ran aloft, and lashed her
squaresail-yard to the 'Antelope's' fore-shrouds, and immediately
pouring in a few volleys of small arms, which did great execution, the
enemy called for quarter, which was instantly granted, although the
French had the bloody flag hoisted during the whole contest. The prize
was carried into Annotta Bay about eleven o'clock the next morning. The
'Antelope' sailed with 27 hands, but had lost four before the action by
the fever, besides two then unfit for duty: so that, the surgeon being
necessarily in the cockpit, they engaged with only 20 men, besides the
passengers.
"The 'Atalanta' was fitted out at Charlestown, mounted eight 3-pounders,
and carried 65 men, French, Americans, and Irish, of whom 49 were killed
or wounded in the action; the 'Antelope' having only two killed and
three wounded--one mortally.
"The House of Assembly at Jamaica, as a reward for this most gallant
action, voted 500 guineas--200 to be paid to the master's widow, 100 to
the first mate's, 100 to the boatswain, and 100 among the rest of the
crew."
Another adventure of a mail-packet worthy of mention happened a few
years later. The 'Lady Hobart,' an Atlantic packet of 200 tons burthen,
left Halifax, Nova Scotia, for England in June 1803, and a few days
after leaving port, fell in with a French schooner, called 'L'Aimable
Julie,' laden with salt fish. Captain Fellowes of the packet took
possession of the schooner, and put a prize crew in charge. A few days
later, however, the 'Lady Hobart' ran into an iceberg; and there being
no hope of saving the ship, the mails were lashed to pigs of ballast and
thrown overboard. The crew and passengers took to the boats, and the
'Lady Hobart' shortly thereafter foundered. After suffering great
hardships, the voyagers reached Newfoundland on the 4th July. The
illustration is from a contemporary print.
[Illustration: 'Lady Hobart,' Mail-Packet, 200 tons.]
The duty of throwing the mails overboard, when serious danger was
apprehended, appears sometimes to have been carried out with undue
haste; for we find an account in the 'Annual Register' of March 4, 1759,
that the Dutch Mail of the 23d February had been thus disposed of
through an unlucky mistake. The ship conveying it was of Dutch
nationality, and, being boarded by a privateer, those in charge had
hastily concluded that the visitor must be an enemy. When too late, they
discovered their mistake, for the stranger proved to be a friendly
English cruiser; and they thereafter reached Harwich with a budget of
regrets in place of the mails.
The packet-boats sailing from the ports of Harwich and Dover, being
habitually in the "silver streak," were subject to frequent
interruptions from English privateers and men-of-war frequenting these
waters; and to lessen the inconvenience thus arising, the packets at one
time carried what was called a "postboy jack." An official record of
1792 thus describes the flag: "It is the Union-jack with the figure of a
man riding post with a mail behind him, and blowing his horn." These
flags were made of bunting, and cost L1, 2s. each.
[Illustration: Postboy jack]
Happily there has not for a long time been any need for using fighting
ships to convey the mails of this country over the high seas; and this
is a danger which it has not been needful to provide against in the
packet service of the present generation.
Before leaving these mail-packets of former days, it is perhaps worth
recording, that while needy passengers were sometimes carried on board
at half the usual fares, and those in destitute circumstances for
nothing at all, the poor Jews were kept outside the pale of the generous
concession; and the Post-office thus joined the world's mob in the
general harsh treatment of that unhappy race. This appears by an
official order of 1774, and the hardship was only removed under an
authority dated August 24, 1792. The Postmaster-General's minute on the
subject is as follows:--"The Postmaster-General thinks that the last
words of the order which proscribes all Jews, merely because they are
Jews, is not consistent with the usual liberality of the office; but
that the agent should be directed to give to them the same privileges
that are given to all the rest of the world without any exception to
them on account of their religion."
We will be pardoned one more quotation. It is a concession on the score
of religion, made by the Postmaster-General in a minute, dated October
19, 1790. It runs thus:--"Let the Secretary write a civil letter to Mr
Coke, that the Postmaster-General is very willing to relinquish, on the
part of the King, the usual head money of 12 guineas for three persons
at L4, 4s. each, whom Mr Coke represents to be sent to the West Indies
for the purpose of instructing the negro slaves in the principles of the
Christian religion."
While in the eighteenth century but trifling advancement would seem to
have been made in naval matters, what a contrast is presented by the
achievements of the last eighty years! As compared with the 'Etruria'
and the 'Umbria' recent acquisitions of the Cunard Company, for the
conveyance of the mails between Liverpool and New York, each of 8000
tons burthen and 12,500 horse-power, the pigmy vessels of the past
almost sink into nothingness; and we cannot but acknowledge the rapidity
with which such stupendous agencies have come under the control of man
for the furtherance of his work in the world.
[Illustration: Steamship 'America.']
A favourite American packet of our own era, for travellers crossing the
Atlantic, was the 'America' of the National Steamship Company, which has
since been purchased by the Italian Government for service as a fast
cruiser. It is a ship of 6500 tons gross tonnage; and is a surprising
contrast to the American packet of eighty years ago already described.
We would present a further contrast between the past and the present as
regards the packet service. So late as 1829, and perhaps later still,
the voyages out to the undermentioned places and home again were
estimated to take the following number of days, viz.:--
Days.
To Jamaica, 112
" America, 105
" Leeward Islands, 91
" Malta, 98
" Brazil, 140
" Lisbon, 28
There were then no regular packets to China, New South Wales, Sierra
Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Goree, Senegal, St Helena, and many parts of
South America; opportunity being taken to send ship letter-bags to these
places as occasion offered by trading vessels.
Nowadays the transit of letters to the places first above-mentioned is
estimated to occupy the following number of days:--
Days.
To Jamaica, 18
" America, 7
" West Indies, 16
" Malta, 4-1/2
" Brazil, 21
" Lisbon, 3
And the return mails would occupy a similar amount of time.
In nothing perhaps will the advantages now offered by the Post-office,
in connection with the packet service, be more appreciated by the public
than in the reduced rates of postage. The following table shows the
initial rates for letters to several places abroad in 1829 and in
1884:--
1829. 1884.
France, 2s. 1d. 2-1/2d.
Italy, 2s. 10d. 2-1/2d.
Spain, 3s. 1d. 2-1/2d.
Sweden, 2s. 7d. 2-1/2d.
Portugal, 2s. 9d. 2-1/2d.
Gibraltar, 3s. 1d. 2-1/2d.
Malta, 3s. 5d. 2-1/2d.
United States, 2s. 5d. 2-1/2d.
Brazil, 3s. 9d. 4d.
If we were asked to point out a mail-packet of the present day as
fulfilling all modern requirements in regard to the packet service, and
showing a model of equipment in the vessels as well as order in their
management, we would not hesitate to name the mail-steamers plying
between Holyhead and Kingstown. It may not be generally known, but it is
the case, that these vessels carry a post-office on board, wherein
sorters perform their ordinary duties, by which means much economy of
time is effected in the arrangement of the correspondence. In stormy
weather, when the packets are tumbling about amid the billows of the
Channel, the process of sorting cannot be comfortably carried on, and
the men have to make free use of their sea legs in steadying themselves,
so as to secure fair aim at the pigeon-holes into which they sort the
letters. But the departure of one of these ships from Kingstown is a
sight to behold. Up to a short time before the hour of departure friends
may be seen on the hurricane-deck chatting with the passengers; but no
sooner is the whistle of the mail-train from Dublin heard than all
strangers are warned off; in a few minutes the train comes down the
jetty; the sailors in waiting seize the mail-bags and carry them on
board; and the moment the last of the bags is thus disposed of, the
moorings are all promptly cast off, and the signal given to go ahead:
and with such an absence of bustle or excitement is all this done, that
before the spectator can realise what has passed before his eyes, the
ship is majestically sailing past the end of the pier, and is already on
her way to England.