Kings Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 | Page 2

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