Kings Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 | Page 3

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