History of the Post-office Packet Service Between the Years 1793-1815

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HISTORY OF
THE POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE

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HISTORY OF

THE POST-OFFICE PACKET

SERVICE

BETWEEN THE YEARS 1793-1815

COMPILED FROM RECORDS, CHIEFLY OFFICIAL

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BY n
<• .*

ARTHUR H?" -NORWAY

London

Macmillan and Co.

and New York
1895

All right* mtrvid

• • • •,

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q NOTE.

My acknowledgments are due to Mrs. Ball, of
Roscarrach, Falmouth, for permission to make use,
in illustrating this work, of four pictures in her
possession, namely, two of the action of the "Duke
of Marlborough " with the " Primrose," one of the
" Windsor Castle," and one of the " Hinchinbrooke."
To Mr. Burton, of the Old Curiosity Shop, Fal-
mouth, I am indebted for an illustration of Russell's
Wagons; and to many other friends, in Cornwall
and elsewhere, for very kind assistance and advice.

- i

j

I

CONTENTS.

PAGB

CHAPTER I.
Falmouth in the Olden Time, i

CHAPTER II.
Lax Administration, 13

CHAPTER III.
A Firmer Rule, 35

CHAPTER IV.
The West India Merchants, 56

CHAPTER V.
The End op the Abuses, 83

CHAPTER VI.
The North Sea Packets, 106

CHAPTER VII.
The Second French War, 120

viii CONTENTS.

PAGB

CHAPTER VIII.
The Struggle against the Continental System, . 147

CHAPTER IX.
Two Brilliant Years, 171

CHAPTER X.
The Mutiny at Falmouth, 197

CHAPTER XL
The Outbreak of the American War, .222

CHAPTER XII.
The American War, 245

CHAPTER XIII.
The American War. . 264

Index, 306

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Windsor Castle— Capt. Rogers, Commander, fnmtutuc*

Russell's Wagons, to/ac* page 10

H.M. Packet, Marlborough, 128

Primrose— Marlborough : Commencement, . 274

Primrose— Marlborough : Close, .... 276
Hinchinbrooke and American Privateer, . 282

i

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CHAPTER I.

FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME.

No nation can afford to forget its past history ; and
England, of all others, whose power is so deeply
rooted in sea-fights, should not be careless of her
naval records. After many generations of almost
ceaseless warfare, there has been a long breathing
time of peace, an interval which could not be better
spent than in collecting and recording the actions
of those brave men whose struggles ensured our
ease, and preserving them for our own benefit, as
well as for that of posterity.

This task has been accomplished long ago as
regards the great sea-battles ; and most of even
the lesser fights in which the ships of the Royal
Navy were engaged have been sufficiently described.
But there remains a service distinguished over and
over again, an ancient service, highly useful to the
public, and associated with a great department of
State, whose history has been left untold till all
the officers connected with it have passed away,
and the personal recollections which are the life-

2 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

blood of such a narrative are lost to us irretrievably
— I refer to the Post-Office Packet Service.

The very name has grown unfamiliar to our ears.
It brings nothing to our minds, recalls no train of
recollections, stirs up no dim memories. For the
whole world, with the exception of a few people in
Cornwall and on the east coast of England, the
Packet Service is dead, like all the men who made
it, and fought in it, and laid their lives down for it
It was a fighting service, yet the naval histories
scarcely mention it. It was for a century and a half
the regular vehicle of travellers ; yet among the
multitude of books which treat of the journeys of
our grandfathers, few indeed take note of the fact
that they sometimes crossed the ocean. Its records,
containing many a story which other nations would
have set with pride in the forefront of their history,
have lain neglected for eighty years. Some have
perished through the carelessness of three genera-
tions; some were wantonly destroyed as possessing
neither use nor interest Even in Falmouth itself,
so long the head-quarters of the Service, the actions
which distinguished it are forgotten; and you may
search for half a day before finding some old sailor,
mending his nets in the stern of a boat, in whose
memories those stories linger which have never been
collected, and which few indeed of his fellow-towns-
men have cared to remember.

Seeing, therefore, that this oblivion has descended
on the Service, it will be necessary at the outset to

i.] FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME. 3

give some description of its nature and functions,
of the men who constituted it, the voyages they
performed, the profits they made, and so forth. This
will best be done by describing the life of a single
station ; and, as it was at Falmouth that the largest
number of Packets was stationed, and the most
important business transacted, there is no other
station so suitable for the purpose.

The town of Falmouth was associated most in-
timately with the Post-Office for more than a century
and a half. Indeed, it would scarcely be an exag-
geration to say that the town was made by its
connection with the Mail Service. Certain it is that
when the Post-Office selected Falmouth in 1688 as
the point of embarkation and departure for the newly
established Spanish mail boats, the Department found
not an old established town and port, but a place
as yet of the smallest consequence, only recently
incorporated, possessing hardly any trade in spite
of its advantages of situation, and hampered in its
growth by the jealousy of neighbouring towns. In
all those traditions of the past which made the glory
of Fowey, Looe, Penryn, and a dozen other ports
along the coast, the Falmouth men had no share
whatever. Their town was a bare hillside when the
Fowey men vindicated their claim to rank among
the Cinque Ports. It was nothing but a cluster of
cottages when the Armada sailed up the Channel.

This very absence of traditions and of vigorous
commercial life made the place more suitable for a

4

4 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Post-Office station, and may have largely influenced
its choice. It would not have served the Department
nearly so well to send its officers to a port where
their affairs must have taken rank among other
transactions, and the despatch of mails might have
been delayed by the pressure of urgent commercial
business. At Falmouth My Lords the Postmaster
General 1 took what was practically a clear board,
and could write on it what they pleased.

Throughout the eighteenth century the links which
bound the Post-Office Service to the town grew
steadily stronger. As the numbers of the Packets
increased the local tradesmen prospered ; the demand
for naval stores was incessant ; and in those days of
difficult and slow communication it was necessary
to obtain almost all supplies locally. Shipbuilding
yards sprang up, rope walks were laid out, inns were
built for the accommodation of the travellers who
came from all parts of England to take passage for
Spain or the West Indies. A considerable number of
merchants found their chief occupation in supplying
the officers of the Packets with goods to be sold on
commission in foreign ports, for the statute which
prohibited such trade was not enforced, and many
more were engaged in disposing of wines and lace,
tobacco and brandy, which were smuggled home on
board the Post-Office vessels under cover of th6
opportunities created by this irregular traffic. The

1 The office of Postmaster General was until the year 1823
always held jointly by two Ministers of the Crown.

i.] FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME. 5

sons of the sailors, as they grew up, sailed with
their fathers. The sons of the commanders took
up their fathers' appointments, while the old men
retired on their pensions and their savings to com-
fortable houses in the pleasant neighbourhood of
Falmouth, creating with their wives and families a
society among themselves, and so binding closer
with each successive generation the ties between the
town and the Service in which their lives were spent.

And so as the town of Falmouth grew and de-
veloped it continued to be what it had been at the
outset, a Packet town, every trade and interest which
its inhabitants professed being drawn irresistibly to-
wards the important State Department which had
settled itself down in their midst. Merchants and
tradesmen were to be found of course, who con-
ducted prosperous businesses upon independent lines;
but it is probably safe to say that at the end of the
last century there was hardly one person in the place
who did not feel that he would have been injured
in his profession, and yet more in his sympathies
and his pride, by any step which impaired the per-
manence of the relation between Falmouth and the
Post-Office Service.

The life of a seaport can never be dull with the
hopeless insipidity of an inland town, and Falmouth
especially, possessing a harbour which formed an
unequalled station for watching the French coast,
had its share of excitement in the coming and going
of the warships. But in the vessels belonging to the

6 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

port, the Falmouth Packets, there was an even
greater and more enduring interest For the Packets
were the regular vehicles of news. Their com-
manders were under orders to inform themselves of
the situation of affairs in every country at which
they touched ; and wherever military or naval opera-
tions were being conducted, it was to them that
everybody looked for a full and accurate plan of
the campaign.

Thus the news for which all England was waiting
reached Falmouth first, and was ventilated and dis-
cussed in every tavern in the town a full day at
least before it was in the hands even of Ministers in
London. A look-out man was constantly stationed
on the Beacon Hill above Falmouth, whence the
returning Packets could be seen for a great distance
coming up the coast. As soon as one was sighted
the watchman hastened down and spread the news
about the town, receiving in accord with regular
custom a shilling from every woman whose husband
was on board ; and then the people crowded out
towards Pendennis to see the Packet sailing in,
speculating and guessing as to whether she had
spoken with the fleet, whether a battle had occurred,
watching anxiously to see whether the sides or rigg-
ing of the vessel bore any marks of shot — for it was
a common thing for them to fight their way across
the ocean. Then the gigs from the hotels, well
manned with sturdy rowers, would shoot out from
the inner harbour, racing as eagerly as in a regatta

I.] FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME. 7

to catch the first of the passengers ; and in a little
while the Market Strand, which was the usual
landing-place, would be packed with people pushing
and struggling to congratulate the home-comers, to
hear how stoutly the Packet had beaten off a Priva-
teer, to understand exactly where the great battle
of our fleet was fought, and how many French ships
had been taken. On such occasions the town seethed
with excitement, and it was a frequent thing to
close the day's proceedings by a dance on the deck
of the Packet as she lay at anchor in the harbour.

A Spanish traveller, Don Manuel Alvarez Espri-
ella, who visited England in 1808, has left in his
published letters an amusing account of the noise
and racket which went on in Falmouth immediately
after the arrival of the Packet from which he landed.

"The perpetual stir and bustle in this inn," he
plaintively observes, " is as surprising as it is weari-
some. Doors opening and shutting, bells ringing,
voices calling to the waiter from every quarter, while
he cries 4 coming ' to one room, and hurries away to
another. Everybody is in a hurry here; either they
are going off in the Packets and are hastening their
preparations to embark, or they have just arrived
and are impatient to be on the road homeward.
Every now and then a carriage rattles up to the
door with a rapidity which makes the very house
shake. The man who cleans the boots is running
in one direction, the barber with his powder bag in
another. Here goes the barber's boy with his hot

8 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

water and razors; there comes the clean linen from
the washerwoman, and the hall is full of porters
and sailors bringing up luggage, or bearing it away.
Now you hear a horn blow because the post is
coming in, and in the middle of the night you are
awakened by another because it is going out Noth-
ing is done in England without a noise, and yet
noise is the only thing they forget in the bilL"

So vivaciously writes Don Manuel of what he
saw and heard on his landing in Falmouth, and
while it would be futile to deny that his amiable
sarcasm about our national propensity for noise con-
tains a grain of truth, yet it may be fairly claimed
that the affairs of an establishment so large as that
which the Post-Office maintained at Falmouth could
not have been conducted with the leisurely and
well-bred movements to which Spanish life had
accustomed him.

There were, when the Don landed at the Market
Strand, thirty-nine Packets at Falmouth, of which
one sailed every week for Lisbon, one for San
Sebastian, or some other port on the north coast of
Spain, whence communication with our army in the
Peninsula could be maintained, one for the West
Indies, sailing alternately by a different route among
the islands, and others at somewhat longer intervals
for the Mediterranean, Brazil, Surinam, Halifax, and
New York. The officers and crews of these Packets
formed a body of no less than twelve hundred men,
all permanently employed by the Post-Office, while

i.] FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME. 9

the passengers numbered between two and three
thousand in the course of a year.

The mere coming and going, and the natural de-
mands of so large a number of people, created a
great prosperity in Falmouth. There was plenty of
money in the town, and it was spent as freely as it
had been gained. The commanders were all making
large incomes. The passage money was the chief
source of profit, and from this alone each one of
them drew a net income of approximately jfiooo
per annum. Their fees on the carriage of bullion
were more variable, but at times very considerable ;
while, as long as the privilege of private trading
existed, there were few commanders who did not
turn over as much by the sale of goods on com-
mission as he drew from the passenger fares. These,
with the regular official pay of £8 a month in war,
and £$ in peace, formed the commander's legitimate
receipts. Some people said that his financial trans-
actions did not end there; but that is as it may
be. And, after all, smuggling was not condemned
by public opinion in the West of England ; though
probably in the early years of this century much
less was done in this way at Falmouth than in the
previous generation.

It may be interesting to record the sums paid by
passengers on a few of the voyages most frequently
made in those days. The rates here given are those
current in 1807, and were somewhat higher than
were in force ten years earlier.

io POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

From Falmouth to Gibraltar the fare was thirty-
five guineas, and to Malta fifty-five guineas. The
cost of the necessary provisions in the Mediterranean
ports was so much greater than at Falmouth, that
the homeward fares were higher still, viz., sixty
guineas from Malta, and forty-five guineas from
Gibraltar. Passengers for Jamaica paid fifty-four
guineas, and were provided with everything except
bedding ; but when they returned they were by old
custom to provide themselves with food in addition,
and yet were mulcted of fifty guineas.

As for the bullion brought home in the Packets,
there were landed at Falmouth in a single year the
following sums :

Dollars, 1,126,861

Doubloons, ...... 17,829

Sterling Coin, £20,707

Gold (in ounces), 745

Silver (in ounces), 2,984

Milreas, 8,548

Half Joes, 317

Platina (in pounds), --..-- 50

Louis d'Ors, 10

A treasure of such value demanded special pre-
cautions for its safe keeping. It was stored in a
chamber cut in the solid rock which forms the hill-
side on which the town of Falmouth lies. This
chamber was lined with sheet iron, and its doors
were of oak strongly bound with iron bars. Here
the treasure lay in absolute safety until arrange-
ments could be made for conveying it to London.

L] FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME. X1

It travelled by vehicles which are yet well remem-
bered in Cornwall, and which, in their day, con-
stituted one of the chief modes of communication
between London and the West of England. Russell's
wagons were indeed travelling upon the Great West
Road before the first mail coach bowled out of
London ; and as the passenger fares by tfce " High-
flyer" or the "Rocket" were beyond the means of
poor people, there were always some, even until
the days of railways, who preferred to journey with
the wagons, sleeping by night beneath the tilt, and
trudging all day beside the wagoner's pony. There
was no difficulty in keeping pace; for the rate did
not exceed two, or at most three, miles an hour.
The horses never trotted; the progress was a sort
of stroll. Inside the wagon rode a man armed with
pistol and blunderbuss. The drivers were provided
with horse pistols, and, when treasure was in the
wagons, a guard of soldiers marched up to London
with them, one on either side, two in the rear, to
guard against surprise.

The roads were unsafe enough in old days, but
there is no memory of any attack upon Russell's
wagons; though a tradition lingers that such a
venture was once planned, but frustrated by a dream
which revealed the robbers' plot Hardly fifty years
have passed since these old wagons might still have
been met, toiling at their leisurely pace along the
western road. But the new railway was fast de-
vouring the country ; the busy inns were closing one

12 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap. i.

by one; that great silence was falling over the
country roads which has lasted until now. The
passengers went by train ; the specie no longer came
to Falmouth. The old wagons had had a long
day, but it was past; and they went the way of
other anachronisms. The illustration which faces
this page shows perhaps more clearly than any
description, the picturesqueness of this phase of by-
gone life.

It was not with the wagons that the change in
progress either began or ended. The construction
of railways was changing the face of England,
robbing certain districts of their old importance,
and raising others to a consequence which they had
never before enjoyed. The picturesque and busy
life of Falmouth was doomed. The same silence
was fast stealing over the port and town as had
settled on the country roads. The townsmen fought
hard and long to retain their ancient Service, but
the spirit of the age was too strong for them. Bit
by bit the Packets were removed to other ports,
and an old and memorable chapter of our history
was brought to a close.

CHAPTER II.

LAX ADMINISTRATION.

It may be that from the bird's-eye view given in
the previous chapter, the reader has gathered some
impression of the magnitude of the Post-Office
establishment at Falmouth, and of the strength and
number of the ties which united it with the pros-
perity of that town.

To describe in similar detail the life of other
Packet Stations would be tedious and useless ; for
no one of them could vie with the great Cornish
seaport in any circumstance of interest. The Dover
Station, whence the Calais Packets sailed, was closed
during every French war. The Harwich, or Yarmouth
boats, for they sailed during several years from the
latter port, stood next to Falmouth in importance.
They maintained the Postal Service for Holland and
Northern Europe generally, sailing chiefly to the
Brill and to Hamburg. Their voyages on the stormy
North Sea were often dangerous; and were per-
formed with great skill and hardihood, but with
little variety of incident It was not until the

I4 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Continental System established by Napoleon began
to force the exclusion of English vessels from every
seaport which his hand could reach, and like a
creeping paralysis, the hostile influence mounted
steadily up the shores of the North Sea and the
Baltic, — it was only then that the Harwich Packets
began to serve as counters in a game of exceptional
difficulty. The Holyhead Station confronted no
dangers worth speaking of. The Milford Packets
ran to Waterford, often making rough and trouble-
some passages, but offering very little detail worth
recording. The boats between Portpatrick and
Donaghadee were still less interesting.

In every sense Falmouth was the chief station.
Nearly every vestige of interest connected with the
ancient Mail Service centres there, and the Falmouth
Packets may be regarded as the most perfect type
of the Post-Office Establishment

No account appears to be extant of the circum-
stances attending the institution in the year 1688
of a Service of Packets from Falmouth Harbour,
but they may be easily surmised. For fourteen
years the communications were with Corunna alone.
It could scarcely have been for the convenience of
passengers that in those days of difficult roads, the
most westerly port in England was chosen as the
place of embarkation. The selection suggests that
the Government were guided in their choice by the
paramount necessity of quick passages, and the
swift transmission of news ; and this anxiety for

II.] LAX ADMINISTRATION. I5

haste is amply accounted for by the growing im-
portance of Spanish politics at the time. Questions
were indeed arising in that quarter of the world
which were of vital consequence to England ; and
the Ministry in providing a means of forwarding
and receiving despatches with regularity, were im-
pelled by something like necessity.

The idea of a Regular Service of Packet boats,
supported by the Government, was not a novel one.
Such a Service had existed on the eastern coast of
England from very early times ; and in the Packets
of Harwich or Dover a model for the new establish-
ment was ready to hand. A somewhat different
type of vessel was required for the Corunna voyage.
The new Packets were considerably larger, nearly
two hundred tons, while those serving in the North
Sea did not usually exceed sixty tons. They were
also more heavily afmed, as became vessels which
ventured further from the protection of English
cruisers in the home waters, and carried a larger
complement of men. They were hired under con-
tract, and were not the property of the Post-Office,
which, indeed, at no period of its administration,
became the owner of the Packets, though the officers
and men serving on them were from very early
days the servants of the Postmaster General, not of
the contractors.

It might have seemed more natural that the new
Packets should sail from the same ports as the old
ones, and be located on the east coast, where all

16 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

the machinery needed for their administration was
at work already. But it seems to have been recog-
nized from the outset that for the Spanish Service
that port was the most suitable which lay furthest
to the west. Falmouth was chosen from the first,
and though in the early years of the last century
the contractors were occasionally allowed to de-
spatch their boats from Plymouth, and even once
or twice (under a strong representation of the danger
of Privateers watching a known point of departure)
from Bideford, the Postmaster General, as time went
on, became less ready to fall in with the whims of
these gentlemen, and the Service settled down regu-
larly at Falmouth.

That the right port was chosen there cannot be
a doubt. The extreme westerly position of Fal-
mouth Harbour gives it an advantage which is ren-
dered evident by a single glance at the map. From
no other harbour in this country can an outward-
bound vessel clear the land so soon. No other is
so quickly reached by one homeward bound run-
ning for shelter. On the darkest nights and in
dense fog, ships unacquainted with the harbour
enter it in safety, so easy is it of access ; and sailing
vessels can leave it in any wind, save one blowing
strongly from the east or south-east The prevalent
gales in the English Channel are from the west.
These are head winds for a ship leaving Plymouth,
the port with which Falmouth is most naturally
compared ; but they are favourable for Falmouth.

ii. ] LAX ADMINISTRA TION. j 7

In fact, it happened only on very rare occasions
that the despatch of the mails was delayed by
stress of weather ; x and the Post Office agent,
when giving evidence on the subject in 1840, could
not remember one instance of such delay through-
out his whole service, extending over forty-five
years.

If, however, Falmouth excelled in ease of access,
the natural advantages of the harbour were still
more evident when the ships had reached it. It is,
in fact, the safest anchorage in the country, pro-
tected from the full strength of the Atlantic rollers
by the great promontory of Meneage, and abound-
ing in sheltered creeks where vessels might lie in
practical immunity from the worst of storms.

On one of these creeks the town of Falmouth
stands ; and this inlet, the King's or Inner Harbour,
was assigned to the Packets as their special anchor-
age. It lies in such a situation that the swell enter-
ing the harbour is diverted from it by the high land
of Pendennis, at the entrance of the port ; and the
advantage of this aspect is so great, that vessels
may be seen lying in the Inner Harbour without
perceptible motion, while just outside others are
rolling gunwale under.

1 The standing rule was that the Packets must put to sea
immediately on receiving the mails, whatever the wind was,
provided only that they could carry a double-reefed top-sail —
a striking proof of the certainty with which a good and well-
found sailing vessel can clear the Channel from Falmouth.

B

1 8 POS T-OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

There is seldom any difficulty in leaving this
sheltered anchorage. With a fair wind a vessel
may be in the open sea in a quarter of an hour
after slipping her moorings off Green Bank, op-
posite the town of Falmouth ; and here the Packets
used to lie until the day before sailing, when they
warped out into Carrach Roads, and lay there to
receive the mails, in order that not the slightest
loss of time might occur in proceeding to sea when
the bags were once on board.

At Falmouth then the Post-Office located itself
in the year 1688, with two Packet boats hired from
a contractor, one Daniel Gwin, who appears to
have received a salary of £70 per annum, in addi-
tion, doubtless, to whatever he could make indirectly
out of his contract. Probably his gains were con-
siderable. At any rate the Government made none,
for the accounts show from year to year a loss of
several thousand pounds upon the maintenance of
these two boats, from which, indeed, the revenue
seems seldom to have received more than £450.
Expensive as the Corunna Packets proved to be, it
may be presumed that the promoters of the Service
were not dissatisfied with it ; for early in the new
century they proceeded to develop it. The West
Indian trade was becoming important enough to
make its wishes felt The merchants engaged in it
may probably have represented that the regular
communication now established with Corunna gave
their colleagues in the Spanish trade more facilities

ii.] LAX ADMMISTRA TION. 1 9

than they enjoyed. All Governments have found it
difficult to resist such an argument ; and accord-
ingly, in 1702, Packets were established at Fal-
mouth to ply to Barbados, Jamaica, and certain
places in the Southern States of North America.
Two years later a Service with Lisbon was set up ;
and the Post-Office Service at Falmouth began to
assume the form which it preserved until within the
memory of men now living.

It is no part of the present writer's purpose to
trace in detail all the events which went to make
up the history of the Packet Station at Falmouth
during the last century. Such a task would doubt-
less throw much light on naval history, and some,
perhaps, on other subjects not without their share
of interest The materials are scanty, however, and
the record might be dreary reading. The personal
recollections which would have lit the story up and
made it real are lost beyond recall. What has come
down to us is hardly more than the bald record of
administrative changes — at such a time there were
two West India Packets, at another four ; under one
regime they touched at Charlestown and Pensacola,
while under its successor their voyages were re-
stricted. There were such changes of rule in regard
to victualling the sailors, such and such difficulties
in controlling them; and so on. It is nothing but
an arid waste of technicalities, almost devoid of
interest save for the professed student of naval or
commercial history.

20 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

One or two facts stand out from this mass of
detail, and arrest attention as we pass it by. There
is the occasional mention of a sea-fight, in which so
many men (in proportion to the number of the crew)
were killed and wounded, as to create a strong desire
to know the details.

Thus, an order of the Postmaster General, dated
May 1 6th, 1744, recounts that a petition has been
received from one Hannah Christophers, widow of
Joseph Christophers, who lost his life on June
24th, 1740, on board the "Townshend" Packet,
Captain John Cooper, in an engagement against the
Spaniards, wherein five men (whose names are given)
received "several grievous wounds in defence of the
Packet, and afterwards suffered a long and cruel
imprisonment of sixteen months." By the rules and
customs of His Majesty's service, the order goes on
to observe, these poor men are entitled to "some
bounty or allowance for their comfort and support";
and the Postmaster General, having in mind this
laudable usage, and moreover, "having in part ex-
perienced it will be impossible to carry on the sea
service of this office without great difficulty, danger,
and interruption, unless some such encouragement
be constantly given in the like cases," proceed to
award bounties ranging from £4 to £10, and in
one case even a pension of no less amount than
£4 per annum!

We shall hear further of the "Townshend" Packet,
for the mantle of Captain John Cooper descended

II.]

LAX ADMINISTRATION.

21

on the commander of another " Townshend," by
whom some seventy years later a great action was
fought against hopeless odds with such determined
bravery as must be admitted to surpass any other
recorded achievement of the Post-Office fleet

Again, on July 25th, 1759, it is ordered that
Captain John Jones be allowed ;£ioo for his gallant
defence of the "Fawkener" Packet, when attacked
by a large French sloop of twelve carriage guns
and upwards of one hundred men between Barbados
and Antigua ; and three years later the same sum
was awarded to Captain Bonell, for bravery and
good conduct in action with a French Privateer.

Many more such quickly jotted entries of the
perils of brave men can be traced in the ancient
records. The details of their conduct were allowed
to perish. The question of account alone survives.
Enough has been said however to show that from
the outset the Falmouth Packets formed a fighting
service, that is to say, a service which was fre-
quently called upon to fight, and understood how
to acquit itself when occasion arose.

It is true that the Packet officers were not allowed
to seek engagements ; and this rule, though ob-
viously necessary, seeing that the safety of the mails
was the sole object of the Service, proved most
difficult to enforce. The difficulty was not caused
by any especial unruliness on the part of the Fal-
mouth officers. It grew from a much deeper root,
and flourished in the natural tendency of all man-

i

22 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

kind to pick up any articles of value which can,
even by a stretch of conscience, be regarded as fair
prize.

A long succession of years of peace has so con-
firmed the sacredness of the principles of meutn and
tuum in the minds of most of us, that it is not
easy to realize how far they were undermined in
days of war, especially upon the high seas. The
world has grown very punctilious, and looks askance
on even honest privateering, while piracy is uni-
versally held to deserve no better fate than a post
and chains in Execution Dock. In the last century
these excellent sentiments were by no means gen-
erally entertained, at any rate in quarters where
they were likely to be acted on. Among men of
the sea, the ocean was regarded in the light of a
great lucky bag, into which you thrust your hand
and pulled out the best thing you could find. If
the thing belonged to your neighbour, so much the
worse for him. He should have kept his guns in
better practice, and trained his men more carefully
to the use of small arms.

Now there were sailing on the seas in those days
a considerable number of ill-defended ships which
were so very valuable as to make a poor sailor's
mouth water and his fingers tingle. Of the wealth
of the Spanish treasure ships every one has heard.
The sums they are reported to have carried in their
clumsy holds sound fabulous even to us as we read
of them in the sober light of history; and ex-

II.] LAX ADMINISTRATION. 23

aggerated as they doubtless were in the heated
atmosphere of a Falmouth tavern, where every
sailor strove to surpass his neighbour in marvellous
tales of the sea, these reports must have seemed to
many > a poor Packet captain to open a road to
untold wealth. Such galleons were captured very
easily sometimes. A little disguise to make the
Packet look like a sloop of war, a bold onset, a
desperate boarding assault,' and the prize would be
won. Many a well armed vessel had been taken
by a handful of men! England was at war with
Spain during a great part of the last century; and
did not that fact make the Spanish argosies the
fair prize of any Englishman who could seize
them ?

Whether, under the influence of such considera-
tions, a treasure ship was ever taken by a Packet,
is not mentioned in the scanty records. But it is
certain that a good deal of piracy in a quiet way
was done by the Falmouth commanders, especially
early in the century, when the control from head-
quarters was lax, and the necessity of watching
the use made of the armaments supplied by the
Government was not clearly seen. The officers
showed a disposition to call the irregularity "priva-
teering"; but a vessel which takes prizes without a
license from the Crown is a Pirate, not a Privateer,
and the Packets never held such licenses.

Of course without a license there was a difficulty
in disposing of a captured vessel. The intervention

_ __ ^ r -

24 POST-OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

of the Admiralty Court could not be sought, unless
indeed it was possible to represent the Packet as
having been attacked, and as having captured her
prize in self-defence. The Admiralty Courts were
not models of incorruptibility, as all who recollect
Lord Cochrane's descriptions of them will allow,
and doubtless did not inquire too closely into any
plausible story. But if the matter would not bear
even their examination, there were a dozen ports
known to all sailors where a vessel and her cargo
could be sold without ^ny questions asked.

Of course these practices, however full of charm
for the officers who profited by them, were very
strongly condemned by the Postmaster General, who
had to consider only the safety of the mails, and
to guard against the chance of heavy claims being
made upon the Government for the value of captured
Packets. As far as was possible, therefore, they
forbade piracy and punished ■ the offenders ; and yet
the frequency of the offence is pretty clearly shown
by the fact that it was constantly being adduced
as the best of all reasons for not arming the Packets
heavily. About the year 1780, as was detailed
before a committee of the House of Commons, a
sailor called at the General Post-Office, to announce
the capture of the Packet in which he sailed. He
described the gallant stand which his officers and his
fellow seamen had made against hopeless odds,
spoke feelingly of the cruel captivity they had under-
gone, in which some of them were still languishing,

\

II. ] LAX ADM1NISTRA TION. 25

exhibited the scar of the wound he had received,
and confidently claimed the "smart money" which
he had earned so well.

The story was imposing, but it did not survive
cross-examination. Something suggested suspicion ;
and by degrees the true facts were wormed out of
the brave fellow. It was quite true that his Packet
had been captured. In the early dawn of a certain
summer morning, as the Packet was running towards
New Orleans, she descried two innocent-looking
vessels lying-to off the shore. They were remark-
ably like sugar ships, such as would fetch a sub-
stantial sum, if sold judiciously ; and being traders,
were doubtless well within the power of the Fal-
mouth vessel, which accordingly ran down, and sent
a shot across their bows, only to find the strangers
were a French frigate and her consort, which quickly
turned the tables on their presumptuous adversary.

Of course in such a case as this the Government
would admit no claim for the value of the Packet
lost by gross misconduct, and it may probably be
assumed that the money loss thus thrown upon the
owners was not the only punishment imposed.
There were cases, however, in which conduct equally
irregular, but which happened to succeed, was en-
tirely condoned ; and a striking instance of this
leniency shown towards success occurred in the
year 1808, at a time when several years of strong
administration had purified the Packet Service of
many of its blemishes. It may be safely concluded

26 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

that for every such case occurring in the present
century, there were half a dozen in the last.

It was a Harwich Packet which was concerned
in this curious case ; and it may be that the Post-
master General thought it unnecessary to apply a
strict rule to a station on which the Packets came
but rarely into conflict with the enemy. The
circumstances were as follows: —

On June 16th, 1808, the "Earl of Leicester/ 1 Captain
Anthony Hammond, homeward bound from Goth-
enburg with mails and passengers, was met about
ten leagues to the westward of the Scaw by a gale
of wind which obliged her to bear away for Mar-
strand. On the way thither she encountered two
Danish vessels laden with corn from Jutland for
their army in Norway. Now, under his instructions
Captain Hammond had nothing to do with these
vessels, but to leave them alone. It is true this
country was at war with Denmark at the time ;
but the "Earl of Leicester" was neither one of
H.M. cruisers, nor a letter of marque, and had no
business to involve herself in the matter. Captain
Hammond never asserted that the Danish vessels
attacked him. Indeed both he and they had quite
enough to do at the moment with their own affairs,
for a full gale of wind was blowing, and all the
ships were labouring heavily. Nevertheless Captain
Hammond, it being as he said "too rough to board
them," ordered them to regard themselves as prizes,
and to follow him.

II.] LAX ADMINISTRATION. 27

The two Danish ships being unarmed had no
choice but to obey these orders, and Captain Ham-
mond made joyfully for Marstrand with his prizes.
He had not proceeded very far when one of them
flew signals of distress, and made known that she
was in danger of sinking. Captain Hammond
lowered a boat and at great risk took the crew
out of the foundering vessel, which went down as
soon as the boat had got clear of her. The remain-
ing prize duly reached Marstrand, and was handed
over to the British Consul at that port, to await
the decision of the Admiralty Court. The crews of
both vessels were liberated, on giving a promise to
do their utmost to secure the release of the crew
of the "Unity" Packet, captured in the previous
November.

On board the "Earl of Leicester" were three
Swedish passengers, who were so far from feeling
satisfied with Captain Hammond's conduct on this
occasion that they addressed a special letter of
complaint to the Postmaster General. In this letter
they by no means admit that the prizes were picked
up by Captain Hammond as he went along, in the
casual way detailed by him, without delay or inter-
ruption to his voyage. On the contrary, they assert
roundly, that he chased the two little vessels during
a whole night, keeping up a continual fire both of
cannon and musketry ; that the " Earl of Leicester "
was far past Schagen when the prizes were first seen,
which of itself proved that Captain Hammond put

28 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

in to Marstrand with no other motive than that of
realizing them secure ; and they add : " On account
of this chase and capture, in which, in our opinion,
Packets have no right to engage, our voyage to
England was entirely broken off, because, during the
above hostile operations, we were in continual
anxiety and fear, loaded guns being carried about
in the cabin where we lay, and several shots fired
from them ; and we had reason to fear that the war-
like scene might soon be acted again, wherefore we
did not venture to pursue our voyage on board the
said Packet, but returned to Gothenburg."

Captain Hammond, in reply to these charges,
maintained that three gentlemen who, by their own
admission, were extremely frightened, and to his
knowledge were also lamentably sea sick, were not
the most trustworthy witnesses of what occurred, and
with this argument, together with some evidence that
the return to Marstrand was really made necessary
by the weather, the Postmaster General remained
content. The matter was dropped ; and Captain
Hammond, after waiting some five years, during
which time the Admiralty Courts considered his case
in their pleasant, leisurely way, received the value
of the prize.

Smuggling was a practice very frequently charged
against the Packet Service by its critics who, towards
the end of the last century, raised an outcry loud
enough to become heard in Parliament. It may be
feared that the charge was by no means groundless.

II.] LAX ADMINISTRATION.

29

Indeed it would be strange if it were, seeing that
throughout the west of England, if not elswhere,
the game of eluding the revenue laws was played
with infinite zest and enjoyment by all classes of
society. Falmouth itself was a nest of smugglers.
The old town was full of hiding places. The women
entered into the sport with audacious ingenuity; and
probably there was neither man, woman, nor child
in the town, with the possible exception of the
revenue officers, who did not regard the success of
a smuggler as a triumph for his kind against men
who were scarcely to be distinguished from foreign
enemies.

It is true there was a high officer of the Post-
Office at Falmouth, whose duty it was to discover
malpractices of every kind, and report them to the
Postmaster General. The contractor, from whom
the Packets were hired at their first institution, had
long since disappeared.

The Packets were hired from the commanders;
and over these officers was set an agent, to whom
each one of them was responsible for his actions.
This agent was not Postmaster. His duties did not
extend beyond the foreign mails and the conduct
of the Packet officers and seamen. He was the link
which united the sea service with the internal system
of the Post-Office. His duties were multifarious and
of the greatest consequence to the welfare of the
service.

It is perfectly clear that the duties of a controlling

3 o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

officer cannot be properly performed unless he keeps
his affairs and interests totally distinct from those
of his subordinates. The misfortune was that the
agents at Falmouth in the last century could not
grasp this principle, but departed from it so far as
to have trading relations with the commanders.
The agent dealt in naval stores: the commanders
supplied their Packets with spars and cordage from
his stock.

This was not the only way in which the agent's
affairs became entangled with those of the men he
was placed at Falmouth to control. The Packets,
though nominally owned by the commanders, with
whom the Government contracted for their hire, were
in most cases really the property of a syndicate, or
of private individuals, who put forward the com-
mander to represent them, on condition of receiving
the larger part of the emoluments. This capitalist
in the background was frequently no other than the
agent himself.

Relations such as these of course rendered it very
difficult for the agent to perform the duties of his
position at all effectually, and, as a matter of fact,
he did not so perform them. Abuses of every kind
crept into the Falmouth service. The captains were
subjected to gross extortions by the agent, who in
turn relaxed discipline in any way they might desire.
If, for instance, it occurred to any commander, that
by sailing with a few men short of his complement,
he could save their victualling allowances and so

II.] LAX ADMINISTRATION, 31

increase his own profits; the agent, whose duty it
was to muster the men immediately before sailing,
would either neglect the muster altogether, or else
make it, and be careful not to see the shore-boat
which, immediately afterwards, took off three or four
of the men who had answered to their names. If
the captain wished to stay ashore, whilst his Packet
went to sea, the agent would accept and forward
to London a certificate that he was ill, without
asking any questions either as to the nature of the
illness or the qualifications of the person appointed
to command the ship, who was not infrequently a
common seaman. If the captain had received from
some Bristol merchant a larger consignment of
goods to be sold on commission at Lisbon or Bar-
bados than his vessel ought to carry, the agent
would still certify that she was in trim when she
left Falmouth harbour, and had nothing on board
which could impede her sailing. In fact, there were
a hundred ways in which the agent could oblige
those captains who dealt largely with him ; and
without attempting to go more deeply into the x
events of the last century, it may fairly be doubted,
in the light of the scandals discovered in its closing
years, whether misconduct far grosser than any here
indicated was not practised by the commanders and
tolerated by the agent

This is a matter which will be dealt with more
fully in succeeding chapters. Enough has been said
to show that the state of affairs at Falmouth was

32 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

unsatisfactory to the last degree ; and while it may
very probably be that a considerable number of
individuals acted with scrupulous fidelity to their
trust, there is no doubt whatever that very many
betrayed it systematically.

Of course, a strong administration from head-
quarters would have changed all this. But the
General Post-Office itself was by no means exempt
from the taint which had fastened on Falmouth.
There was scarcely a single official, from the sec-
retary down to the door-keepers, who did not own
shares in the Packets, and each one of them was
for ever trying to secure advantages for the par-
ticular vessel in which he was interested. The ancient
system of paying the clerks merely nominal salaries,
and leaving in their hands privileges and perquisites
out of which they were expected to make their chief,
if not their sole, remuneration, produced its natural
effect in causing every officer to judge upon depart-
mental matters in the light of his own pecuniary
advantage; and, in short, it can only be said that
when the outcry in Parliament, which has been
mentioned already, made itself heard, it was high
time for some change to occur.

In truth, the end of an age of corruption was
approaching. In all departments of Government a
purer atmosphere was spreading. The Post-Office
was no worse than other public offices. It was what
the spirit of the times had made it, and it did but
partake of the vices which were characteristic of the

II.] LAX ADMINISTRA TION. 33

age. The old, bad system was everywhere breaking
down, crushing individuals beneath it, as such rotten
growths will when they fall at length. At Fal-
mouth, a certain agent went too far. The unsavoury
story need not be probed. Even at the time, as
would appear, the facts were not fully disclosed ;
for it no sooner became plain that a searching
inquiry into the agent's conduct would be made,
than the miserable man shut himself up in his office
and blew his brains out

That tragic occurrence marked, or coincided with,
a turning point in the history of the Packet Service.
On one side lies corrupt and slovenly administra-
tion, with its natural sequel of scandals and disorder.
On the other can be traced the commencement of
earnest endeavours for reform, the springing up
of patient and honest striving after an ideal ; and
as the course of events in the Packet Service is
followed from this moment through the forty years
or so which intervened before the control passed from
the: hands of the Post-Office, the effect of these
endeavours becomes continually more manifest, till
they culminate at last in something resembling
absolute success.

This is the story told in the ensuing pages. It

is taken up from the year 1793, because that year,

the first of the great struggle for mastery on which

no Englishman can look back without pride, serves

well to mark the commencement of the new order of

things. Moreover, much more is to be known about

c

1

34 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap. ii.

the Packet Service from 1793 onwards than can be
gleaned concerning the earlier period. The depart-
mental records are fairly complete thenceforward;
some account, at least, of every sea fight is preserved;
and among piles of brown and dusty papers, from
some of which the ink is fading fast, there has lain
untouched for ninety years, not only the story of a
piece of administrative work, as difficult and as
useful to this country as any that has ever been
carried through by patient effort, but also a whole
series of naval actions, of which the Post-Office was
once proud, and of which Cornishmen are proud
still, though they have forgotten the details of most

CHAPTER III.

A FIRMER RULE.

At the beginning of the year 1793, then, while the
relations of this country with France were quickly
growing desperate, the two statesmen who, according
to the custom of the time, jointly filled the office
of Postmaster General, were engaged in endeavour-
ing to set their Department in order, and to reduce
the expenses of administration, as the House of
Commons Committee had directed.

The difficulty of any interference in a system
which had grown up through a whole century was
obviously very great. Malpractices which four
generations of officers at Falmouth had learned to
regard as their natural privileges would not be given
up at the first word of rebuke from headquarters.
The profits of smuggling would not be dropped
without a struggle. Laxity of discipline, remissness,
carelessness of the credit of the Department — these
were faults which, where they existed, could be cured
only by a firm rule and in course of years. One
decision had, however, been taken, and was already

36 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

being carried out, from which important results pro-
ceeded, and which upon the whole effected much
good. .

Throughout the whole existence of the Falmouth
Packets up to this time it had scarcely been ques-
tioned that on the long Atlantic voyages the safety
of the mails was directly proportionate to the heavi-
ness of the armament. The West India merchants
were perpetually forcing this point on the Postmaster
General, and whenever a mail for Barbados or
Jamaica was lost, the General Post-Office was beset
with an indignant throng of merchants, loudly
demanding that more and more guns should be
assigned to every Packet which had to run the
gauntlet of the West India Islands.

The influence of wealthy merchants upon the
Post-Office is perhaps in our own day as great as
is convenient But a hundred years ago it was in-
finitely greater. For the General Post-Office, which
has now grown into something resembling a popu-
lous town, was then itself scarcely larger than the
office of any considerable merchant. Between St
Martin's le Grand, as we know it, and the office
of whatever city firm, there may be interchange
of views, but there can be no intimate association;
and it is exactly this which existed between the
Post-Office in Lombard Street, in 1793, and the
neighbouring offices, which were as large, if not as
important, as itself.

The Post-Office Packets in those days were carriers

III.] A FIRMER RULE. 37

of news as well as of the mails. The officers had
instructions to record most carefully in their jour-
nals full details of any events of public importance
occurring in the countries which they visited. These
journals, which frequently contained news later and
more authentic than any which had yet reached
London, were sent up from Falmouth immediately
after the arrival of the Packets, and lay at the Post-
Office open to the inspection of the merchants, who
were thus continually in the office, inquiring and
commenting on every detail connected with the
administration of the Packets, proffering suggestions,
and criticizing in season and out of season.

This constant association with the clerks of the
Post-Office placed in the hands of the West India
merchants very great opportunities of pressing their
views about the armament of the Packets, and they
did press them with such pertinacity and vehemence
that it must have required courage on the part of
Lords Chesterfield and Carteret to announce the
resolution not to increase those armaments, but to
cut them down, and to send the Packets to sea in
future totally unfit to resist Privateers of their own
size.

Such was the new policy, arranged in concert
with the Navy Board. It was not lacking in auda-
city. The Packets stationed at Falmouth were of
different sizes and varying rig. In future, all new
vessels were to be of a certain fixed design, of 179
tons burden, carrying a crew of twenty-eight men

)l

38 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

and boys, with four 4-pounders, two 6-pounders,
for use as chasers, and a proportionate quantity of
small arms.

A vessel armed and manned in this way was
clearly not a fair match for any but the smallest
class of French or Spanish Privateer. My Lords
the Postmaster General admitted this, and stated
that their reliance was on the capacity of the new
Packets to out-sail their enemies. The most patient
thought had been given to the selection of the
model. It was believed that vessels built on the
new design would out-sail most things afloat, and
in order to give them a fair chance of doing so they
were to carry as little weight of metal as possible.
If they could keep off row boats on entering or
leaving the channel, more was scarcely expected of
them save in the last resort. The commander's
duties were summed up in this formula, "You must
run where you can. You must fight when you can
no longer run, and when you can fight no more
you must sink the mails before you strike."

Here at one blow perished the system of Priva-
teering in the Packet Service. A ship armed so
lightly could not afford to cruise after prizes, but
was sufficiently concerned with her own safety.

The West India merchants prophesied disaster,
and indeed it seems that the Postmaster General in
framing their plans were not untainted by the pro-
verbially excessive zeal of the convert. The events
of the next few years certainly suggest that the

in.] A FIRMER RULE. 39

point of safety had been passed in reducing the
armaments; and all the changes effected by further
experience throughout the war were in the direction
of increase.

Such as the system was, however, it was estab-
lished, and My Lords had no time to discuss its
merits or defects. The declaration of war burst
upon them before their plans were executed, and
forthwith the General Post-Office was beset with
armourers and powder merchants, while the clerks
were called off from handling letters and newspapers
to discuss the pattern of a boarding pike, or to con-
sult with Mr. Nock about the quality of the pistols
which he had supplied.

Not one of the Packets had received its armament
when the war broke out It had not lasted three
weeks when an incident occurred which showed how
little time there was to waste.

The declaration of war had been immediately
followed by a general embargo on shipping, but, in
pursuance of an agreement between the French and
English Governments, an order in Council exempted
from this embargo Packets, and bye boats (vessels
hired temporarily for the Postal Service), and an-
nounced that they were to continue to run for some
time longer.

Under this agreement the "Despatch," a Dover
Packet, commanded by Captain John Osborn, set
sail as usual; but on February 20th, while lying in
Ostend Roads, she was summoned to surrender by

4 o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap

a French Privateer. Captain Osborn had no means
of resistance. His protests were disregarded, his
ship was seized, and he with his crew were made
prisoners of war.

The "Despatch" was carried into Dunkirk, and,
despite the remonstrances of the British Government,
was condemned as a prize. Captain Osborn was
exchanged within a few weeks of his capture, but
his crew were less fortunate. One of his sailors,
after remaining in prison for nearly three years,
during the whole of which period, if his statement
may be trusted, he supported life on a handful of
horse beans, served out every twenty-four hours, and
a small allowance of dirty water, came over to Eng-
land in a cartel in December, 1795. The rest of the
crew were then still in prison, and probably re-
mained there until peace was declared in 1802.

Under the stimulus of this unfortunate event the
work of arming the Packets proceeded briskly. The
guns and small arms for the Falmouth boats were
shipped on board a vessel lying in the Thames, and
after a series of irritating delays, caused chiefly by
the necessity of waiting for convoy, reached their
destination towards the end of March. The few
guns needed for the Harwich Packets were soon
provided. It had been intended to give them
4-pounders, but the commanders objected, declaring
that four 2-pounders each were as much as their
ships could carry. This was probably true enough,
for the North Sea Packets ranged only from fifty

TV*

in.] A FIRMER RULE. 41

to eighty tons burden. And indeed they had small
need for heavy armaments, for though they doubt-
less had occasionally to skirmish with row boats it
does not appear that throughout the war any one
of these Packets was attacked, or at least seriously
engaged on the high seas — a somewhat remarkable
immunity, which is perhaps to be accounted for
partly by their own excellence of sailing, and partly
by the thoroughness with which the important trade
route over which their various voyages were made
was patrolled by British cruisers.

It had not been customary in former wars to arm
the Holyhead and Dublin boats, but a few light
guns were now allowed to them, as well as to those
from Port Patrick to Donaghadee. The Packets
running between Milford Haven and Waterford were
somewhat more exposed to the attacks of Privateers,
which might be expected to hang about the en-
trance to St George's Channel in the hope of
intercepting the shipping out of Bristol, but here a
curious difficulty was raised by the proprietors, a
body of merchants, nineteen in number. All but
six of these gentlemen were members of the Society
of Friends, and, being sincerely convinced of the
sinfulness of war, they put in a decided objection
against the proposal to provide their vessels with
implements of strife and destruction.

The Postmaster General proceeded to reason with
these ardent theorists, and pointed out that as, by
the existing rule, the Department was bound to pay

42 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

the value of captured Packets it was but reasonable
that it should be allowed, at its own cost, to pro-
tect them. The men of peace, touched by the
financial argument, admitted this, but retorted that
if only the Government would refrain from the
wickedness of placing guns and cutlasses in the
hands of their sailors, they, that is to say the thir-
teen Quaker proprietors, would waive all claim to
compensation in the event of capture It was true,
they admitted, that the six proprietors who were not
Quakers were by no means ready to make this
sacrifice, but the Government, they urged, might
fairly be expected to risk the liability for six-nine-
teenths of the loss when a principle was at stake.

By this time, however, the Postmaster General had
become tired of the discussion, and closed it with a
brief intimation that if the Packets were not armed
the contract would be withdrawn, and in view of
this unsympathetic attitude the Quakers sold their
shares and retired from the concern.

That the unwarlike attitude of the Quakers was
by no means always accompanied by any want of
natural courage was demonstrated not long after
this period by a certain inhabitant of Falmouth, an
old and greatly respected member of the Society of
Friends. This gentleman held the appointment of
surgeon to the Post-Office establishment, and was
one day cruising on board a Packet when a French
Privateer hove in sight. It was obvious that there
was going to be a fight ; and the commander, know-

/

y

hi.] A FIRMER RULE. 43

ing his passenger's principles, suggested that he had
better go below. The doctor, a fine tall man, de-
clined to budge from the deck; and the captain
thereupon offered him a cutlass and pistol, observing
that as he intended to remain in the way of danger,
he might at least use weapons in self-defence. But
this suggestion also the doctor refused to entertain;
and, standing quite unarmed on the quarter-deck,
he remained an interested and placid spectator of
the action. After a sharp cannonade, the French
vessel hurled her boarders into the Packet. The
doctor showed no sign of excitement as he saw
the fierce St Malo men swarming up the sides,
cutlass in hand; but when, a moment later, a
swarthy giant came clambering up unperceived,
at a point where there was no one to resist him,
the doctor calmly stepped forward, threw his arms
round the astonished Frenchman with a grip few
men could have resisted, and saying, gently, "Friend,
thee makes a mistake, this is not thy ship," tossed
him into the sea.

The work of armament was complete at last.
The Packets, armed on the new system, sailed on
their distant journeys; and at the General Post-
Office there was no more to do than to await the
reports how they fared.

The interval of waiting must have been full of
anxiety. It was generally known that the number
of French Privateers which were being sent out
from St. Malo, Bordeaux, Nantes, and a dozen other

44 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SEP VICE. [chap.

ports, to prey on British commerce was beyond all
precedent. Many of these Privateers cruised with
the express intention of intercepting the Packets,
attracted not only by the bullion which the Fal-
mouth vessels frequently had on board, but even
more by the hope of intercepting the Government
despatches, and of striking blows at British trade
by sending mercantile correspondence to the bottom
of the sea.

How seriously such disasters were felt in the City
of London the Postmaster General knew well; and
they knew too that the West India merchants, those
unfriendly critics who were constantly at their side,
would pounce unmercifully on the first misfortune,
and declare that the new system had broken down.
Month after month went by, however, and no bad
news reached Lombard Street. Packet after Packet
came into port, and recorded uneventful voyages.
Some had been chased, a few had exchanged shots
with an enemy; but not one had been seriously
engaged, or had experienced the least difficulty in
escaping an antagonist ; and the end of the year
came before any Packet crept in beneath Pendennis
Castle with battered sides, and sails torn by shot

The "Antelope" Packet was commanded by
Captain Kempthorne, a member of an old Cornish
family which for many generations gave the navy
some of its best officers. Captain Kempthorne, by
some accident which he regretted during the short
remainder of his life, had remained at home, and

in.] A FIRMER RULE. 45

given over the command of his ship to Mr. Edward
Curtis, the master, an officer of courage and dis-
cretion.

Under the charge of her acting-commander, the
"Antelope" was off Cumberland Harbour, in Jamaica,
homeward bound, when she fell in with two schooners
which at once gave chase. This was on the 1st
December. Mr. Curtis put the ship to her best
point of sailing, and she behaved so well that
throughout the day the Cornishmen felt no doubt
of being able to shake off their enemies. On the
following morning one of the schooners was out of
sight, but the other held on, and about four P.M.
opened fire with her bow chasers. The "Antelope"
replied smartly with all the guns she could bring
to bear; and the Privateer, finding there was to
be no bloodless victory, dropped astern, with the
evident design of waiting for daylight before she
commenced the action. Fearing a surprise, Mr.
Curtis kept his men at their quarters throughout
the night. The hours of waiting must have been
trying to the nerve of the Falmouth men ; but all
was quiet until five A.M. At that hour the Priva-
teer (her name was the "Atalanta") suddenly
ran down, aided by her sweeps, for the wind had
dropped, and, laying herself alongside the "An-
telope" to starboard, she poured in a brdadside,
which was promptly returned, and immediately a
furious discharge of cannon and small arms set in
on both sides. Under cover of the smoke the

46 POST- OFFICE FA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

"Atalanta" cast out grappling irons and locked
herself to the Packet, and at the same moment, by
a shrill signal, her boarders were called to their
stations.

Mr. Curtis was perfectly alive to the danger ol
his position. Some of his hands having been dis-
abled by fever, he had but twenty-two men fit
for service, counting the surgeon as a combatant;
and a single glance was sufficient to show that the
French were in much greater numbers. There was
no chance of avoiding the assault, now that the
grappling irons were securely fixed : yet, if the
Privateersmen made good their footing on the deck
of the Packet, the Cornishmen were tolerably cer-
tain to be overwhelmed by numbers.

At the moment when Mr. Curtis was watching
the boarders congregating on the quarter, it was
reported to him that a second party was forming
at the bow. The Packetsmen were all too few to
resist a single attack, and the design of the enemy
clearly was to keep the whole force occupied at
the stern, while a second party clambered over the
bow nettings unresisted, and took the Cornishmen
in the rear. Mr. Curtis hurried forward. There was
not an instant to lose. The boarders were already
mounting the bulwarks of their own ship. Some
fifteen in number, they crowded together in a dense
body, and in another instant would have leapt at
the "Antelope," when Mr. Curtis brought his two
bow guns to bear upon them, double-shotted with

in.] A FIRMER RULE. 47

round and grape. At that short range the dis-
charge of these guns created terrible havoc, and
killed or disabled the whole of the opposing party.

One peril had been successfully overcome, and
the pressing danger was now on the starboard
quarter, against which the attack had been de-
livered before Mr. Curtis could regain his quarter-
deck. There was no gun which could be brought
to bear, and the boarders consequently met with
no obstacle in climbing up the side. Here, how-
ever, in the breezy language of the boatswain, John
Pasco, "they were deceived by our boarding-net-
tings and handspikes," and after a desperate scuffle
half of them were shot or thrust into the sea, while
the remainder were glad enough to regain their
own ship.

So far, fortune had favoured the Cornishmen ;
but success had been bought at a heavy price.
Mr. Curtis lay dead on the deck — shot while en-
couraging his men without regard for his personal
danger. The steward and a passenger were also
killed ; while the mate was so severely wounded as
to be incapable of taking command of the ship, or
indeed of giving any orders at all. The command
thus developed upon Pasco, the boatswain, an
illiterate fellow, who could not write his name, but
who in this emergency displayed the qualities of
a brave sailor, and a born leader of men. He
assumed the responsibility thus suddenly thrust on
him without hesitation, and gave orders for a con-

4 8

POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE.

[chap.

tinuous fire of musketry to be maintained upon
anything which showed itself on the French vessel's
decks. The "Antelope" was considerably higher
than her antagonist, and the Cornish marksmen
were thus under cover, while the decks of the
"Atalanta" were swept by their bullets. At the
same time a sharp cannonade was maintained, and
by an unfortunate shot one of the "Antelope's"
guns was dismounted, whereupon Henry Bond, a
seaman, believed to be one of the strongest men in
England, coolly took up the gun in his arms, re-
mounted it under a heavy fire, and returned to his
post unharmed.

The effect of the musketry fire maintained by the
Cornishmen was now beginning to show. The French
were growing restless under it; and their officers,
seeing that they were losing heavily, ordered
the boarders forward once more. Pasco and his
little crew were ready for them when they came,
pleased to return to the occupation of " deceiving "
the French with a handspike ; and the end of it
was that the boarders were driven back with great
loss, but once more at a heavy cost, for three of
the brave Packetsmen were disabled in the fight.

By this time the spirit of the French was daunted.
They had lost all hope of capturing the " Antelope,"
and, casting loose the grapplings, endeavoured to
sheer off. Now was the time for Pasco to bear in
mind the new official maxim, that commanders of
Packets were not expected to resist an enemy of

ill.] A FIRMER RULE. 49

equal force. He had suffered heavy losses, he had
but a handful of men fit for service, he had earned
distinction by his brave defence, and if he let the
French vessel go, he had nothing but credit to
expect. But the man's blood was up, and he meant
to carry the affair through. The moment he saw
the vessels separating, he sprang into the rigging,
ran up aloft, and lashed the " Atalanta's " square-
sail yard to the "Antelope's" fore shrouds.

"Thereupon," to quote his own words once more, "we
found the fire slacken, which greatly encouraged us. We
kept up a constant fire for half an hour more, when we had
the pleasure of hearing them cry for mercy. But to all
appearance they deserved none, nor expected any, as some
of them jumped overboard and drowned themselves, for their
bloody flag was nailed to the masthead. They were ordered
to tear it down, and we took possession, which it was lucky
was so soon ; for our mainsail, nettings, quarter cloths, and
hammocks were on fire, which in the midst of the fire and
smoke was not seen. To save the ship we were obliged to
cut all away."

Thus ended this gallant action. When Pasco
and his men had leisure to examine their prize,
they found that out of her crew of sixty-five men
only sixteen remained unhurt, while no less than
thirty-two lay dead upon the deck. Of the "An-
telope's" crew only two were slain, namely, Mr.
Curtis and the steward; though Mr. Walpole, the
surgeon, afterwards died, exhausted, as would appear,
by the fatigue of attending on so many wounded men.

In James' Naval History (vol. i., p. in), where
this action is briefly described, it is stated that the

50 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

" Atalanta " carried eight 3-poundefrs, and the " An-
telope " six. If this is correct, the " Antelope " had
not yet been armed on the new principle described
in the preceding pages. She was an old vessel, and
it may have been thought wiser to leave her arma-
ments unaltered.

When the circumstances of the action became
known, the public enthusiasm rose to a height which
seems in the retrospect a little overstrained, but
which may certainly be accepted as a proof of the
high degree of importance attached to the preser-
vation of the mails. The news, moreover, reached
England at a time when no great naval engage-
ment had taken place, and when the success of
several single ship actions had whetted the public
appetite for glory without satisfying it. There was,
too, something in the circumstances which touched
the imagination; for it was not every day, even in
the years of our greatest sea-fights, that a ship was
brought out of action by her boatswain. It was
seriously proposed to strike a medal in Pasco's
honour. The Jamaica House of Representatives
voted five hundred guineas to be distributed among
the crew. The Society for Encouraging the Cap-
ture of French Privateers — it was a Committee of
Lloyds — granted a substantial sum for the same
purpose, in addition to a gold boatswain's call
which they presented to Pasco, who was also
rewarded by the Postmaster General with another
similar call ; while " smart money " and pensions

in.] A FIRMER RULE. 51

were granted on the highest scale consistent with
the regulations.

Even in distributing these rewards the Postmaster
General found an opportunity for asserting their
new principle. The Secretary's letter to the agent
at Falmouth ran as follows : " But Mr. Pender must
let it be thoroughly understood amongst the officers
and crews that these rewards are given only in con-
sequence of the particular circumstances attending
this glorious action, in which the "Antelope" was
first chased from nine o'clock A.M. December 1st to
December 2nd, when she was obliged to defend
herself against an attack, but did not first attack
an enemy. For the Postmaster General by no
means intend to depart from the principle which
they have been ordered to adopt, of considering it
to be the duty of the Packets to outsail the enemy
whenever they can, and by no means to fight when
it can possibly be avoided." In such terms the
Secretary pointed his moral, perhaps a little incau-
tiously. How his instructions were interpreted will
appear hereafter.

Before leaving the subject of the "Antelope's"

*

action, it must be observed that the newspapers of
the time were full of praise of the extraordinary
bravery of a certain M. Nodin, a passenger,
formerly a midshipman in the French navy. The
circumstances, if true, are remarkable enough ; but
there is still in existence an official copy of a de-
claration signed by Pasco himself and by the

52 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

gunner of the "Antelope," in which the whole story
is denied. M. Nodin resented this disparaging de-
position, and threatened proceedings against the two
petty officers for defaming his character, a suit
which the Postmaster General described as " absurd,"
and which does not seem to have been proceeded
with. It is quite clear that the Post-Office authori-
ties did not believe the story of M. Nodin's prowess.
The matter might not have been worth mentioning
had not the tale acquired authority by being set
forth by James {Naval History, vol. i., p. 112). The
authors and upholders of the new system were,
doubtless, cheered and encouraged by this action,
which seemed to show that great results might be
achieved with even smaller armaments than those
recommended for the new Packets. The fact that
one of the oldest and worst equipped ships had
won this striking success was hailed as a happy
augury ; and so the old year went out among
mutual congratulations and good hope for the future.
The sunshine was of short duration. The storm
was rising already. In the first days of January
the loss of the "Arab" was reported at the Post-
Office. The "Arab" was one of the new Packets,
and her capture was a serious misfortune. It ap-
peared that she had been taken by a French
frigate, " L'Insurgente," while on her homeward
passage from Corunna on Christmas Eve ; and while
it was evident that resistance would have been a
useless sacrifice of life, there was some disappoint-

in.] A FIRMER RULE. 53

ment on finding that the "Arab's" fine sailing
qualities had not saved her.

Another disaster was quickly announced, though
belonging this time more plainly to the category of
accident The "Princess Augusta" again one of
the new ships, caught fire while lying in the Tagus,
and was completely burned. This was a mere piece
of bad luck ; but so much could not be said of the
loss of the •' Expedition," which was carried into
Brest, in April, by a French frigate, which she had
failed to outsail. The matter was the more serious
since not only one mail was lost, but three, the
scarcity of Packets having compelled the Post-
Office agent at Lisbon to despatch the mails of
three successive weeks by a single ship. The pre-
caution commonly taken in those days of sending
duplicates of all despatches and important letters by
the next mail following that which had carried the
originals was thus completely frustrated on this occa-
sion, and the inconvenience to the Government and
the mercantile community must have been immense.

To losses of this nature, however, of which, in
these days, people rarely think, the merchants of a
hundred years ago were well accustomed ; and on
the whole they endured them with exemplary
patience. The prevalent ideas of the risks of busi-
ness were formed on the experience of a century of
almost constant war. So far, the losses of Packets
had been less numerous than in the last war; and
there was, therefore, no great degree of discontent.

54 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

In July, the " King George," a Lisbon Packet com-
manded by Captain Yescombe, was captured. She
was about thirty leagues off Ushant, on her home-
ward voyage from Lisbon, when she fell in with
four large French ships standing on the same tack.
Captain Yescombe wore ship, and ran to the south-
west until he had lost sight of the enemy for an
hour or more ; but had scarcely resumed his proper
course when the four ships came in sight again,
followed by four more in the same quarter ; and in
trying to avoid these squadrons, Captain Yescombe
manoeuvred himself into the jaws of the French
40-gun ship " Unitd " ; whereupon he sank the mails
and despatches and struck his colours.

His experiences as a prisoner in France were
rather curious. The " King George " was carried into
Brest, and after remaining some time at that port,
Captain Yescombe and his crew were sent to
Quimper. It would appear from his letters that the
English sailors confined in the naval prison of that
town suffered great hardships, and that within nine
weeks of his arrival no less than three hundred out
of the whole number died miserably for want of
proper food. From the risk of sharing their fate
Captain Yescombe was delivered by a singular piece
of good fortune. A lady residing near the prison,
who happened to be related to the Commissary in
charge of the prisoners, became aware of his forlorn
condition, and obtained permission for him to lodge
at her house. This arrangement continued for

ill.] A FIRMER RULE. 55

several months, when Captain Yescombe managed
to escape, being, as he always maintained, not on
parole at the time. He made his way to Brest,
where he remained concealed for several weeks ; and
during this time he witnessed the sailing of the great
fleet, which got out of Brest on the 31st December,
1794, under the command of Villaret Joyeuse ; and
gathered details concerning its composition and
equipment which afterwards proved of service to
the British Government. Towards the end of Janu-
ary he managed to obtain a passage across the
Channel, and landed at Plymouth, greatly broken
in health by the hardships he had undergone.

The romantic circumstances of this escape attracted
attention both in England and in France. In the
newspapers of the latter country it was indeed freely
asserted that Captain Yescombe had broken his
parole ; and though the Postmaster General accepted
their officer's assurances on this point, yet the charge
was so strongly asserted in France, and threats were
so publicly made of meting out rigorous treatment
to Captain Yescombe if he should again become a
prisoner of war, that it was thought more prudent
to allow his duties to be discharged by deputy for
a time, and the " King George " accordingly* sailed
under command of her master until peace was
declared in 1802.

CHAPTER IV.

THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS.

The period on which the Post-Office now entered
was, as far as its Foreign Mail Service was con-
cerned, one of struggle and disaster. A long series
of calamities was at hand, sufficient to shake the
faith of those who trusted most firmly in the new
system, and furnishing to those who from the first
disliked and feared it, a well-nigh inexhaustible
supply of arguments.

Before entering on this category of misfortunes it
is necessary to remark again that throughout the
war terminated by the peace of Amiens in 1802, the
officers of the Falmouth station held a low standard
of duty. There were doubtless many individuals
among them who, in the midst of the prevailing
laxity, maintained a more honourable course, and
discharged their duties with perfect fidelity and
vigour ; but the fact that there was much ground
for criticism in the conduct of the general body is
proved by the frequent recurrence of minutes such
as the following, inscribed in August, 1793, by com-

ch. iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 57

mand of the Postmaster General : — " The Postmaster
General cannot but lament when they look at the
absentee list of their captains in time of war, to see
how many reasons they are constantly urging to
stay at home, and of how little use they must con-
sider their own presence at sea. There are now
twelve Packets at sea, and no less than ten of the
captains of them ashore." The excuses urged were
plausible enough; and it was only by considering
them in the aggregate that the Postmaster General
could make plain their shifty character. Remon-
strances were frequent, but unavailing, and the
Postmaster General proceeded to use such modes of
compulsion as occurred to them.

Their first proceeding was to stop absolutely the
comfortable old system whereby all the superior
officers of a Packet stayed at home at ease, while
the mails entrusted to them made their distant
journey to Barbados or Jamaica under the charge
of a common seaman, who felt his way across the
Atlantic by rule of thumb. None of the officers lost
a penny by this arrangement. The captain, or the
owners whom he represented, whose profits were
made largely out of the passengers and in a less
degree out of the sum paid for the hire of the Packet,
with a small annual salary, received every item of
these amounts without deduction whether he made
the voyage or not ; and in these circumstances the
natural inclination of mankind to turn their employ-
ments into sinecures was constantly asserting itself

58 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. , [chap.

at Falmouth. In fact, the idea that so long as the
commander, whether on board or not, was nominally
responsible for the safety of his ship, no further
questions ought to be asked, seems to have been
elevated to the rank of an accepted principle of
conduct at Falmouth, recognized by agent and
commanders alike.

There was therefore a good deal of indignation
when, in 1793, the agent, Mr. Pender, began to upset
established practice, and went so far as to lay down
the rule that, in the absence of the commander, no
officer of lower rank than the master was to assume
charge of a Packet. Mr. Pender explained that he
was acting under instructions from headquarters;
but the commanders could not believe that head-
quarters would be so unreasonable; and it needed
a sharp, peremptory minute from the Postmaster
General to convince them of the fact.

Of course this new arrangement was more costly
to the commanders than the old one, for the master
would not act as the captain's deputy without re-
ceiving considerably more money than would have
contented a common sailor. At the same time the
Postmaster General reached the pockets of the
absentee captains in another way, for they laid down
that any commander who, by shirking voyages in
time of war, abrogated his functions as a fighting
officer, should receive only the salary paid in times
of peace, which was two pounds a month lower
than the pay of the war establishment.

^ *"

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS.

59

These penalties bore too small a proportion to
the whole income of the Falmouth commanders to
influence their conduct greatly, and matters, there-
fore, went on very much as before. "The Post-
master General," says a minute of the latter part of
1793,. "cannot help thinking there must be some
mistake about Captain D/s application for leave,
for, if they are right, he has been ashore on private
business since September nth, 1792, and yet has
asked leave to be ashore this voyage. If that is so,
they decidedly refuse him the leave he now asks
for." Captain D. probably thought it wiser to accept
this decision without protest, but, whether by passive
resistance or active subtlety, he certainly escaped
going to sea ; and five years later another Postmaster
General commented on his proceedings in the follow-
ing terms: ". . . We cannot forget that Captain
D. has been absent from his duty during many
years, assigning no other cause than the death of
his mother in 1792. We shall be sorry for new
occasions to revert to this consideration. Such
occasions may lead to a decision that Captain Deake
has not that due zeal for the service which we are
obliged to expect from those who remain in it"
This incisive minute was penned by Lord Auckland,
and its subtly-worded reference to some " two-handed
engine" which might yet operate on Captain D. had
the useful effect of frightening him back to his ship.

Such being the temper prevalent at Falmouth,
good results were not to be expected. It will be

60 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

necessary to return to this subject in a later chapter.
It is now time to resume the catalogue of the various
disasters which befell the sea service of the Post-
Office in the latter years of the last century.

When the authorities at Lombard Street reviewed
the events of the year 1794, they may have been,
on the whole, fairly well satisfied with what had
occurred. It was true that since the loss of Captain
Yescombe in the "King George," two other Packets
had been captured, and one of these misfortunes
was especially regretted since it was no other than
the " Antelope," the vessel fought so bravely in the
previous year, which had fallen into the hands of
the enemy. The "Antelope" ended her career
without dishonour indeed, but yet ingloriously. She
was on a voyage to Halifax, under the personal
command of her captain, William Kempthorne, and
on the 19th September became involved in a dense
fog which lasted many hours ; when the fog cleared
off Captain Kempthorne found himself completely
surrounded by a squadron of French frigates, against
which it would have been folly to resist Accord-
ingly he sank his mails, struck his colours, and he
with his brave crew became prisoners of war.

The Falmouth Service could ill have spared an
officer of Captain Kempthorne's qualities, even for
the limited period which might be expected to
elapse before he could be exhanged. But a worse
misfortune was at hand, for Captain Kempthorne
had been no more than a few days in the hands of

J7-

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 61

the French when he fell ill of a putrid fever, and
died after a very short ilness. No officer could have
been more regretted, for Captain Kempthorne,
who had served in the navy as midshipman and
lieutenant, had in the last war fought one of the
most notable actions of which the Post-Office could
boast, having sustained for some hours and at last
repulsed the joint attack of three American Priva-
teers, of which the smallest was of greater force
than his own ship.

The same French squadron captured the "Thynne"
Packet four days after the "Antelope/' but the last
four months of 1794 went by without further mis-
hap, and when the New Year arrived the retrospect
must have been fairly encouraging. Though four
Packets had been captured no one of them had
fallen to a Privateer. Three had indeed been cap-
tured by squadrons against which any armament
conceivable would have proved useless, and, on the
whole, it might fairly be argued therefore that the
new system held its ground.

The time was at hand, however, in which this
immunity from the ravages of Privateers was to be
broken. In the year 1795 the French turned their
chief attention to the task of destroying commerce,
and their change of policy makes itself felt at once
in the records of the Post-Office, for though the
Packets captured in 1795 were again only four in
number, every one of them was taken by a Privateer,
and in each case without a fight.

62 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

This was certainly not very satisfactory, for if the
qualities of the new Packets, their sailing powers
and their capacity for fighting in the last resort,
could not protect them against Privateers the model
must stand condemned. Questions doubtless arose
in Lombard Street about the bloodless nature of
every one of these conquests, but no trace of such
discussions appears in the records. My Lords the
Postmaster General had certainly impressed on
their commanders that their safety was in flight,
but they had not intended to convey that all the
qualities of timid animals were to be copied, and
that the commanders were to give themselves up
for lost when overtaken.

In the following year (1796) the record is more
pleasant to read. Three Packets were captured,
apparently without effective resistance, by French
Privateers, and one was seized by the Spaniards in
Corunna harbour upon the declaration of war with
England ; but there were three gallant fights, which
were the more welcome by reason of the fact that
during two years the commanders seemed to have
forgotten that guns were made to be fired.

Of the first of these encounters it happens
unfortunately that no details are preserved. It was
fought by the " King George," the Packet nominally
' commanded by that Captain Yescombe whose
romantic escape from prison was mentioned in
the last chapter, and a letter from him is still in
existence in which he speaks in the highest terms of

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 63

the gallantry displayed by Mr. Bett, the master,
who was in command of the Packet, as well as of
the firmness with which he was supported by Mr.
Jinkin, the mate, and by all the ship's crew. That
these were not empty words is proved by the
return of casualties, which shows that though none
of the Packet's men were killed, six were wounded,
some dangerously. The action was completely suc-
cessful, and, even in the imperfect state of our
information regarding it, may be set down as deserv-
ing credit

The other two actions were fought by the same
Packet, and within three weeks of each other.
Both occurred, moreover, in those narrow seas of
the West Indian archipelago which, since the British
were driven out of Guadeloupe in December, 1794,
had become doubly and trebly dangerous to our
commerce. The vessel engaged was the " Portland,"
sailing under command of her master, Mr. Nathaniel
Taylor.

A young man, untried in the responsibilities of
command, Mr. Taylor was making his first voyage
in charge of the "Portland"; and being, as the
scanty record tells us, engaged to be married on
his return to Falmouth, he was doubtless eagerly
looking out for opportunities of distinction — an
aspiration which was destined to be amply gratified.

The " Portland " was somewhat more than a
month out from Falmouth when, on October 1st,
1796, she was attacked in the neighbourhood of

64 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Barbados by a French Privateer which, after a
close action of some duration, she succeeded in
repulsing, with the loss apparently of only one man.
Neither the name and force of the attacking vessel,
nor any other details of the fight, have been pre-
served ; but if the " Portland " was not outmatched
in force, it can only be said that her antagonist
was a much smaller vessel than any other Privateer,
French, Spanish, or American, which came into
conflict with a Packet throughout the war.

There were in fact few Privateers afloat which
were not armed more heavily than the Post-Office
Packets. It could not be otherwise, for the high-
wayman, whose arms were not superior to those of
the peaceful traveller, could expect neither a long
nor a merry life, and would see Tyburn earlier than
he need.

It is certain, therefore, that the enemy repulsed
by the " Portland " in this earlier action was a
vessel stronger than herself; and Mr. Taylor, who
had found his opportunity and grasped it, may have
congratulated himself with the thought, that by the
law of chances the perils of his voyage were over,
and may thus have counted on carrying his laurels
back to Falmouth.

But it was decided otherwise. On October 17th
the " Portland " was lying becalmed off Guadeloupe
— that hot-bed of privateering, a fatal monument
of the shortsightedness of our naval administration
— when an armed schooner, full of men, came out

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 65

of a creek at no great distance, and using her
sweeps, bore down on the " Portland."

A very light breeze enabled Mr. Taylor to get
his ship's head off shore, and to make way under
easy sail towards Martinique, at which island he
was to touch. All night the strange schooner hung
upon the " Portland's " wake, and at daylight, on
the 1 8th, the distance between the vessels was the
same as at dusk on the previous evening.

Shortly after the first light the schooner bore
down towards the Packet, and Mr. Taylor, thinking
it time to bring the matter to an issue, hoisted his
colours and fired a shot at the approaching vessel.
The shot was instantly returned, and the next
moment the colours of the French Republic were
flying at the peak of the schooner, surmounted —
in strange companionship with the ensign of a great
and honourable nation — by the bloody flag, which
signified that she would give no quarter in the
coming fight.

There were on board the " Portland " four officers,
Captain G. A. Tonyn, 48th Regiment ; Captain J.
Johnston of the Buffs; Captain G. Rainy of. the
45th Regiment; and Captain W. Maxwell, 93rd
Highlanders; together, with Dr. Green, surgeon to
the Forces at Antigua, and five merchants resident
on that island, St Vincent, or Martinique. All
these gentlemen appear to have taken part in the
action, so that Mr. Taylor's available force, allow-
ing for the loss of one man in the former action,

E

J

66 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

was increased to forty-one men and boys, some
of whom, however, had probably been wounded
when their sea-mate was killed. On board the
French vessel there were, as was afterwards dis-
covered, sixty-one fighting men; and relying on
this superiority of force, which they quickly dis-
cerned, the French, after a short cannonade, ran
down to close quarters, intending to finish the affair
by an impetuous assault.

Mr. Taylor seems to have desired nothing more,
and resolving to hold his enemies to the ground
which they had selected, he seized the Privateer's
jib-boom as it ran aboard, lashed it securely, and
then called his men forward, requesting the pas-
sengers at the same time to maintain a close fire of
musketry on anything which showed itself on the
deck of the enemy.

Then began a series of hand to hand combats,
fought out desperately with cutlasses and boarding
pikes. No details of these fights are left us; but
we are told that out of the Privateer's crew no less
than forty-one were killed or wounded, and that
-the remnant were at last driven to haul down
their colours, finding the Falmouth men had gained
secure possession of their deck.

Some of the French had taken refuge below,
and a few of these, not knowing, it may be hoped,
that the colours had been struck, fired a volley in
the very moment when Mr. Taylor was restraining
the fury of his men ; and the brave young captain

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 67

fell, shot through the heart in the moment of
victory.

Whether this unhappy occurrence was, as the
passengers decided at the time, an act of premedi-
tated treachery, or whether it may not more probably
have found some justification in the confused cir-
cumstances of the moment, is a question which can
never be determined. It is clear, however, that at
the instant when he fell, though the colours were
then certainly struck, Mr. Taylor found his authority
needed to restrain further carnage ; and if this were
so, the responsibility for his death does not rest with
the French. In any case, no charge of treachery
should be made against honourable foes, save on
evidence much clearer than is here forthcoming.

By the united testimony of the passengers, Mr.
Taylor, throughout the action, was " perfectly calm,
cool, and collected." He achieved part at least of
his wish. He made his reputation, and though he
did not live to wear it, yet it survived him many
years, and forms one of the few bright spots in the
history of the Falmouth Packets during the last
decade of the eighteenth century.

At Lombard Street there was need of all the
credit which his gallantry had earned ; for troubles
were gathering thickly round the administrators of
the sea-service, and in the City the voice of dis-
content was loud and menacing. The war had
now lasted four years. Within that period twelve
Packets had been captured, having on board — for

68 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

there was not always a ship ready to embark the
mail — no less than eighteen mails. On several
occasions original letters and duplicates made for
safety had both been lost. The inconvenience was
immense, and the merchants grew restive under it.

It was easy enough to argue, as the Post-Office
did, that in former wars the average of losses had
been higher; and that to expect the Packets to
carry every mail in safety was much the same as
asking them to teach forbearance and morality to
the enemy's Privateers. The West India merchants
neither listened nor replied to these contentions.
They did not want arguments. They wanted security
for their correspondence, and they looked to the
Post-Office to obtain it for them, whether in war
or peace.

When the Postmaster General and the other high
officials cast their eyes around to discover what
prospects there were of satisfying this very natural
desire, they could not fail to discern that in the
near future they were likely to fare worse than in
the past. The hopes of peace raised by Lord
Malmesbury's negotiations in the autumn of 1796
had been disappointed. Even the Packet told off
to convey despatches from the ambassador, having
been driven ashore near Calais by a violent storm,
was seized by the French and condemned as lawful
prize, notwithstanding the full explanations which
were rendered by her commander and by the
British Government. The number of Privateers

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 69

which were reported week by week to be issuing
from St. Malo, Nantes, Bordeaux, and a hundred
other ports was absolutely without precedent. Be-
tween 20 and 30 W. long, there were, as the
officers of a Nantes Privateer informed some Packets-
men whom they had captured, no less than forty
vessels like herself cruising with the sole object of
preying on British commerce, and through this
belt of enemies every West India Packet must pass.
Many of these wolves of the ocean were hardly
less powerful than frigates ; and the smallest of
them was an overmatch for any Packet in every
point save that of individual courage and resource.

Moreover, when the war broke out it had been a
duel between England and France alone, and the
enmity of Holland on the north and Spain on the
south somewhat limited the French powers of offence.
Of whatever value this advantage might have been
it was now lost ; and the three powers henceforward
presented a united front to England. The Privateers
of any one could shelter, refit, or dispose of prizes
in the ports of any other; and while this circum-
stance gave them an added strength in European
waters, the case was even worse in the West Indies,
where the French gained lurking places in every
creek of the Spanish islands, and were enabled to
lie in ambush for British commerce at numberless
points where our ships were used to think them-
selves in safety.

It was easier by far to discern these facts of evil

70 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

augury than to discover any remedy. They were
still being pondered in Lombard Street when the
merchants opened their attack and lodged a memorial
in Downing Street in which they complained in the
strongest terms of the failure of the Post-Office
to protect their correspondence. Scarcely had this
memorial been received when the loss within one
month of three West India Packets stamped it
with an urgency which even its promoters had not
foreseen, and raised the subject immediately from
one chiefly affecting a single class to a grave
matter of national concern.

The "Princess Elizabeth," homeward bound from
Barbados and Jamaica, was taken on February
28th, by the "Actif," a Privateer carrying fourteen
guns and a hundred and thirty men. The "Swallow"
carried the outward mails of February 1st, for the
same islands, while the "Sandwich" took out those
of February 15th and March 1st. Three consecutive
mails were thus on board these two Packets; and
even the most anxious of merchants, sending
important letters in triplicate by successive mails,
might fairly have thought his precautions adequate
to the risks. How great then was the anger and
alarm when the news arrived that both Packets
were captured and the three mails lost may be
easily conceived.

Even more alarming than the present loss was
the apprehension for the future raised by the great
force of the Privateers concerned in these captures.

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 71

The "Du Gay" which captured the "Sandwich"
carried no less than two hundred men and eighteen
guns ; while the captor of the " Swallow " was
armed with sixteen guns (nines and sixes) and a
hundred and twenty men. How, the Postmaster
General demanded, could the Packets be expected
to resist such force? And the merchants, echoing
the question, declared that impossibility to be the
basis of their whole argument; for the Packets,
they asserted, had no more effective power of re-
sisting Privateers than so many wherries from
Blackfriars stairs.

The prayer of the merchants memorial was that
the Packets might be so equipped as to enable them
to resist any enemy of equal size. This, as the
Postmaster General pointed out, meant that each
one of the Post-Office fleet should carry at least
fourteen guns and one hundred men — a proposition
which would involve rebuilding every Packet afloat,
since no one of them was constructed to carry
such an armament; and besides, that great capital
expenditure would more than treble the charges
of the Service, which already resulted in a yearly
loss of over £12,000, exclusive of the liabilities
for captured Packets, amounting at this time to
more than £34,000.

It was natural enough that the Government,
involved in a dangerous and costly war, should
decline to entertain such a costly proposal. The
Post-Office, however, willing to strengthen its hands

7 2 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE, [chap.

against the merchants, put forward a modified
scheme for arming each Packet with ten four-
pounders and forty men, at an extra cost of ;£8,ooo
yearly ; and if more losses had been reported while
that scheme was before the Treasury, it may have
been that the Government would have accepted it.
But unfortunately for the merchants, there was at
this particular period a lull in the storm. Four
months passed without disaster. Then came the
report that the "Grantham" had been captured,
but after a stout fight; and following the receipt
of that news another equal period of good fortune.
The disasters of February seemed to be exceptional.
A House of Commons Committee was urging that
by every means Post-Office expenditure should be
reduced ; the Treasury yielded to the greater pressure,
and declined the Postmaster General's proposals.

The "Grantham" was commanded by Captain
James Bull, an officer of long experience and proved
ability, whose son, Captain John Bull, afterwards
made a considerable reputation as commander of
"Duke of Marlborough," of which much will be
heard in subsequent chapters of this work. The
"Grantham" was attacked near Barbados by a
French Privateer of "fourteen double fortified four-
pounders and one hundred and eleven men." She
was much shattered in the action which preceded
her capture; but no details of the fight have been
preserved. Not long after it was decided, the
" Tamar " frigate happily chanced to pass that way,

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 73

and delivered Captain Bull and his men from the
prospect of a French prison.

Those optimists who held the comfortable faith
that the disasters of February, 1797, were not likely
to be repeated received an uncomfortable shock in
the last month of that year and the first of the
new one.

The "Countess of Leicester," which sailed from
Falmouth on November 21st with mails for New
York, should, under normal circumstances, have
carried only those of the previous week. But it
was at this time a practical impossibility to despatch
every mail as soon as it reached Falmouth ; and —
strange as it seems to us to hear of such delays —
the " Countess of Leicester " had on board not only
the bags made up for her regular turn, but also
those which should have been despatched from Fal-
mouth on November 1st, but which had lain there
three weeks, waiting for a Packet. It is difficult in
these days even to imagine the outcry which would
be caused by the delay of a mail for three weeks
at the port of embarkation. But in 1797 such in-
conveniences were the trifles at which reasonable
men did not cavil. The grievance lay in the fact
that both mails were ultimately lost altogether.

The scarcity of Packets was already so great that
it may be presumed that the " Prince Edward," which
left Falmouth in the middle of December, and was
captured off Barbados, was carrying out more mails
than one ; while this blow was instantly followed by

74 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

the loss of two successive homeward mails, carried
by the "Prince Ernest" and the "Portland." It
can scarcely be conceived that the brave crew of
the latter vessel surrendered without struggle; but
still, fight or no fight, the mails were gone.

This was more than the patience of the merchants
could bear. To lose in one month at least two
outward and two homeward mails — and it is quite
possible that on board the three Packets even more
mails had been stowed — was almost sufficient to
bring their business to a standstill. The incon-
venience was mounting to an intolerable pitch.
They applied for a conference with the Postmaster
General ; and had scarcely done so when the news
arrived that the " Roebuck," homeward bound from
the Leeward Islands, and the "Swallow," outward
bound on the same voyage, had both been captured
by a single Privateer.

There was the same story of overwhelming force
against which the Packets could not contend. The
captor of the "Roebuck" was a Nantes Privateer,
" La Liberale," carrying over two hundred men, and
armed with eighteen 18-pounder guns, and it may
be stated by the way that the captured officers told
a remarkable story of the elfish mischievousness of
the victors, who seemed to have behaved more like
riotous schoolboys than like seamen. "On the
enemy taking possession of the Packet," says Captain
Servante, "they plundered her of every cabin and
ship-store ; and what they did take with them, they

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 75

wilfully destroyed or threw overboard. Several new
sails they cut to pieces and divided among them ;
and a suit of sails that were bent to the yards, little
the worse for wear, they suffered to blow to pieces,
there not being a seaman among them who would
venture aloft to take them in."

The conference between the merchants and the
Postmaster General was grave and weighty, according
to the dignified manners of those days. The mer-
chants, after remarking that no arrangement of the
Packet Service could be adequate for the purposes
of their trade, which did not render it highly im-
probable that even one homeward bound Packet
would be lost, proceeded to ask whether it really
was the case that the new Packets had attained that
swiftness of sailing to which all their qualities of
defence had been sacrificed. The average duration
of the outward passage to Jamaica (touching at
Barbados and other islands) is, they said, 45 days,
and from Jamaica to Falmouth (touching only at
Cape Nicola), 35 days. Now, these are very ordinary
passages, remarkable in no way for speed. And the
merchants emphasized their point by repeating that
Packets designed expressly for speed ought to have
been able to outsail Privateers. Why, then, had
they not done so? Because, they concluded, some
abuses exist in the mode of loading or navigating
the Packets.

They were right ; abuses did exist, of which the
nature must be more fully explained in the next

76 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

chapter. But before entering upon that subject, it
will be well to complete the record of disasters, so
that it may be understood more fully of what the
merchants had to complain.

One of the practical suggestions made at the con-
ference was that the Admiralty might be asked to
lend a cutter which could be sent out with mails for
the Leeward Islands and Jamaica. The request was
made and granted by the Admiralty ; but the cutter
fared no better than the Packets, for on her home-
ward voyage she, too, was captured.

Great as was the number of Privateers which
issued from the French and Spanish islands in the
West Indies throughout this war, it was never so
great as in the year 1798. How many were actually
afloat will never be known ; but, doubtless, the
number captured by our cruisers in any one year
bore some kind of rough fixed proportion to the
whole body. Now, in 1796 — if the figures given by
Southey {Chronological History of the West Indies,
Vol. ill., p. 149) are correct — only sixteen were cap-
tured ; but in 1797 the number had risen to sixty-
seven ; and in 1798 no less than ninety-nine of these
sharks were brought in by our sloops and frigates.

It may be that for every one so captured there
were five still lurking in the creeks and shallow
waters round Guadeloupe or Cuba; and numbers
such as these might suggest that it was well nigh
impossible for our Packets to sail among the islands
without encountering an enemy. But the ocean is

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 77

wide, and it is marvellously easy for vessels to miss
each other, even when both have the desire for an
encounter.

The conference was held in March. In April no
Packets were lost, but at the end of May the
"Princess of Wales, ,, outward bound for Jamaica,
was taken by a Privateer ; and a week or two later
the "Prince Adolphus," which was carrying a mail
to Lisbon, met with a similar fate. About the latter
vessel there hangs a curious story, which is worth
relating.

It appears that when the French took possession
of the "Prince Adolphus," they sent Captain Boulder-
son, her commander, with the greater part of his
crew, on board the Privateer. Five men remained
on the Packet, among whom the surgeon was the
only officer; and a prize crew was instructed to
navigate the prize into whatever French port could
first be made.

Mr. Bullock, the surgeon, was by no means anxious
to go to prison ; and when the Packet had separated
from her captor, he began to work on the cupidity
of the prize master, and ultimately persuaded him
to give up the ship, and restore all his prisoners to
liberty in consideration of receiving a sum equivalent
to about .£4000, to be paid on the arrival of the
vessel at Lisbon, where Mr. Bullock felt confident
that the money would be forthcoming.

Accordingly, the "Prince Adolphus" was navi-
gated into the Tagus, and Mr. Bullock, persuaded

78 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

that he had made a good bargain — for, while the
Packet itself was not worth less than the stipulated
ransom, the goods on board were worth as much
again — repaired to the office of the Post-Office agent
at Lisbon, Mr. Gonne, and demanded help in carrying
out the transaction to which he had pledged the
credit of the Government But here an unexpected
check occurred; for Mr. Gonne, asking grimly
whether the doctor wished both of them to be
drawn and quartered on a scaffold at Tyburn, pro-
duced an Act of Parliament, recently passed, which
declared it treason for any British subject to remit
money to persons owing obedience to the French
Government

Mr. Bullock and his companions were thus left to
take their choice of three painful alternatives.
Firstly, they might break their pledge freely given
to the prize master ; secondly, they might execute
that pledge and submit to the penalties of high
treason ; or lastly, they might once more go on
board the "Prince Adolphus," and — if indeed the
harbour authorities would have allowed a vessel
under French command to leave the Tagus in safety
— permit the prize master to put to sea, and con-
duct them whither he would.

The last alternative, distressing as it was for men
who had once set foot in freedom, seemed the only
practicable one. This was recognized by every one
concerned, but before adopting it the case was
referred to the Postmaster General, who, after con-

iv.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 79

sultation with ministers, decided that the ransom
should be paid, and that a clause should be inserted
in a forthcoming Act of Parliament, indemnifying
the persons concerned in the transaction.

The money was accordingly handed over to the
Frenchmen, who departed full of praises of the
honourable treatment they had received, and which
they did their best to requite in kind, for they wrote
to the French Minister of Marine, stating what had
occurred, and begging that, if only to mark their
high esteem of the conduct of the English Govern-
ment, Captain Boulderson might at once be liberated.
This request was complied with, and Captain Boul-
derson very shortly returned to Falmouth.

Such was the end of a difficult affair, and if in
its conclusion the Postmaster General found some
ground for satisfaction, it could only have been
with a chastened pleasure that they read the story
of how the best had been made of a serious mis-
fortune, and how a Packet, designed to escape the
French, had been got out of their hands without so
very much loss after all. But a gleam of better
fortune was at hand, and the valour of one officer
did much to redeem the record of the Falmouth
Station in the year 1798.

The "Princess Royal" was commanded by Captain
John Skinner, an officer of long experience and
proved courage. On June 22nd, the Packet being
then in Mid-Atlantic, bound for Halifax, a brig
was discovered at daybreak in chase of the Packet,

80 POS T- OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

and Captain Skinner promptly caused the decks to
be cleared for action, and barricaded the ship as
far as possible with hammocks and spare sails.

The wind was unfortunately very light, and the
sea calm, so that though the "Princess Royal"
crowded all sail to get away, the Privateer, which
was using sweeps, gained ground perceptibly. It
was not until 7 P.M., however, that she came within
gunshot. A few broadsides were then exchanged
without much effect on either side, after which the
Privateer, having satisfied herself that resistance
was intended, laid in her sweeps and waited for
the day.

At 3 A.M. she swept up somewhat suddenly.
Captain Skinner was quite ready however, and as
she drew near he began to play upon her with
his two 6-pounder stern chasers. Unfortunately one
of these guns was rendered useless after the first
discharge by the snapping of its axle tree, but the
other was served with vigour. The one gun, how-
ever, did not suffice to stop the advancing Privateer,
for at 3.30 A.M. she was alongside, and the action
was in full progress.

James, who in his Naval History mentions but
three of the numerous actions fought by the Packets,
states that at this point Captain Skinner succeeded in
bringing his six guns to bear on the side on which
he was attacked. 1 Captain Skinner does not mention
this in his report to the Postmaster General ;

x Nav. Hist.) Vol. II., p. 207.

IV.] THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS. 8l

and indeed, as has been seen, one of his six guns
was already useless. Very probably some such
arrangement of the remaining five was attempted,
but if so, any advantage which might have resulted
from it was quickly lost, for Captain Skinner tells
us that very shortly after the loss of his 6-pounder
the axle trees of two of his 4-pounders gave way,
and that he fought practically throughout the whole
action with three guns only.

That he succeeded under these unfortunate cir-
cumstances in holding his ground against a more
powerful antagonist is a striking proof of courage
and seamanship. The cannonade lasted two hours,
and during the whole of that time the "Princess
Royal " was so manoeuvred by her captain that the
French had no opportunity of boarding, and were
thus in some measure deprived of the advantage
of their superior numbers. Meantime the passengers,
under the direction of General Murray, had formed
themselves into a body of riflemen, and were keep-
ing up a galling fire on their enemies with excellent
effect, for at 5.30 P.M. the Privateer sheered off.

It would have been folly for Captain Skinner
with half his guns dismounted to endeavour to
renew the action, so with a few parting shots from
the chaser, which appeared to create confusion on
the Privateer, the vessels separated, and the "Prin-
cess Royal " pursued her voyage.

In this action two men were badly wounded, and
Captain Skinner himself was hurt less seriously by

F

82 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap. iv.

the explosion of a powder-horn. It happened that
on board the Privateer there were thirty English and
American prisoners; and from some of these men
it was afterwards ascertained that the "Princess
Royal" had engaged the "Aventurier" of Bordeaux,
a Privateer carrying fourteen long 4-pounders, and
two 12-pound cannonades, with eighty-five men,
an armament which might have been expected to
secure a quick and almost bloodless victory for its
possessors. The event, however, was so far other-
wise that while two of the "Aventurier's" crew were
killed, and four wounded, the vessel herself was so
much injured that with all her masts shot through
and no less than nineteen round shot in her hull,
she was obliged to break up her cruise and return
to Bordeaux to refit

CHAPTER V.

THE END OF THE ABUSES.

Disaster came treading close on the heels of
success, and while the reports of Captain Skinner's
gallant defence were still being digested in Lom-
bard Street, the news arrived that the "Duke of
York," outward bound for Barbados and Jamaica,
had been captured by a Privateer carrying twenty
"long double-fortified four-pounders," and no less
than one hundred and seventy men.

The remaining months of 1798, and the early ones
of 1799 passed away without further misfortunes.
If it had been otherwise, it is not easy to see how
the service could have been maintained with any
sort of regularity, for the recent captures had caused
the very greatest embarrassment Sixteen estab-
lished Packets were commonly employed on the
West India voyage, a supply which was certainly
not more than barely adequate to keep up the
usual fortnightly service, but of these sixteen only
seven were available in December, 1798; and though
by hiring temporary vessels the numbers were made

84 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SEP VICE. [chap.

up to ten, the extra vessels were less efficient than
the regular ones ; and the delay of mails and de-
spatches, which were kept waiting at Falmouth for
a Packet, grew very serious. The agent, who was
immediately responsible, was bitter in his protesta-
tions against being blamed for what he could not
help.

The commanders, he declared, were very much
in fault. No less than nine of them had received
permission to remain ashore to supervise the build-
ing of new Packets. It was doubtless most desirable
that the commanders should supervise this work.
The construction of the Packets was a matter of
vital concern to the officers who had to sail and
fight them ; and, besides, it was only reasonable to
suppose that under the commander's eye the work
would be done more quickly as well as better.

Such were the arguments put forward by the
commanders, very plausible as all their reasonings
were, but breaking down in some odd way in actual
practice. Each one of the nine captains demon-
strated quite clearly that he was bestirring himself
with zeal. Yet, somehow or other, the new Packets
did not advance; and the Postmaster General, on
calling for a return, could not but be struck by the
astonishingly long time which it took to complete
the brigs of one hundred and eighty tons, or
thereabouts, which were required for the service.
Captain Servante, for instance, with his utmost ex-
ertions, as he himself testified on repeated occasions,

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 85

could not get one built in less than two years and
five months, during the whole of which time his
personal supervision was given to the work.

At this period the Post-Office administration had
passed into the hands of men whose habit it was
to draw direct and forcible inferences from facts
such as these. Lord Auckland who, jointly with
Lord Gower, now held the office of Postmaster
General, possessed a dry and penetrating intellect,
with an instinctive comprehension of the value of
arguments used before him and of the worth of the
persons using them. In writing, his style was direct
and pungent; he knew how to state a principle and
give it force without appearing to drive it down
the throats of unwilling subordinates He was
thoroughly dissatisfied with the condition of the
Packet Service, and determined to improve it as
opportunity served during his term of office.

The other man whose strong hand began to
influence the Post-Office at this crisis was Mr.
Francis Freeling, lately appointed Secretary, an
administrator whose brilliant and courageous work
throughout the whole period of the war is by no
means yet forgotten.

Two rulers so clear sighted and sagacious, acting
together and supporting each other as they did in
every emergency, could scarcely fail to discover the
roots of the mischief at Falmouth; but before
entering on a description of the measures taken,
and while the Postmaster General and the Secretary,

86 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

assuming office at much the same time, are making
their preliminary survey, taking note now of some
indefensible practice which must be stopped, now
of some suspicious action which demands stringent
inquiry, it will be well to complete the tale of
disasters to the Packets, which furnished so much
material to these dissatisfied watchers at headquarters.

The earlier months of 1799 passed away as
uneventfully as the later ones of 1798 ; and it was
not until April that bad news reached the Post-
Office. The " Chesterfield " was captured on the
23rd of that month ; and three months later the
" Carteret " hauled down her colours to a Privateer.
Then there was again a period of success; and,
except for the loss of one of the small schooners
employed among the West India islands, the Packets
made their voyages in safety until November.

Comparatively speaking, the captures had been
so few during the last sixteen months, that there
was doubtless some exultation at Lombard Street,
and a growing confidence that the great problem
how to convey the mails in safety during war-time
was approaching a solution. The agitation of West
India merchants had died away ; complaints from
irascible Colonial Governors, whose despatches were
adorning some coral reef, or washing about in mid-
ocean, were few and far between. It seemed indeed
as if a golden age had dawned at last ; but in the
last six weeks of the year these bright anticipations
were rudely shaken.

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 87

Towards the end of November the same Privateer
which had captured the "Chesterfield" in July
took possession of another Packet, the " Lady
Harriet/' outward bound for Lisbon; and only a
few days later the " Halifax," homeward bound from
the Leeward Islands, was seized by the " Vengeance,"
of sixteen guns and one hundred and thirty men.

The next homeward Packet expected from the
West Indies was the "Westmoreland." She was
captured on December 7th by a Privateer of twenty-
six guns and two hundred and fifty men. In her
were lost the duplicates of the letters and despatches
captured in the " Halifax "; while, as if resolved
that no cautious Colonial Governor or merchant
who might have forwarded his correspondence in
triplicate should profit by the precaution, the French
lay in wait for the next homeward Packet also.
It was the "Adelphi," and on December 22nd she
fell into the hands of the " Grand Buonaparte," a
Privateer of twenty-two guns and two hundred men.

How great a loss was caused by these three cap-
tures, how serious the interference in the machinery
of government, may be surmised, but can never
now be calculated. Grievances sustained a hundred
years ago did not become vocal in the public press
until they had grown absolutely intolerable, if then.
But though there was no newspaper outcry, there
was an abundance of personal protests, both from
ministers and from the merchants ; while, if the
attitude of Lord Auckland on this important subject

88 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SEP VICE. [chap.

may be judged from his subsequent actions, he
was doubtless well pleased at finding his hand
strengthened at a moment which was big with
reform for Falmouth.

So the year 1799 passed away, and the new year
opened upon indignant clamour outside the Post-
Office, and careful, anxious deliberation within its
walls.

One circumstance which struck Lord Auckland
as singular was that the number of mails lost on
the homeward passage was larger than on the out-
ward voyage. When first observed this fact was
brushed aside as an accidental occurrence, with the
expectation that the next series of captures would
redress the balance, and show that the risks of the
outward-bound Packets were no less great

Time went on, and the balance was not redressed.
Persons outside the Post-Office began to notice
which way it inclined, and ugly rumours were already
circulating when an unparalleled series of disasters
riveted the attention of the authorities on this point
which at first seemed so insignificant.

The "Princess Royal," whose officers and crew
had fought so bravely in June, 1798, was the first
Packet reported lost. Her gallant captain had been
promoted to a command on the Holyhead station,
which was both more lucrative and less arduous
than the post in which he had won distinction.
How far Captain Skinner might have succeeded in
repulsing the "Courier" Privateer, to which the

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 89

" Princess Royal " struck her colours on February
27th, being then on her homeward voyage from the
Leeward Islands, it would be profitless to inquire.
Ten days later the "Carteret," homeward bound
from Jamaica, hauled down her colours to the
"Bellona," a powerful Privateer of thirty guns and
two hundred and fifty men. The "Jane," the out-
ward Packet of March 2nd for the West Indies,
was captured, after a sharp engagement, on the
1 2th of that month; and though she was recaptured
a few days later by an English cruiser, that event
happened too late to save her mails. On May 4th
the " Princess Charlotte " was captured ; on May 6th
the "Marquis of Kildare" succumbed ; on May nth
the "Princess Amelia" was seized by a Bordeaux
Privateer; and, after an interval of some months,
the " Duke of Clarence " was sent into Teneriffe as
the prize of a Spanish Privateer.

Every one of the four last Packets was home-
ward bound. The coincidence was too obvious to
be overlooked.

Another fact about these captures must have
arrested Lord Auckland's attention. There was
hardly any fighting. Why was there not? The
capturing Privateers were, it is true, of overmaster-
ing force in rfkany cases, if not in all. But the
"Antelope," the "Portland," and the "Princess
Royal" had successfully resisted superior forces;
and when was it ever imputed to English sailors
that they feared to defend themselves against an

9 o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

enemy because they could not bring into action
man for man, or gun for gun? On this very
Falmouth station, in past years, numberless actions
had been fought as bravely as any in our annals;
and these glories were by no means eclipsed
for ever, but were in a few years to shine again
with no less splendour than before, though Lord
Auckland had not the satisfaction of foreseeing this.

It is not asserted that every Packet whose capture
is mentioned in these pages was surrendered with-
out firing a shot; but it is certainly true that in
hardly one case did any serious fighting occur.
The very sailors who were captured were not devoid
of spirit, as appeared in the case of the "Marquis
of Kildare," whose loss was mentioned above. The
greater part of the crew of this Packet remained
prisoners on board the Privateer, but twelve were
left on their own ship, in charge of a prize crew.
In the night these twelve rose upon their captors,
drove them into the hold, and triumphantly navi-
gated the Packet into Falmouth. They were doubt-
less commended, and perhaps rewarded, on arriving
there; but it may be hoped that the agent took
occasion to point out to them how much more
serviceable their valour would have been had they
proved it before their ship was captured and their
mails lost

Nobody believed the Falmouth sailors to be
cowards. Indubitable facts and the long experi-
ence of the past showed that they were not The

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 91

root of the mischief must be sought deeper than
that

Wherever it might lie, there was clearly no time
to lose in searching for it. The complaints of the
merchants were incessant; and when Mr. Henry
Dundas, at that time Secretary of State for the
Colonies, went so far as to instruct the general
officer in command in the West Indies to send
home duplicate and triplicate copies of his de-
spatches by well-armed merchant vessels, "which
appear to have a better chance of safe arrival than
the regular Packets " and forwarded a copy of this
galling letter to the Postmaster General, no one
could any longer doubt that unless some quick and
searching remedy could be found, the Post-Office
might almost as well lay down the pretence of
conveying the mails in safety. Lord Auckland
frankly owned that Mr. Dundas' letter had not
surprised him. Long before matters reached this
point, he had inquired what evidence was taken
that the capture of any particular Packet had
occurred in the manner described by her officers.
He was told that of evidence, properly so called,
there was none at all, except the sworn statement
of the captain, made before a notary selected by
himself.

An officer of the navy who lost his ship, Lord
Auckland observed, was invariably brought to court-
martial. A number of honourable and experienced
officers were appointed to judge his conduct; he

92 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

was called before them, and required to prove on
oath, and by the evidence of witnesses, that his
courage and skill had been properly exerted.

A Packet captain in the same situation was
summoned before no court at all. He went, in
company with one or two of his chief officers, to
a notary in Falmouth, and before that gentleman
executed a sworn statement, technically called a
" protest." In form, this document " protested "
against the conduct of the enemy which had cap-
tured, or injured, the Packet. It detailed just so
much, or so little, of the facts as the captain
thought proper to relate; and the notary had no
other responsibility in the matter than the adminis-
tration of an oath.

This was the whole proceeding. When the
"protest" reached the General Post-Office, it was
accepted as a matter of course; and on it steps
were taken for repaying to the commander the
amount of his loss.

Could it be right, Lord Auckland asked, that
there should be no public inquiry, no examination
of the whole crew, no statements taken from passen-
gers! The Inspector of Packets was the person
to whom it fell to answer this question ; and he
at once came forward to testify that he thought
it the most satisfactory system in the whole world.
It was the time-honoured custom at Lloyds, and
must therefore be good enough for the General
Post-Office. A sworn declaration! Were there no

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 93

penalties against perjury! The fear of incurring
these penalties must be a perfect safeguard, if any
be needed among honourable men !

The value of the opinions held by this Inspector
of Packets, who must have somewhat resembled
Dr. Pangloss (except, as shown by mountainous
papers still existing, where his own fees were con-
cerned), was quickly put to a fresh test. But in
order to make clear the nature of the very important
question which now arose, some amount of explana-
tion and of retrospect is necessary.

Allusions have been made in previous chapters
of this work to the fact that all Packets throughout
the last century carried goods. Now this practice
was expressly forbidden by a statute of Charles II. ;
but it does not appear that the prohibition had
ever been enforced. Mr. Freeling, the Secretary of
the Post-Office, stated in a report made about this
time that he had been unable to trace the steps
by which the trade had developed itself in the teeth
of the statute, and that in his opinion the custom
"was coeval with the Packet Service itself." How-
ever that may have been, the trade was certainly
of antiquity sufficient to have struck deep roots
at Falmouth. It was carried on without the slightest
concealment; and was indeed expressly sanctioned
by the Government, though it remained, as it
had always been, illegal. In reports made on the
capture of Packets, the presence of goods on board
the vessel was set down with no more comment

V

94 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

than that of provisions. Indeed, so recently as in
1798, in a code of new regulations applicable to
the Packet station at Falmouth, the trade had
been explicitly recognized, and the only instruction
given to the agent in regard to it was that he
must satisfy himself that no Packet carried so large
a quantity of goods, or stowed them in such a
manner, as to put her out of trim.

The Post-Office always looked unfavourably on
this trade; and from time to time sought the
assistance of the Treasury in abolishing it, and
restricting the Packets to their proper use. But in
those days of constant war, when the seas were
unsafe for merchant vessels, and the ports now of
one nation, now of another, were closed to English
ships, the Government held that it would be
inopportune to stop a commercial outlet on which
many merchants of Bristol and other towns in the
west depended for a chief part of their trade;
and so the irregular system went on and grew
unchecked.

On the Lisbon station the trade seems to have
been more important than on the West India boats,
though it was very profitable on both. The West
India boats carried out cheese, potatoes, boots, and
shoes, and, curious addition to the list, fighting
cocks, for which there was a brisk demand. The
Lisbon Packets exported every kind of manufactured
goods, often to the value of £4000 on a single
voyage. These were by no means the speculations

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 95

of the captain or of the officers alone. The seamen
traded, each on his own account Every man had
his own stowage space reserved under the ceiling
of the forecastle. Here his "ventures" were sus-
pended, and no one claimed to interfere with
them.

Sometimes the seaman's ventures consisted of
goods entrusted to him by some merchant, to sell
on commission at Lisbon or Barbados; sometimes
he had purchased them himself; for not a few of
the seamen were capitalists on a small scale, and
most of them had formed regular connections with
the merchants. The goods once sold in foreign
ports, others were of course purchased there. Silks,
wines, tobacco, numberless things which by a little
ingenuity could be smuggled into Falmouth duty
free; and in order to facilitate disposing of these
imported bargains, a whole corps of female pedlars
was in existence, locally named "troachers," who
trudged the country and hawked about the goods
of Jamaica or New York from farm house to country
mansion.

There was thus at Falmouth an irregular trade
of great value. Every seaman in the employment
of the Post-Office was engaged in it. To most it
had formed a chief inducement to enter the service ;
for the wages were very low, and would not of
themselves have attracted men away from the
Revenue Service or the Royal Navy.

More than once during the last few years of

96 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

the century suggestions had been made of scandals
connected with the Falmouth trade; and hints had
been thrown out that a stringent inquiry, conducted
on the spot, might bring to light facts which would
explain the frequent captures of Packets. The
West India merchants, in guarded language, "prayed
that .... any abuses in the loading of the
Packets .... might be remedied"; but other
persons spoke plainly what was here only hinted ;
and roundly declared that it was sometimes very
profitable to be captured, and that the officers who
were the most often captured were the most quickly
growing rich.

The charge soon took clearer shape. It was
said that, in accordance with a common practice,
the goods received on board the Packets at Falmouth
were insured in England for the double voyage,
out and home. If then the goods were sold in the
West Indies, it would be a possible thing for the
crew to remit the purchase money in bills by some
safe channel; and to surrender themselves quietly
to the first Privateer they met. They ran the risk
of spending some years in a French prison; but
one cannot grow rich without some risk, and there
was a good chance that the Privateer would put
them ashore in their own boat

When they once reached England, they were
secure from detection. They declared before the
Insurance Company that the Privateer had taken
from them large quantities of goods which they

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 97

had not succeeded in selling abroad, or which they
had purchased there hoping to sell at home. They
claimed the value of those goods, and by the next
Packet received that value a second time in the
bills which they had themselves remitted.

This was the charge against the Falmouth officers,
— a charge involving so much base dishonesty that
one hesitates before accepting it as true of even
the smallest section of the Service at which it was
levelled.

Lord Auckland declined to believe in the possi-
bility of "so black and desperate a fraud." Still,
whatever incredulity might be felt at headquarters,
the accusation was clearly one which demanded
instant notice; and accordingly the optimistic In-
spector of Packets was directed to proceed to
Falmouth, and report on the matter.

Little time was lost by the Inspector. He quickly
produced a report which positively asserted the
existence of such fraud to be impossible. His reason
was that no insurance company would pay the
value of its policy in the absence of an affidavit
declaring precisely the quantity and quality of the
goods on board the Packet at the time of the
capture. The honest man forgot that the very
nature of the charge involved treachery and lying ;
and that men who could be supposed guilty of
those basenesses would not be likely to hesitate at
a perfectly safe perjury. Of course the Inspector's
conclusion was not necessarily absurd, because his

98 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

reasoning was unsound. But there are two stories
on record which go some way to prove that the
one and the other were equally wrong.

To take the least conclusive story first. The
"Earl Gower," commanded by Captain Deake, was
on her way home from Lisbon in June 1801 when
she encountered the " T^tegraphe " Privateer cutter,
of fourteen guns and seventy men, a force consider-
ably superior of course to her own. Captain Deake
plied his guns with vigour, however, and might
perhaps have got clear off, had not fully half his
crew gone below in a body, refusing either to work
the vessel or to fight her. The action of these men
is scarcely comprehensible on any other supposition
than that they wished to be captured. Cowardice
would have impelled them to flight ; but they refused
to work the ship, which was of course taken.

The second case tells a plainer story; and must
always stand, exceptional as it may be, as a black
disgrace upon the records of the Falmouth Service.
The facts are as follows.

The " Duke of York," a Packet homeward bound
from Lisbon, was chased throughout September
1 8th, 1803, by a Privateer of scarcely more than half
her size, though more heavily manned. Towards
evening the master, who was acting commander at
the time, consulted with the surgeon as to the course
proper for them to take in view of the fact that
the enemy was obviously gaining on them. The
surgeon stated that in his opinion resistance was

'i

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 99

impossible. He advised surrender; and the master,
after a short conversation, adopted his view. They
came to this resolution while the enemy's vessel
was still a mile distant from them, and before she
had even fired a summoning gun they hauled their
colours down.

It was then seven o'clock, and the night was
falling rapidly. This circumstance however did not
suggest to them that there was a chance of escaping
under cover of the darkness; it brought to their
minds only the fear that the enemy might not have
seen their flag pulled down. And so, to avoid any
misapprehension on the subject of their shame, they
sent a boat on board the Privateer and proclaimed
it in advance.

The story as here told leaked out by degrees.
However, on the first receipt of the news in London,
Lord Auckland heard it with so much suspicion
that he resolved to use the occasion for instituting
the Court of Inquiry, about the necessity of which
he and the Inspector of Packets held such divergent
views. A Court was accordingly constituted at
Falmouth, composed of all the commanders in port
at the time, under the presidency of the agent;
but the result was disappointing. The commanders
put their questions in such a manner as to shield
the culprits as far as possible ; and finally stultified
themselves by finding that all the officers did every-
thing possible to save their ship.

Perhaps little else was to be expected at the

ioo POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

outset of such inquiries. The commanders doubtless
resented the change of system as an insult to them-
selves. They were all old friends and neighbours;
esprit de corps was strong among them in proportion
as their numbers were few; and, moreover, their
Court having no legal standing, nor any power to
administer oaths, there was nothing to excite a
feeling of responsibility, or dignity, among the
individuals composing it, such as might have out-
weighed the natural dislike to its establishment
The responsibility developed; the dislike wore off.
In course of time these inquiries, which became
part of the regular routine of the station, were
found useful enough, and even indispensable.

On this first occasion, however, the finding of the
Court was useless, if not positively mischievous ;
and some more stringent inquiry was plainly needed.
It was entrusted to the Inspector of Packets, who
was acute and shrewd when he could cast off the
preconceived ideas bred by his long experience,
and who had been shaken out of his optimism in
some degree by recent events. He set himself to
work in Falmouth with zeal and energy, and
gradually disclosed a number of very remarkable
facts. He traced, so far as possible, the value of
the goods which each officer and sailor had on
board, what insurances he had effected on the out-
ward voyage, and what on the homeward, and
finally what sum (if any) he had gained by being
captured.

* »

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 101

One man, he found, admitted that he had gained
^300 by his misfortune. The surgeon, who advised
the surrender, had certainly made £250 out of it ;
but, by a remarkable lapse of memory, he was quite
unable to recollect what sum he had received in
Lisbon for goods sold there; so that it was im-
possible to arrive at the full amount of his profit
The steward's mate was richer by £250; one of
the seamen by £200; and most of the crew had
pocketed substantial sums, made in the identical
way indicated by the rumours spoken of above.

The next step was to ascertain whether any of
these men, and especially those who had made
large profits on this occasion, had been captured
before.

The surgeon, who had been foremost in counselling
surrender, and who was also (probably) the largest
gainer among this pack of scoundrels, had also
been captured more frequently than any of the
crew, except three men, having been taken prisoner
no less than three times before. How much money
he had made on those three occasions is not stated.
Three of the crew had been equally lucky. Four
other men had been captured twice before, most
of the rest once, and eight of them had been on
board the " Earl Gower " at the time of the disgrace-
ful circumstances related above.

The inference from these facts was so plain that
not even the Inspector of Packets could fail to
draw it His report was hesitating, but on the

102 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

whole conclusive: and it contained this striking
passage, "I cannot help being of opinion that if
during the war officers and seamen are permitted
to carry out merchandise on commission or other-
wise, there is reason to fear that the loss of
Packets may be very considerable, unless indeed
under disinterested or high-spirited commanders."

There is a barb in this sentence for all who love
Falmouth, and one would fain drop the subject
at this point But history has no concern with
sentiment; and, as the matter is of importance,
the following extract may be quoted from the
minutes of the Postmaster General, written after a
careful review of the whole subject.

". . . These papers prove beyond a doubt that His
Majesty's Packet could not have been captured if the skill
and courage of her crew had been properly exerted. Their
Lordships even incline to think that the French Privateer
might have been captured if our vessel had been carried
into action with the spirit which characterizes British seamen
in general No resistance was made. It was not even seen
what was the force of the Privateer. The Packet was not
even hailed or fired at by the enemy, yet a boat was sent off
to meet the Privateer and to accelerate a surrender of which
the seamen themselves speak as dishonourable and dishonest.
. . . Under these circumstances my Lords the Postmaster

General . . . never will consent that Mr. the acting

commander, or Mr. the surgeon, shall again be employed

in their service."

So then, it must be taken as proved that in this
one case certain officers of the Falmouth Service
sold their honour and betrayed their country. One

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 103

naturally asks whether any of the other captures
mentioned in the previous pages were due to
a similar treason. Since the war broke out
thirty-two Packets had been captured, and of
these twenty-one were taken on the homeward
voyage.

It may be said at once that, as far as the now
existing records show, no such misconduct as was
proved against the officers of the * Duke of York "
was ever alleged against any others. Doubts may
have been raised in the minds of Lord Auckland
or of Mr. Freeling ; but if so, they were allowed to
slumber again, and, after the lapse of well nigh a
hundred years, it cannot be necessary to reawaken
them.

In order to bring out more clearly the nature of
these charges, and to show precisely how far they
were well-grounded, the proper sequence of events
has been somewhat neglected.

During the four years which elapsed between
the first rumour of the scandals and the capture of
the " Duke of York," considerable progress had been
made in limiting the trade. Early in 1800 complaint
of the existence of an illegal trade at Falmouth
was made to Mr. Pitt by a private individual. Who
this person was, on what grounds he objected to
the trade, or by what influence he prevailed on
the Treasury to issue a prohibition for which
successive Postmasters General had appealed in
vain, — these are inquiries on which the records

104 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

throw no light The fact however is that he did
prevail, and an order was issued prohibiting the
private trade on the West India Packets, though
for the present it was permitted to continue on the
Lisbon boats.

In looking back on these events one cannot but
suppose that in thus vitally altering the ancient
conditions of service on the F^Jmouth station the
Government were actuated by some motive much
more potent than the desire to gratify a single in-
dividual. It must have been foreseen that the sailors
would resent the loss of their large profits ; that the
chief attraction of the Service in their eyes was
about to be destroyed, and this in the midst of
a dangerous and costly war.

The discontent showed itself at once. There
was something resembling mutiny at Falmouth. The
crews of several vessels refused to proceed to sea,
and their captains reported that they could not obtain
sailors unless the trade were restored. The Govern-
ment stood firm. The memorials of the seamen
pointed out that their wages, if they must rely on
them" solely, were not sufficient for their maintenance
and for that of their families. The statement was
perfectly true, for the trade had been so fully
recognized by the authorities that it was always
held to be unnecessary to pay any but low wages
to men who were earning so much by private
speculation. The wages had to be increased, but
the increase of course could not be equivalent to

i

v.] THE END OF THE ABUSES. 105

the amount of profit lost by the new rule; and a
smouldering mass of discontent was left at Falmouth
which in years to come broke out again and again
into mutiny.

CHAPTER VI.

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 excep-
tions, 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 Holy-
head 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

ch. vi.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. 107

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

108 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

with the identical situation which the masterful
hostility of Napoleon created a few years after-
wards.

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

VI.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. 109

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 atmos-
phere, 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 pro-
claimed ; the resources of Holland were added to
those of France, and another outlet for the Con-
tinental 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

no POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

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,

vi.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. Xll

whether for good or evil, touched the very exist-
ence 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 estab-
lished 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. Gren-
ville, 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

I

112 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE* [chap.

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 im-
practicable 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

vi.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. 113

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 demon-
strated 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

H

ii 4 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

impossible for the "King George" 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 favour-
able, 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 through-
out the night, making signals for a pilot, which
were not responded to.

vi.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. 115

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

1 1 6 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SEE VICE. [chap.

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 examina-
tion to be uninjured. The mails were put on board
without delay, and Captain Bridge set sail for

vi.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. 1 1 7

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 inter-
course 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 meas-
ured 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

Il8 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

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 some-
thing, 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 them-
selves 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 care-
fully 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.

vi.] THE NORTH SEA PACKETS. ng

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

CHAPTER VII.

THE SECOND FRENCH WAR.

With the outbreak of the second French War, the
Falmouth service entered on a new and better period.
It is in fact to the years now opening that Falmouth
men look back with pride and satisfaction, years in
which one gallant action followed another in quick
succession, whilst the officers and crews of every
Packet seemed to vie with each other in courage
and devotion to their duties.

A large portion of the credit of the better temper
which manifested itself from this time forth must of
course be attributed to the zeal with which Lord
Auckland and Mr. Freeling had plied the reformer's
broom ; but as no regulations or discipline from
headquarters can avail greatly against a supine or
hostile executive, it is only fair to acknowledge that
the officers at Falmouth worked most heartily in the
same direction as their chiefs. Indeed, it would seem
as if the reproach cast upon the station by the con-
duct of the officers of the " Duke of York " had bitten
deeply into the heart of the whole establishment,

ch. vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 121

and roused them to shake off the old and evil prac-
tices which had led to such disgrace. There was a
dark stain on the honour of the Service, and every
man set himself to wipe it out How nobly this was
done the following pages mil amply show.

Among a number of less important reforms which
had been carried out during the last three years
perhaps the most useful was the ingenious system
by which the absenteeism of the commanders was
checked, while at the same time a substantial benefit
was conferred on the Service. A system of mulcts
was established, under which every commander
wishing to remain on shore when his turn came
for proceeding to sea sacrificed a certain proportion
of the profits which he would have made upon the
voyage. But at the same time the sting was taken
out of these money fines, and they were even made
popular, by a regulation throwing them all into one
fund, the interest of which was devoted to pension-
ing the widows and orphans of captains and masters
who were* left in distressed circumstances. Mulcts,
which were really nothing more than enforced sub-
scriptions towards an object which must be congenial
even to the mulcted, were in fact not open to criti-
cism. The amount of the penalty was sufficiently
large to induce some hesitation before incurring it,
but as no exemptions from it were granted, even for
reasonable business, the pension fund grew and
prospered, and proved of the greatest benefit to the
Service.

122 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Among the captains who by this salutary new
rule were tempted back to their own quarter-decks
was Captain Yescombe, the remarkable story of
whose escape from a French prison in the year 1794
has been told in a former chapter.

Since the events there described, Captain Yes-
combe, at his own urgent request, had been allowed
to perform his duties by substitute, on the plea of
having received a strong hint that it would go hardly
with him if he were a second time made prisoner.

What it was that he feared, or on what ground,
is not easy to make out ; but it is clear that he had
some apprehension of more than ordinary danger in
resuming his sea life, and that he managed to con-
vince the authorities of the reality of this danger.
It is therefore not a little strange to find that on
his first voyage after the war broke out again his
forebodings were verified, and his ruin compassed by
a French vessel named "The Reprisal."

It was on July 23rd, 1803, that the " King George "
set sail from Lisbon for Falmouth. The passage
should have occupied about a week ; but the " King
George" never arrived in port Her fate was not
long doubtful. On August 12th the "Auckland"
Packet, which had left Lisbon some days later,
sighted a Swedish galliot, which signalled to her to
speak with them. On bearing down accordingly,
the officers of the a Auckland " found that the galliot
was manned by their friends and colleagues of the
"King George," the refugees of a lost sea fight, in

vil] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 123

which, though most of them had received severe
wounds, all had escaped alive, save only Captain
Yescombe, who had died of his hurts on the previous
day.

The fight, it appeared, had occurred on the 30th
July. The Packet made a stout resistance, and at
first with some hope of success, notwithstanding the
obvious superiority of the enemy, a Privateer carry-
ing fourteen 4-pounders and a hundred men, whilst
the "King George" had only twenty-six men and
six guns. The Falmouth men served their guns
well, but they suffered so heavily in their spars and
rigging that at last, after a heavy cannonade lasting
nearly an hour, the enemy obtained an opportunity
of boarding.

From that moment the last chance of saving
the Packet disappeared. The French poured fifty
men, chiefly blacks, upon her decks. There was a
desperate scuffle, but a few minutes decided the
affair. Captain Yescombe fell, shot through the
thigh. Mr. St. Aubyn, the mate, and three seamen
were wounded, the rest were quickly overpowered,
and the ship was won.

The French carried their prize into Vigo, and it
was in that port that the Cornishmen hired the
galliot, in which they were returning home when the
" Auckland " met them. Captain Yescombe, by the
accounts of those who were present at his last
fight, conducted it with skill and courage. He was
highly respected by his colleagues, and it cannot

1 24 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

be said that he left them any but an animating
example.

It may be observed at this point that the maxim
enunciated so often in 1793, when the new model
was introduced, namely, that " the idea of defence was
to be wholly abandoned/' appears much more rarely
in official reports of the early years of this century.
It was still cherished by the Department, but chiefly
for public consumption. It reappeared down to the
very eve of the peace whenever the merchants com-
plained, but to their own officers, my Lords the
Postmaster General used very different language.
They could not indeed supply their captains with
heavier armaments, but they could and did stimulate
them on every occasion to make a spirited use of
what they had, and to such encouragement the
Falmouth men responded nobly.

At this period a figure appears on the stage at
Falmouth which deserves more than a passing men-
tion. Captain John Bull was exceedingly well known
in his day, both as a good seaman and a gallant
officer, and his ship, the "Duke of Marlborough,"
shared in his well-earned reputation.

In the " Duke of Marlborough " Captain John Bull
fought more actions than any other Packet officer,
and, though he by no means won them all, yet when
he was most unfortunate, he emerged with credit,
and an added title to the confidence of the public
There was, moreover, a bluff heartiness about him,
a breezy contempt of danger, a dogged persistence

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 125

in carrying through whatever he had undertaken,
which excites our admiration even after the lapse
of so many years, and goes far to explain how it
happened that in his life-time he was regarded as the
embodiment of the best qualities of the Falmouth
Service, and by an affectionate deference on the part
of his colleagues was awarded by them the nickname,
or title, of "the Commodore."

The "Commodore's" first voyage as commander
— in succession to his father — served to prove the
qualities which brought him fame. The "Duke of
Marlborough" was not yet built, and Captain Bull
was in command of the "Grantham," a fine, full-
rigged ship, which, from some unexplained accident,
suddenly foundered while lying at Barbados. Cap-
tain Bull was on shore at the time, and the officer
left in charge had only time to save the mails
before the ship went down, carrying with her almost
the whole of Captain Bull's possessions.

The blow was a heavy one, for the " Grantham "
belonged to Captain Bull. If he had remained on
the spot, he might have recovered some portion of
his property by salvage, but there was no time for
delay. His duty was to convey the mails to Jamaica,
and he lost no time in chartering a schooner, in
which he reached Jamaica even earlier than he had
been expected. The plucky way in which so young
a captain faced his misfortunes won for him a con-
siderable amount of esteem among the merchants in
the island ; and feeling confident that their property

126 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

was safe in his hands, they appealed to the Gover-
nor and to the Deputy Postmaster of the colony to
entrust to him the mails which the "Grantham"
should have carried home to England, and to
authorize him to charter a vessel for the passage.
The Postmaster hesitated He would have preferred
to hold the mails over until the Packet of the
following month arrived, but in the end he yielded
to the wishes of the merchants. A Privateer, the
" Caroline," was hired, and Captain Bull set sail for
England.

It was curious how persistently ill-fortune pursued
him. On the very day on which the " Caroline " left
Kingston harbour she sprang a leak, and after
vainly endeavouring to keep the water under,
Captain Bull was obliged to bear up for port To
add to the dangers of his position, a strong breeze
rose, which quickly increased to a full gale. The
ship was labouring heavily, and making water most
uncomfortably fast. It was clear that she could never
reach port, and Captain Bull resolved that their
only chance lay in running her ashore.

In such a storm the expedient was desperate
enough, but a spot was selected in which it seemed
possible that the ship might hold together, and by
skilful management the lives of all on board were
saved. The mails, too, were got ashore uninjured,
and for the second time within ten days Captain
Bull presented himself at Kingston in the capacity
of a shipwrecked mariner, possessing nothing of his

vil] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 127

own except the clothes in which he stood, but bringing
with him all the public property entrusted to his care.

Confirmed in their confidence by this second proof
that it was well bestowed, the merchants would have
their mails entrusted to no one else, and within
three days Captain Bull was once more afloat, this
time on board the "Thomas," an armed ship bound
for Liverpool. The " Thomas " was a* good and sea-
worthy craft, and the voyage passed over without
incident until in mid -Atlantic she encountered a
French corvette of twenty-four guns, which bore
down and opened fire on the " Thomas." A sharp
action followed, which might have ended unfortun-
ately had not a lucky shot cut away the mizzen-
mast of the corvette, and in the confusion of this
disaster the "Thomas" made good her escape.

Captain Bull had lost his ship, but he had gained
his reputation. From this time forth he was always
named as one of the most active commanders on
the station. The " Duke of Marlborough " replaced
the "Grantham," and in this famous Packet many
notable people elected to make the voyage home to
Falmouth, relying on the skill of her well-known
captain. So general indeed was the impression that
the passage could be made with perfect safety
on board the "Duke of Marlborough" that Sir
Thomas Maitland, when his command in the Wind-
ward Islands expired, refused to go home in a
frigate, declaring that he preferred to sail with
Captain Bull.

128 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

In April, 1804, the "Duke of Marlborough" was
outward bound to the Leeward Islands ; and, when
about twenty-five leagues to the eastward of Bar-
bados, she was chased by an armed schooner.
Captain Bull altered the course of his ship, and
made all sail to avoid an action, if possible; but
at the end of an hour it was evident that the'
stranger ship was gaining ground Her behaviour
left little doubt that she was a Privateer out of one
of the French islands ; but, in order to settle the
matter, Captain Bull made the private signal; and
finding it remained unanswered he called his men
to quarters.

All preparations for the coming fight were com-
pleted long before the enemy came within range.
The boarding nettings were triced up, and stuffed
with hammocks and spare sails; the boat was cut
away, so as not to impede the action of the stern
guns ; the mail was brought on deck, weighted with
pigs of iron, and placed near one of the portholes,
in charge of a sailor who was instructed to sink it
instantly should the enemy appear likely to take
the vessel; the small arms were served out; the
men had their dinner, and were all at their posts
when at about 3 p.m. the enemy came within range,
and opened fire.

A broadside from the "Duke of Marlborough"
was the answer to this salute; and before the
smoke of these discharges cleared away the Privateer
was within pistol shot distance of the Packet, both

1

I

vix.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 129

running before the wind; and a very hot cannonade
ensued.

A few minutes' observation sufficed to show
Captain Bull that he was in the hands of an enemy
of much superior force. There were five guns on
the schooner's broadside, while the "Duke of Marl-
borough" had but three; and whenever he could
get a view of his opponent's deck, he saw it
crowded with men, beside whom his little handful
of thirty-two men and boys looked insignificant.
But this was not the worst of it; for ere long
musket balls began to rattle about the decks of the
Packet. A passenger fell, shot through the head ;
a few minutes later a seaman was killed; and it
was soon seen that no less than fifty riflemen were
posted in the tops of the schooner, whence they
were picking off any one who showed himself from
under cover of the bulwarks.

Captain Bull could spare no man from the deck
of his ship; and was thus unable to retaliate. He
was now, however, within about twelve leagues of
Barbados; and there was a good chance of running
under shelter of the island, if he were not first
dismasted. At the end of an hour, however, during
which he maintained a stout resistance, it was clear
that he could not much longer manoeuvre his ship,
which had suffered greatly in her spars and rigging.
Two more of his men were down. He himself was
almost wholly incapacitated by a rifle bullet which
had pierced both cheeks ; and at this juncture, the

130 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Privateer ran suddenly alongside, the "Duke of
Marlborough " refused to obey her helm, the French
made fast their grapplings, and were pouring down
in overwhelming numbers upon the Packet's deck,
when Captain Bull, perceiving that further resistance
was hopeless, ordered the mail to be sunk, tore up
his private signals, and struck his colours.

The French captain knew how to appreciate a
gallant enemy; and Captain Bull always acknow-
ledged the kindness shown to him, and to the
wounded. The "Duke of Marlborough" was navi-
gated into Guadeloupe, where the unwounded sailors
were thrown into what Captain Bull described as
"the most horrible dungeon that can be conceived,
where they had scarcely sufficient air to breathe."
Fortunately they were not kept long in this con-
finement, but were liberated after a short captivity,
and permitted to return to England.

It may be useful to remark at this point that
these French Privateers, of which such numbers
were sent out from Guadeloupe and Martinique,
were not only formidable by reason of the numbers
of their crews and the weight of metal which they
carried, but even more on account of the desperate
courage with which they attacked. Many a sloop
of the British Navy, armed and manned with a
force far superior to that of the Post-Office Packets
found it no child's play to encounter one of these
ocean free-lances, and some had reason to regret
having challenged them. The "General Erneuf"

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 131

was widely known and dreaded in the Caribbean
Archipelago, as was also her sister ship, " La Dame
Erneuf." The career of the latter vessel was
stopped in 1805 by H.M. brig "Curieux," after a
very sharp action, in which, as Captain Bettesworth
testifies in his report, the French had "30 killed
and 41 wounded." And " in justice to his gallantry,"
the captain adds, "I must say he never struck
whilst there was a man on his decks."

Such being the spirit in which the French
Privateers were fought, it is not wonderful that
they committed great ravages among our commerce.
The "Duke of Marlborough" was converted into a
Privateer, and on her first voyage captured H.M.
sloop "Lily." The sloop in her turn was re-
christened a General Erneuf," the original vessel of
the name having been lost in some unexplained
manner. The name had lost its luck, however, for
she was quickly brought to account by H.M. sloop
"Reynard," Captain Jeremiah Coghlen, who in
thirty-five minutes reduced her to such a condition
of helplessness that her captain blew her up in
preference to surrendering.

With facts such as these before us, it is im-
possible to make light of the actions fought by
the Falmouth Packets against these formidable
adversaries. The merit of a fight does not depend
on the numbers of the men engaged, but on the
quality of the defence offered by the weaker party.
The character of a forlorn hope attaches to every

132 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

one of the battles into which these little vessels
carried so high a spirit; and it must always be a
matter of regret that the records of so many of
them have been allowed to perish.

There lies before the writer a list of actions
fought in the years 1804 and 1805, every one of
which might well be thought to deserve some
record, had not the details of them been forgotten.
It was justly accounted no disgrace to Captain
Bull to surrender to the "General Erneuf" ; yet
Captain Patterson, in the "Eliza," fought and beat
this very Privateer a few months later. The action
lasted two hours and a half; and one would give
much to know what passed during that time, for it
is certain that the Privateer did not drop the prey
in which she had fixed her teeth without hard and
heavy fighting.

In May, 1805, Captain Mudge, in the "Queen
Charlotte," defended himself for two hours against
a Privateer of 16 guns and no men. Captain
Mudge had seen much service in the navy, and
had been present at the engagement with Admiral
Langara off Cape St. Vincent in 178 1. He was a
brave and experienced officer, of whom it might be
said with confidence that he fought to the very
utmost before he surrendered.

It is unfortunate that these and many another
gallant fight can never now be described ; but we
are happily in possession of fuller details of a very
important public service rendered about this time

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 133

by a Falmouth officer, on almost the only occasion
when the forces of a Packet were employed, and
properly employed, in an action which might have
been avoided, but was deliberately sought.

The island of Dominica, in some respects the
most beautiful of all the West Indian group, was an
object of continual envy on the part of the French.
Lying as it did almost within sight of their own
island of Guadeloupe, it seemed not impossible that
by a sudden attack it might be captured ; and it
is strange that the danger of such a surprise was
not more carefully guarded against by the English
Government

Whatever may be the explanation of this negli-
gence, it happened that in May, 1806, though a
number of sugar ships fully laden were lying in
Rozeau Bay, the capture of which would inflict a
most serious loss upon the planters, there was
actually no ship of war in the bay or in the
neighbourhood for their protection. It is true that
H.M. sloop "Dominica" had been sent to cruise off
Guadeloupe ; but even with the greatest zeal and
enterprise, this vessel could scarcely have counted
on intercepting more than a small proportion of the
Privateers which lurked in every bay and creek of that
notorious island, while, as it happened, any schemes
which her officers had formed in this direction were
promptly frustrated by a mutiny of the crew, who
seized the vessel, took her into Guadeloupe, and re-
ported to the French the defenceless state of Dominica.

134 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Of course such an opportunity was not likely to
be lost ; and it was fortunate for the Dominica
planters that no French frigate or ship of the
line was lying at Guadeloupe that day. Had the
French been able to place such a vessel at the head
of their flotilla, it can scarcely be doubted that the
island must have fallen, for its shore defences were
not adapted for resisting a strenuous attack, and
the troops in garrison, consisting of detachments of
the 46th and 3rd West India Regiments, were by
no means numerous.

As it was, the outlook was sufficiently serious.
The French promptly took the traitorous crew out
of the "Dominica," replaced them with sailors of
their own nationality, and added as many troops
as the vessel could carry. They re-named her
" Napoleon," gave her as consorts " L'Imperial," a
national schooner, and a sloop, both packed with
troops, and added a couple of row-boats or galleys
well stored with arms and ammunition. General
Hortade took command, and the flotilla appeared
off Dominica on the 24th May.

Its appearance aroused very great and natural
alarm. A glance showed that the expedition was
a strong one ; and, even if a landing could be pre-
vented, it was difficult to see how the sugar ships
could be saved. To slip their moorings, and stand
out to sea in different directions, would probably be
to meet destruction singly; while in harbour they
were at least under protection of whatever guns

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 135

could be placed in position for their defence. There
was no time to unload the cargoes, and but little
chance of saving them ; and the merchants gathered
on the quay in consternation, watching the French
ships grow nearer and nearer.

At this crisis, and while the enemy was still some
miles off the land, two English ships entered the
bay. One of them was the Packet, "Duke of
Montrose," commanded by Captain Bert Dyneley,
a brave and skilful officer. The other was H.M.S.
" Attentive," which had been told off to convoy the
Packet and the mails from Barbados through the
archipelago of islands, among which Privateers
swarmed almost as thickly as the sea birds.

The arrival of an English ship of war seemed
to the Dominica merchants a providential deliver-
ance, and under the orders of General Dalrymple,
President of the island, the "Attentive" lost no
time in standing out to sea again to intercept the
enemy.

Her movements were watched from shore with
keen anxiety, but the "Attentive" proved herself a
wretched sailer. It was not the practice of the
Admiralty to tell off for convoy duty any vessel
which would make a good cruiser; and if the
emergency had been less serious, Captain Dyneley,
who must have found it difficult and irksome to
keep back his own fine-sailing brig to the slower
pace of the escort, might have been amused to see
that the "Attentive" stood no chance whatever of

136 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

intercepting the French ships, every one of which
was sailing easily away from her.

There was now no time to be lost. It was plain
enough that the enemy would work havoc among
the sugar ships, and might even land their troops
before the " Attentive " could get into action. Only
one chance of checking them remained ; and General
Dalrymple, backed by all the merchants of the
island, appealed to Captain Dyneley to take a
detachment of troops on board his Packet, and risk
her in defence of the island. This was a proposal
which raised several serious considerations.

The Packets of course were no part of the fight-
ing forces of the country. They were not even
national property, but belonged nominally to the
commander.

The undertaking of the Department to pay for
damage sustained in action might or might not
apply to the present case. As far as Captain
Dyneley knew there was no precedent for it His
standing orders were to avoid action whenever he
could; but he was now called on to seek an engage-
ment, to throw his Packet in the way of a greatly
superior force, and that, moreover, on a service quite
distinct from the business of the Post-Office. Here
was no question of protecting the mails, but rather
of putting them in danger.

It is true that the service he was asked to render
seemed the only means of averting a national dis-
aster, and might be thought likely to establish a

vit.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 137

strong claim on the gratitude of the Government.
But Captain Dyneley was well aware that when the
actions of officers on critical occasions came to be
considered in the serene atmosphere of Whitehall,
they were often measured by standards very differ-
ent from those applied to them on the spot ; and
while he probably felt little doubt that the Post-
master General would make a generous appeal to
the Treasury not to let him remain a loser for
acting patriotically, he could be by no means
certain that the trustees of the national purse would
not argue that he ought to have stood out to sea,
leaving the sugar ships to fight it out with the
French, and that he acted most irregularly in
thrusting his Packet into danger.

Captain Dyneley stated these facts to the Presi-
dent and merchants, and pointed out that while he
was quite willing to risk his life and the lives of his
crew upon a very hazardous service, it was scarcely
reasonable to ask him to stake his ship also, which
was worth ^5000. He therefore proposed that the
merchants should jointly guarantee to pay this
amount, in case the "Duke of Montrose" were lost,
and the Government declined to pay for her. But
the merchants declined absolutely to entertain the
proposal.

Captain Dyneley then proposed to divide the
responsibility, taking on himself the risk of the
masts, yards, rigging, and all the equipments of the
Packet, if the President and the merchants would

1 38 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

guarantee the value of the hull. This offer also
was declined, and it was made clear to Captain
Dyneley that if he attempted to save the merchants'
property, he must stake all his own on the event.
The merchants would guarantee nothing. Not even
the sight of the French ships drawing momentarily
nearer induced them to unlock their purse-strings ;
and if Captain Dyneley had insisted on his perfectly
reasonable request, Dominica would have fallen, and
might have remained a French possession to this day.

Happily for this country, its honour at that crisis
did not depend upon a merchant It was in the
hands of a man whose mind was not dominated by
the fear of money loss, and who, much as he might
regret the risk of losing the capital on which his
wife and children must depend if he fell in the
coming action, dreaded far more the disgrace of
seeing the Union Jack hauled down, and the tri-
coloured ensign floating over Rozeau Bay. At this
moment the Falmouth captain stood for England.

There was no time for reflection, and very little
for preparation. Captain Dyneley cheerfully resolved
to take upon himself the whole risk and responsi-
bility of employing his Packet upon a service which,
however it might result, could not be called a Post-
Office service. He sent on shore all the mails
which he had in charge, giving careful instructions
that they were to be destroyed if in any danger of
capture by the enemy. He called his crew together,
explained to them what he was about to do, pointed

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 139

out that they were by no means bound to follow
him, and offered leave to go ashore to any man who
cared to do so.

Of course not one of the Falmouth men flinched,
and by the time Captain Dyneley had satisfied
himself on this point, several boats full of troops had
come alongside. Twenty-six men of the 46th Regi-
ment, and thirteen of the 3rd West India Regiment,
were taken on board the "Duke of Montrose,"
making up with her own crew a complement of
rather less than seventy men ; and thus provided,
the Packet slipped her cable, and stood out of the
bay to meet the advancing enemy.

It may be conceived with what anxiety the move-
ments of the "Duke of Montrose" were watched
from shore. The flotilla of French ships was full in
sight, perilously near the harbour. The " Attentive "
was lying at some distance, evidently unable in
the light wind which prevailed to manoeuvre with
any effect. Captain Dyneley's Packet, a vessel of
not more than one hundred and ninety tons, was
no larger than the smallest of the three sloops in
the track of which she was thrown, and to the
spectators on the quay it seemed that the three,
acting in concert, must quickly send the "Duke of
Montrose" to the bottom.

The first encouraging fact noticed by the mer-
chants was that the Packet sailed incomparably
better than any one of her enemies, and could
choose her position as she pleased. She was, more-

i 4 o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

over, very skilfully handled, availing herself of every
puff of the wind, which was now growing so light
as to give some uneasiness. Whether by accident
or design, the French vessels had become scattered,
and Captain Dyneley seized the opportunity of
dealing with them separately. By far the most
formidable of them was " L'Imperial," and he there-
fore singled her out, and bore down on her as fast
as the weather permitted.

Unfortunately, the wind now failed altogether, and
the spectators on the quay saw with dismay that
the "Duke of Montrose" was ceasing to cut the
water, and lay with canvas hanging loose out of
gunshot of " L'lmperial." As quickly as this was
perceived, however, hasty movements were seen on
board, the boats dropped over the side, a dozen men
leapt into them, and with a cheer which came
faintly over the water to the ears of the merchants,
and put some heart into them, the Falmouth men
towed their ship towards the enemy.

A short range was what Captain Dyneley wanted,
his eight guns consisting chiefly of 12-pounder
carronades, and he placed the " Duke of Montrose "
within pistol-shot of "L'lmperial." A very hot
action then began. From the shore nothing could
be distinguished but a cloud of smoke in which the
two vessels were obscured. The "Attentive" was
unable to attain a position which would enable her
to give the Packet any assistance ; and irksome as
it must have been to her officers to see their convoy

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. I4 i

doing the work, she seems to have contributed
nothing to the result, unless, indeed, it was her
presence on the scene which restrained the other
French vessels from interfering in the fight

If so, she rendered invaluable service, for Captain
Dyneley had his hands full, and a very little would
have inclined the scale against him. During three-
quarters of an hour the fighting was desperate ; but
at last the English gained the upper hand ; the
smoke began to clear away, and the people watch-
ing on shore saw the tricoloured ensign drop from
the mast and the Union Jack hoisted in its place.

This was an excellent beginning, but the work
was only half done; and Captain Dyneley, having
taken possession of his prize, lost no time in giving
chase to the "Napoleon," which vessel appears to
have been occupied chiefly in demonstrating how
much faster than the " Attentive" she could sail,
and in declining the action which the latter offered.
In this prudent course she found no difficulty; but
when the "Duke of Montrose," an incomparably
swifter vessel bore down and offered fight, her crew
flushed with the victory which had robbed the
expedition of its most powerful component, the
commander of the "Napoleon" judged that the
time for Fabian tactics had gone past, and sought
refuge in flight

Unfortunately for himself he had delayed a little
too long. Not only was the "Duke of Montrose"
in a position whence she could have overhauled the

l 4 2 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

" Napoleon " in a comparatively short space of time,
but there were already in view, rounding a point
of the coast, the white sails of an English cruiser,
which, attracted by the firing, was running down
to see if she could be of use. Captain Dyneley
continued the chase long enough to assure himself
that the newcomer, which proved to be H.M.S.
"Wasp," Captain Bluett, could not miss the
" Napoleon," and then returned to Rozeau Bay
where he found the circumstances completely
changed.

The "Attentive" had succeeded in capturing the
row-boats, and as the "Duke of Montrose" re-
appeared on the scene of action had just scuttled
them. There remained only one vessel of the whole
flotilla, and about this one it was unnecessary for
either the "Attentive," the "Duke of Montrose,"
or the "Wasp" to concern themselves. For the
apprehension of a conflict on shore was no sooner
removed by the capture of " L'Imperial," than the
soldiers who were in charge of the land defences
became impatient of their inaction; and Lieutenant
Hamilton, having obtained leave, manned a couple
of boats with soldiers of his own, the 48th, regiment,
pulled out to the French ship, and captured her
after a brief encounter.

Thus of the whole expedition not one ship or
man escaped ; and an hour's energetic action had
turned the well-founded apprehensions felt for the
safety of Dominica into security. Captain Dyneley

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 143

was undoubtedly the saviour of the island. Had
he not checked the course of " L'lmperial," that
vessel, which doubtless carried General Hortade,
would have executed her plans without impediment.
The "Attentive" could not overhaul her: the
"Wasp" was too far away to be of use in prevent-
ing a landing. Had the French troops been
disembarked there must have been desperate and
bloody fighting, the result of which could not be
forecast The loss of property would have been
immense, the discredit to England and the loss of
prestige in the West Indies would have been
greater still.

Whether the merchants expressed their acknow-
ledgments to Captain Dyneley in any form is not
recorded in the official papers from which these
facts are drawn ; but General Dalrymple in his
despatch to the Admiralty stated the case not
unfairly, though it cannot be said that he wrote
with any undue appreciation of the services of the
Post-Office commander. He admitted that the
capture of the two most formidable ships in the
hostile flotilla was due, the one directly, and the
other indirectly, to Captain Dyneley's enterprise and
pluck; and added, "his zeal and disinterestedness
are highly commendable, as from his instructions
he had a good deal to lose."

On Captain Dyneley's return to England his own
chiefs were well able to interpret this carefully
guarded language, and from them at least he

* * •

1 44 POST- OFFICE FA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

obtained the admiration which was his due. The
Postmaster General prevailed on the Admiralty to
convey to him a special expression of thanks and
approval, and marked their own sense of his conduct
by an honorarium of a hundred and fifty guineas.
The Patriotic Society voted him a handsome piece
of plate, and congratulations reached him from
every quarter.

It is satisfactory to read that recognition of his
gallant conduct reached him promptly, because the
time within which it could serve to gratify him
was already short.

The "Duke of Montrose" lay at Falmouth until
the middle of November, when she sailed again for
the West Indies. A month later she was within
fifty leagues of Barbados, that fatal region in
which so many Packets had to fight for their
existence, when in the early dawn a strange sail
was descried from the masthead. An hour made it
plain that the newcomer had altered her course and
was chasing the Packet : in the course of the
morning she drew so near that no doubt was left
of her being a French Privateer.

Captain Dyneley put his ship to her best point
of sailing, and did all in his power to avoid an
action as his instructions enjoined. Well as the
"Duke of Montrose" sailed, however, the enemy
sailed better, and throughout the day she gradually
gained steadily. During the night she was not
shaken off, and about 9 A.M. on the following day,

vii.] THE SECOND FRENCH WAR. 145

December 12th, she came within range, opened fire,
and almost at the same moment ran down and
grappled the " Duke of Montrose," hoping to capture
her by a sudden assault.

In an attack of this kind the superior numbers
of the Privateer's crew (she carried eighty-five men
against twenty-eight on the Falmouth vessel) gave
her an immense advantage, and this advantage
was turned into an overwhelming preponderance
by the fact that she possessed a long 12-pounder
(called in one report a 24-pounder) fixed upon a
traverse, and so capable of being directed on any
spot with ease.

Captain Dyneley maintained a most obstinate
resistance, though on this occasion the safety of
his capital was not in question, since the Post-Office
was pledged to pay for Packets captured while
employed on their own service. Time after time
the French were driven back to their own ship,
unable to gain the slightest advantage. For no less
than three hours the two ships remained locked
together fighting incessantly, and it is impossible to
say how the action would have ended had not
Captain Dyneley unhappily fallen in one of the
boarding attacks. His mate and three seamen
were already slain. Two others were dangerously
wounded, and the crew, dispirited by the loss of
their commander, and exhausted by their long and
desperate resistance, hauled the colours down and
surrendered.

K

146 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap. vii.

So ended, bravely and honourably, the career of
Captain Bert Dyneley. The naval history of this
country tells of many exploits performed upon a
grander scale than his and followed by consequences
of more importance. But if the quality of the
achievements be considered rather than the numbers
of the contending forces, Captain Dyneley, who
cheerfully risked his property as well as his life
in a national service entirely out of his line of
duty, and who a few months later laid down
that life in defending his trust with an obstinacy
which his chiefs did not expect and had not
equipped him for, deserves a better fate than to
be entirely forgotten.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE CONTINENTAL

SYSTEM.

Relieved as they were by recent events from all
apprehension about the conduct of the Falmouth
Packets, my Lords the Postmaster General yet
found themselves involved in anxieties and diffi-
culties, which were daily growing more acute. It
was the growth of the Continental System, the
blockade of all intercourse with the ports of Europe
which give rise to these difficulties ; and to follow
plainly the efforts made to cope with this new
situation of affairs, it will be necessary to revert
once more to the outbreak of hostilities in 1803.

The inhuman decree issued by Napoleon at the
commencement of the war, ordering the seizure
and detention of all English subjects between the
ages of 18 and 60 who, for whatever reason, were
present on territory subject to French control at
the moment when war was declared, has no de-
fenders now. That barbarous seizure of peaceful
travellers, both men and women, of merchants

148 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

following their lawful callings, and of Government
servants, who had not yet been ordered to quit
their posts, stands universally condemned as the
act of a savage rather than of a civilized enemy.
" It was an act," says M. de Bourrienne, " which no
consideration can justify";, and in face of this
emphatic condemnation of Napoleon's private Secre-
tary, it might not have been necessary to refer to
the matter had not the decree struck the Packet
Service with peculiar force.

The war broke out suddenly, and almost with-
out warning. At Helvoetsluis the business of the
Packet Station was in full progress. Four Packets
lay in the roadstead ; the commanders were on
shore, the agent was transacting business in his
office. No hint or rumour of danger to themselves
had reached them. They knew that the negotiations
between their own Government and that of France
had reached a critical stage; but they believed that
timely notice would be given of any rupture, and
they continued their peaceful avocations in reliance
on the good faith which regulates the intercourse
of nations.

So strong was the confidence in this good faith
that not one of the Packets was armed. Their
guns were lying in store at home, as was the
practice in time of peace ; for to make show of
readiness of war would not only have been unneces-
sary but insulting, and might well have precipitated
a catastrophe. Thus, when a small force of French

viil] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 149

soldiers marched suddenly into Helvoetsluis, no
apprehension was felt at first; and no other feeling
than incredulity was excited by the intimation of
the officer in command that the English must
consider themselves prisoners, and their ships prizes
of war.

Remonstrance was utterly useless. The agent,
the commanders, the seamen, even the British envoy,
Mr. Leston, whose character as a diplomatist should
have rendered his person sacred, all were seized,
and thrown into the common prison of the Brill.
The unfortunate men did not yet doubt that the
French commander had exceeded his authority,
and would be promptly disavowed by his Govern-
ment; and as more and more prisoners were
continually added to their number, they kept up
their spirits by the confident anticipation of a
speedy release.

Somewhat earlier on this memorable day, two
messengers, Mr. East and Mr. Wagstaff, had left
the Hague charged with despatches of great im-
portance. They found themselves in some danger
of arrest while they were still within the city ;
but having gained the open country, they did not
doubt that in some one of the Packets which were
lying at Helvoetsluis they would be able to get a
passage home. They had not travelled far when
the news of what had happened at Helvoetsluis
was given them by some country people. Mr. East
did not believe it ; and, being directly connected

150 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

with the Diplomatic Service, he felt confident of
his personal safety even if the intelligence were
correct

Mr. WagstafF was in a different position ; and
was inclined to attach more credence to the story.
It was decided that the two travellers should
separate ; Mr. Wagstaff making for Scheveningen,
in charge of the despatches, while Mr. East, who
was acquainted with their tenor, continued his
journey to Helvoetsluis, where he was promptly
arrested, despite his protestations, and sent to join
his countrymen in the Brill prison.

Mr. Wagstaff, travelling on foot through the
night, managed, after several narrow escapes, to
reach the seashore, along which he proceeded to
Scheveningen, sheltering himself among the sand-
hills which line that coast.

Scheveningen, though within two miles of the
Hague, where French soldiers already swarmed,
proved to be unguarded. The town was then, as
it is still in these days, no more than a small
fishing village, possessing neither pier nor harbour,
but only an open shore, on which the fishing
luggers beach themselves on returning from a
voyage. Perhaps the French thought the place too
insignificant to need a guard ; but, however that
may be, Mr. Wagstaff found a fisherman willing
to take him across the channel, and landed safely
in England on May 26th, 1803.

It may be that the kidnapping of the unlucky

viii.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 151

prisoners at Helvoetsluis, and many another town
in Holland and France, was a symptom rather than
a cause of the peculiar exasperation with which the
coming war was fought, but it certainly added
vastly to the hatred with which Napoleon was re-
garded in this country; and when it was found
that the release even of the diplomatists could be
obtained only with the greatest difficulty, while all
the remaining prisoners were reserved for a confine-
ment of indefinite length, the general indignation
knew no bounds.

A few of the Packets' men, headed by Captain
Flynn, managed to burst out of the Brill prison on
the last evening of their sojourn there. They suc-
ceeded in reaching the beach, seized an open boat,
and after many hours of great danger, were picked
up by an English ship. The rest of the prisoners
were taken to Verdun, where they appear to have
been not ill-treated. Mr. Sevright, the Post-Office
agent at Helvoetsluis, retained during the whole
period of his captivity, which lasted for nine years,
the authority with which he had been invested,
keeping up some sort of discipline, and constituting
himself the protector of the sailors. He received
and distributed the allowance of six sous a day
which the English Government granted to each
captive sailor; and, being gifted with strong sense
and discretion, was able to intervene with good
effect whenever his men came into conflict, as
restless seamen will, with the Commissary or his

152 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

subordinates ; to secure justice for them, and in
many ways to mitigate the hardships of their un-
fortunate position.

Before leaving these men in their dreary captivity,
it may not be out of place to refer to the extra-
ordinary courage and endurance shown by some of
the prisoners who attempted to escape.

John Carne, a native of Penryn, had been captured
on one of the Falmouth Packets. He lay in prison
for fifteen months; until one night he found an
opportunity of climbing the prison wall. The wall
was forty feet high; but Carne took the chance
and leapt down. He fell upon his head and
shoulders, broke his collar bone, and bruised himself,
very severely; but fortunately he was still able to
walk, and, injured as he was, got clear away from
pursuit. Travelling always by night, through bye
roads and over hedges, half-crippled with his broken
bone which remained unset, he lay by day concealed
under bridges, or among reeds in river beds; and
so, toiling on doggedly, he reached the coast at
last, and in some way managed to cross to his
own country.

Bourrienne in his memoirs tells on good authority
a still more extraordinary story. Two English sailors
in the year 1804 made good their escape from
Verdun, and arrived at Boulogne without having
been discovered, though all the roads were watched
with great care. When these men reached the
sea-coast, whence England was in sight, they were

viii.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. I53

still as far from liberty as at Verdun. Napoleon
was at Boulogne, supervising the collection of the
flotilla which was to convey his armies into England.
Every craft for miles along the coast was registered
and watched. The two seamen had no money,
and lay in hiding, desperate and almost hopeless.

At last they determined to construct a boat, and
began gathering such scraps of wood as they could
find. They had no tools except their knives, but
with these the ingenious fellows fashioned a boat
at last, though it was no more than three or four
feet wide, and a trifle more in length. They covered
it with a piece of sailcloth. It was so light that a
man could easily carry it on his shoulders; and in
this frail cqck-boat they determined to cross the
channel.

An English frigate one day lay off the coast,
reconnoitring, and the two sailors made a bold
effort to reach her. They pushed off in their skiff,
but not unobserved; for they had made only a
few hundred yards when they were pursued and
brought back by the Custom-house officers. They
then ran an excellent chance of being shot as spies,
but their story reached Napoleon's ears. He sent
for them, and questioned them. Their boat was
brought with them.

"Is it really true," he asked, "that you thought
of crossing the sea in this thing ? "

u Sire 1 " they answered, " if you doubt it, give us
leave to go, and you shall see us depart"

154 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

Napoleon could not but admire their audacity,
and, acting on a generous impulse, gave the men
their liberty, and caused them to be placed on board
an English ship. The incident was never forgotten
by him; and even in his last days at St Helena
he referred to it with admiration.

One more incident of the same nature is worth
recording. A number of sailors of the Packet Service
were in confinement at Amboise on the Loire. The
gaol was densely crowded, the food was bad and
insufficient; fever broke out, and the havoc among
the unhappy sailors was immense.

To relieve the congestion in the prison some of
the men were allowed a certain amount of liberty,
and permitted to earn a few sous by ferrying persons
across the river. One day they escaped, and after
long wanderings reached the town of Nantes, where
they were at once arrested, and brought before the
prefect They declared themselves to be Americans,
but the prefect was incredulous and questioned them
in a very searching manner. The men however had
some knowledge of New York, and answered his
inquiries well enough. The prefect was thrown back
by the accuracy of their replies, but still not satisfied.
At last a final test occurred to him.

"You say you were in New York in the year
17 — ," he observed, and the men assented.

* Do you remember anything of particular interest
which occurred in that year?"

" Certainly," the spokesman of the party answered

vill.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 155

readily. "A large vessel lying at the pierhead
foundered suddenly and unaccountably."

44 Pass them on," said the prefect, "their story is
true, I was there myself, and saw the vessel founder."

When it was no longer possible to forward mails
to Calais or to Helvoetsluis, the administrators of
the Post-Office turned their attention to the Ham-
burg route, as in former years. But Napoleon was
already pressing his great policy of excluding English
trade from the Continent, and one of his first
measures was to station a considerable force at
Cuxhaven for the express purpose of stopping all
commerce with this country. The independence of
Hamburg was not yet violated, and the Senate of
the ancient Hanse town was quite ready to receive
in secret any mails which could be smuggled into
the city. To manage this was not impossible,
though very difficult, and throughout the year 1804
a considerable number of letters appear to have
filtered through.

For their greater convenience in plying this
dangerous system, the North Sea Packets fre-
quently made Heligoland their station ; but as
mails alone could be disembarked upon that island,
while all passengers must find a safer route, the
normal passage was to Gothenburg.

The voyage to Gothenburg was long and stormy,
and it became advisable to select a point nearer
Hamburg. Husum in Holstein was admirably
situated for the purpose; and throughout 1805

156 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

and the early months of 1806 the mails were
sent thither. There does not appear to have
been any insuperable difficulty in forwarding them
from Husum to Hamburg. There was still a
British agent in the latter city, and the Danish
Government which controlled the former was as
yet neutral, if not friendly to England.

It was by no means in accordance with Napoleon's
purposes, however, that the Hamburg gates should
remain ajar to English commerce and correspond-
ence. Closely occupied as he was throughout the
year 1805, he found time to advance his great
design for striking at England through her com-
mercial supremacy. "Go to Hamburg," he said
to Bourrienne in March, "it is there I will give
a mortal blow at England."

And so the power of France grew steadily in
Hamburg, while the ancient Syndic of the city
saw its independence gradually sapped. Already
violent outrages were committed by the French
agents upon messengers carrying English letters.
A courier on his way from Vienna to England
was seized in a forest, robbed of his despatches,
and left bound to a tree, where he would certainly
have perished, had he not been released by a woman
who was accidentally passing through the forest
Such were the risks confronted by the English
messengers ; but despite all such dangers the Postal
Service was maintained, irregularly indeed, and with
delays and interruptions which caused wide-spreading

vin.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 157

losses. The wonder is not that the Service was
imperfect, but that it was maintained at all.

The difficulties grew as the months went by. The
decrees of March, 1806, which Prussia was forced
to issue, excluding British ships from all the ports
of Prussia and Hanover, added little to the difficulties
of the Post-Office, for neither Denmark nor Hamburg
was concerned in it. .But a darker cloud was rising
fast. The French began to menace actively the
independence of Hamburg. In October it was
notified by the Hamburg Post-Office that the
situation of affairs no longer admitted of the
receipt of mails for Prussia, Russia, or Germany,
and for many days after the receipt of this gloomy
notification no news whatever reached London from
the Elbe.

Late in November a few bags of letters filtered
through, giving a more hopeful account of the
situation, but even while these letters were being
read, the French had entered Hamburg, and the
revenues of the Post-Office, the ancient property
of the House of Tour and Taxis, had been
appropriated by the agent of Murat.

Quickly on the heels of the messengers who
carried this intelligence followed others bringing
the notorious Berlin decrees, of which the para-
graph affecting the Post-Office was short and
simple. "All trade and correspondence with the
British Islands are prohibited. In consequence, all
letters and packets addressed to England, or to

j 58 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

an Englishman, or written in English, shall not
be transmitted by the Post-Office, but shall be
seized. . . ." Napoleon had struck his "mortal
blow," and the clang of the Custom- House doors
closing against British goods along the whole coast
of Europe, north, west, and south simultaneously,
save only in Portugal and Denmark, sounded in
his eager ears the knell of England's power.

Thus was created the most serious situation
which had ever confronted the General Post-Office,
the most serious, one might say, if it is ever safe
to forecast the complications of international affairs,
with which it can possibly have to deal. The public
looked to the Postmaster General to carry their
correspondence, commercial and private; the Govern-
ment called on them for the safe delivery of
despatches. My Lords took down the map of
Europe and found that from the Elbe to Dalmatia
their Packets could land in Portugal alone, a
country whence mails must be forwarded not only
through a hostile territory, but across lofty mountain
passes, and through provinces so wild and unsettled
that it appeared hopeless to think of organizing
mail routes from Lisbon for Germany or Austria.

The chances of smuggling letters into Hamburg
was the only one worth consideration, and the
thoughts of the officials in Lombard Street re-
mained fixed on Northern Europe.

When the French entered Hamburg, Mr. Thornton,
the British Consul, retired to Husum. He saw no

r f**w T . J "^ i ^ V i ■■■* m m

viil] r^ffS CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 159

prospect whatever of forwarding the mails which
arrived from England, and being somewhat un-
certain how long his position in Holstein might be
secure, he thought it well to send the bags back
to London. This was in November ; and in the
following July those mails were lying still at the
General Post-Office, waiting for some chance of
conveyance to their destination. It needs but a
small effort of the imagination to realize what
widespread mischief might result from the detention
of a mail for seven months. Such a fact, more
than pages of description, brings home to our
minds how hard and heavy was the burden which
our grandfathers bore in the days of the great
war.

The scope of the present work, concerned as it
is solely with the difficulties and successes of Postal
administration, does not demand any relation of the
various measures and counter-measures taken by one
or the other of the parties in the struggle for
supremacy. It is enough to observe that the great
system proved scarcely more successful than any
other attempt to fetter the natural impulses of
nations by any artificial restriction. Licenses to
import English goods were granted in great num-
bers by Napoleon himself, as a source of revenue.
His officers in many places, seeing that the chief
burden of the system fell on the German merchants
not on the English, evaded their instructions. "I
received orders," says Count Rapp, "to commit all

1 60 POST-OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE, [chap.

articles of English merchandise to the flames. This
measure would have been most disastrous. I evaded
it . . . and Dantzic lost no more than what amounted
to 200 francs, and Koenigsberg still less." A
gigantic system of smuggling grew up, and on this
contraband trade Count Rapp also looked bene-
volently. "I frankly confess," he writes, "that I
did not watch the coast of the Baltic with the
vigilance that was prescribed to me." And thus
it happened that what with licenses, a convenient
blindness of the executive, and a bold and daring
trade by smuggling, the great barrier erected against
England proved to be rather a trellis than a barri-
cade, and was penetrable at many different points.
Of course it was more difficult to introduce letters
than goods into Germany. Mail-bags must be
consigned to some responsible person. They be-
trayed their origin moreover, and were thus a
certain source of trouble in case of discovery at any
point of the route by which they travelled. All
letters addressed in English or bearing English
post-marks were opened and read by the French
officials before being destroyed. If they contained
any reference to property, that property was liable
to be seized and burnt as being English or of
English origin. These risks were avoided for the
present by sending all letters from England to
correspondents in Altona, who enclosed them in
fresh covers and re-posted them to Hamburg or to
places beyond.

viii.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 161

The following extract is from a letter written
to the Secretary of the General Post-Office by
Mr. Nicholas, British Consul at Altona, to whose
judgment and knowledge of the various changes in
the situation of affairs the Department was very
frequently indebted.

"I am sorry to tell you," Mr. Nicholas writes,
under date of May 30th, 1807, "that we this
moment receive the intelligence of Dantzig being
in possession of the French on the 26th inst. . . .
Such letters for that place as I may receive from
you before this letter reaches you, I shall keep in
my office until I receive your directions, as the
French will at first look after all letters to discover
British property. ... I have made many inquiries
how English letters sent under cover to merchants
of this town addressed to Austria and Italy have
gone. A banker of this place, Messrs. Israel and
Dehn, assures me that they forward at least 50 to
200 a week, which he receives under cover from
England, and that he has as yet never known one
miscarry, nor heard of their being opened. I readily
believe this, as to judge from the general conduct of
the persons employed, their only object is to make
money. ... I am convinced that the mercantile
correspondence is not interrupted in the least, and
that the revenue alone suffers, as from what I saw
in Husum, the practice of the merchants is to write
on a very thin paper and put their letters under
one cover. I observed some instances of this nature

L

162 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

where certainly 30 or 40 letters were enclosed, and
the postage charged was not the amount which
ought to have been paid for five single letters."

Mr. Nicholas was firmly persuaded that the
patriotism of the Duke of Berg's (Murat's) agents
in Hamburg was so far qualified by respect for
the Post-Office revenues which they had seized as
to leave them open to a bargain. He accordingly
approached them secretly, and found them quite
disposed to treat The Duke's Postmaster pledged
himself that the letters should go safely ; that they
never had been, and never would be, opened ; while
Mr. Nicholas, who strongly urged the conclusion
of this bargain, was persuaded that the greed of
the Berg officials was an excellent pledge of their
good faith.

Bourrienne, who, in addition to his other functions,
was the Duke of Berg's agent in Hamburg, has
nothing to say about this negotiation, so strangely
opposite to the policy of Napoleon that one might
call it traitorous if one did not acknowledge that
the base motive of pecuniary interest may have
been mingled with a more honourable desire to
avoid the total commercial ruin of the countries
which the Continental System was crushing into
bankruptcy.

For the English Government the question of
good faith was not the only one to be considered.
It was a strange proposal that a friendly treaty
should be made with the agents of a hostile nation.

viil] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 163

The whole situation was extraordinary; but even if
natural scruples could be set aside, even if honour
permitted such a negotiation, it was clear that the
ancient friendship of the Hamburg office would be
jeopardized by concluding it The French occupa-
tion would pass away, and the lawful owners
of the Hamburg revenues would resume them in
happier times. Nothing must be done which could
be construed into a recognition by the British office
of the violent usurpation of the French. And so
the provisional agreement concluded by Mr. Nicholas
was set aside, much to the disappointment of the
Duke of Berg's officials, who renewed their pro-
posals more than once, but always with the same
result. Probably this termination of the matter
was lamented also by the English merchants, if
indeed they knew of the negotiations ; but they
had more ground for complaint a few weeks later.
The device of forwarding letters under cover to
Altona had, as Mr. Nicholas showed, proved suc-
cessful ; but the time was at hand when this channel
was to be blocked. Holstein was already threatened
by the French. Writing on the 29th July, an old
correspondent of the British Post-Office warned the
Secretary that in another fortnight Holstein would
be beset The crisis was more serious than the
writer of the friendly warning knew. The treaty
of Tilsit had been signed. The movement on
Holstein was preparatory to a seizure of the Danish
fleet, to be used against this country. The English

164 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Government struck hard and quickly, and within
the period named a British fleet was working into
position before Copenhagen.

What followed is well known ; but the measures
of the English were taken so secretly that the
general public by no means understood what was
going on, and two Packets arriving early in August
at Tonningen, which for some time had been
their station, were greatly perplexed on finding an
English gun-brig stationed at the mouth of the
river Eyder, giving orders for no British vessels
to pass.

Such orders did not in the opinion of the com-
manders justify them in carrying their mails back
to England. Their vessels might be stopped, but
boats were allowed to come and go as before; and
the two commanders consequently went up the
river in their boats, taking the mails with them.

When they approached the town they were hailed
from the Danish quarantine cutter, with orders
that unless the Packets came up to their usual
anchorage, which happened to be exactly under
the guns of the battery, the mails should not be
landed. The captains insisted ; the Danish officer
grew furious, and actually proposed to flog the
Danish pilots, who had accompanied the captains,
for leaving the Packets outside the bar of the
river.

In the end, the dispute was arranged and the
mails were landed ; but events were occurring which

viii.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 165

could not fail to sting the Danes into the bitterest
enmity against us ; and most of our countrymen
in Denmark were indeed already applying for their
passports. The English brig at the mouth of the
Eyder seems to have been removed after a few
days ; and the Packets came up the river as
before.

On August 15th, the "Lord Nelson," Captain
Stewart, arrived at Tonningen with mails from
Harwich. The bags were landed without inter-
ruption, and were being taken through the town
to the agent's office, when the wagon in which
they were carried was suddenly surrounded by a
throng of Danish officers and soldiers who, on
looking into it and seeing that it contained mails,
compelled the driver to proceed not to the office
of the British Post-Office agent, but to the Danish
Post-Office. " Upon this," wrote the agent in re-
porting the circumstances to London, " Captain
Stewart endeavoured to conceal the bag for the
agent containing the despatches and letters for
His Majesty's Ministers on the Continent; but this
bag was also taken from the steward, who had
placed it under his coat, and everything was
delivered at the Danish Post-Office. Captain
Stewart immediately repaired to me, informed me
of the circumstance, and also told me that another
Packet boat was in sight I therefore despatched
a message to the captain of the second Packet
ordering him not on any account to land his mails

166 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

or despatches, and to keep, if possible, out of range
of the batteries.

" I then wrote to the Danish Postmaster requesting
he would immediately deliver to the gentleman
bearing my note those bags ticketed "the agent
at Tonningen." Mr. Schultz who carried this note
found sentinels at the door of the Post-Office,
and had some difficulty in presenting my note.
Ultimately he brought me a verbal answer, refusing
the delivery of the bags. The Postmaster told
Mr. Schultz he was authorized in what he had
done, but refused to name the source of his
authority.

"I then myself repaired to the Postmaster, who
named the Commandant of the port as having
authorized the detention of the bags. I immedi-
ately wrote in polite terms to the Commandant,
requesting he would issue the necessary orders for
delivering to me that part of them which was
directed to the agent. To this letter I received
a verbal message stating he did not think it neces-
sary to answer my letter, and that he was much
surprised that those gentlemen who had the day
before taken out their passports had not left
Tonningen. I believe every person connected in
any way with the British Government had the
preceding day taken out passports to enable them
to depart as circumstances should occur. During
these transactions the second Packet boat had
arrived, and, the messenger not having been able

viii.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 167

to deliver my orders, had landed her mails. The
captain endeavoured in vain to regain possession
of them. He himself with the mails and de-
spatches, was escorted to the Danish Post-Office.
After many difficulties the two captains, some
English people, and myself got permission for a
boat to convey us on board the Packet boats; and
while lying alongside the Danish guardship, waiting
for permission to pass her, a gentleman from the
shore came on board the boat to say that if I
would return, the bags destined for me should be
put in my possession the following morning. I
then proceeded on board one of the Packets, both
of which (from the circumstance of the Battery at
Vollonig having received a considerable addition of
soldiers in the course of the evening) had thought
proper to drop down out of reach of the guns. The
following morning I repaired again to Tonningen
and received the bags destined for me, their seals
perfectly unbroken. I disposed of the contents of
the bags according to directions received from Mr.
Thornton, and prepared to follow that gentleman,
having understood he had already left Altona.

"It being Post-day, I sent to the Danish Post-
Office and received the mail as usual for England.
Captain Kentzinger and Mr. Agent Schultz, who had
disembarked again from the Packets, now waited
upon the Commandant to sign our passports again
prior to our final departure, who immediately ex-
pressed much surprise that we were not departed.

1 68 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

We stated that we had returned to execute the
business of our different departments, having received
an intimation that we might do so in perfect
security. The Commandant expressed himself a
perfect stranger to any such indulgence or per-
mission having been granted, and said the measure
of detaining the mails proceeded entirely from the
hostile measures of the English in putting Zealand
into a state of blockade ; and conceiving this
declaration demonstrative of the insecurity of any
despatches that might arrive in future, and Mr.
Thornton's instructions recommending my departure,
I left Tonningen with the Packet destined to sail
on Sunday, the 16th instant, first leaving instruc-
tions to the captain of the Packet who brought
the second mail to remain in the river a few days
to warn any other Packet that might arrive of the
danger, and to bring away any remaining English
passengers who might not have had sufficient notice
of the necessity of immediately embarking."

The Danes had shown themselves both honourable
and forbearing in allowing the Packets an oppor-
tunity of getting clear away, but to permit one of
them to remain hanging about the mouth of the
Eyder, as the agent had directed, was quite another
matter. Accordingly, about 5 A.M. on the 17th
August, Captain Deane, who had been left in the
"Lady Nepean" upon this service, descried a brig
being towed down the river by several boats. It
was the guard-ship from Tonningen which was upon

viii.] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 169

them ; and as she had evidently not left her
anchorage without hostile intent, Captain Deane
thought it prudent to weigh anchor, and make
ready for departure.

The sails were hoisted but it was unfortunately
almost dead calm, and though the Packetsmen got
out their boat and towed, the Danish brig made
far quicker progress, and at 6 A.M. had come within
musket shot At that moment, just in the nick of
time, a little breeze sprang up from the northward,
and the "Lady Nepean," receiving it first, forged
ahead once more.

Seeing what had occurred, the Danish boats
dropped back alongside the guardship, and Captain
Deane could see that a number of muskets and
cutlasses were being handed in, while the crews of
the boats were increased to about 50 men. The
situation was growing awkward. The breeze was
still light, and the "Lady Nepean" forged only
slowly through the water. The boats were fast
coming on, the men cheering loudly. Captain
Deane hailed them, but received no answer, and
thereupon, not choosing to assume that they meant
to attack him, ordered one or two muskets to be
fired in the air. Instantly the boats replied with a
volley of small arms, and at the same moment the
brig opened fire. By this time, however, the breeze
was rising fast A few well-directed shots caused
the boats to sheer off in some confusion. The fire
from the brig did little harm. Ere long the Packet

170 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [ch. vm.

was out of range, and she completed her voyage
to England without misadventure.

It is impossible to avoid drawing contrasts between
the conduct of the Danes at Tonningen and that of
the French under the very similar circumstances at
Helvoetsluis. In both cases English ships were in
port and English officials engaged on shore, in
reliance on their absolute safety until due warning
was given to them that they must leave. The
circumstances were, it is true, not exactly alike; for
the French had no greater cause for exasperation
against us than must always exist between hostile
nations, whereas the Danes were smarting under an
aggression which was unprovoked and intolerably
wounding to their pride. Whether it is or is not
possible to justify our seizure of the Danish fleet is
a question over which historians will wrangle till
the end of time. But to the Danes it could have
seemed nothing but a gross and wanton outrage,
and though the events just described preceded the
actual bombardment of Copenhagen, the British
expedition had already made such progress that
in looking at the self-control exhibited, one can
only wonder and admire.

CHAPTER IX.

TWO BRILLIANT YEARS.

The loss of Denmark's friendship may possibly have
been balanced in the eyes of Mr. Canning by the
possession of her fleet, but to the Postmaster General
and the other officials at Lombard Street, who were
responsible for the maintenance of Postal communi-
cations it was a very grievous disaster. The device
of sending letters under cover to Altona, involving
as it did much inconvenience and delay even if
the letters were as safe as Mr. Nicholas believed, had
been resorted to with much grumbling on the part of
the merchants, who only discovered its value when it
had become impossible. Gothenburg was now the
only port in Northern Europe available for the
Packets. The station was inconvenient ; the passage
was long and stormy. The Swedish Post-Office in
Hamburg had been closed for some months, and
it was consequently by no means clear that there
was any great advantage in sending the mails out
of England at all. A certain number were doubt-
less forwarded from Gothenburg by various secret

1 7 2 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

and irregular routes, but it was indeed a desperate
crisis which made it necessary to entrust valuable
letters or remittances, on which the credit of a
substantial merchant might rest, to smugglers and
the other wild and lawless characters who would
alone venture to incur the risks inseparable from
the undertaking.

The situation was intolerable. The merchants
were clamorous for some assistance, and it was only
too evident that unless the trade of the country
were to perish, and with it our supremacy, an
expedient must be quickly found. At this juncture
the capture of Heligoland provided a base from
which efforts might be made to reach Hamburg
with some chance of success.

No exposition is needed to show how great the
value of Heligoland was to this country. The
island lies but a few hours' sail from the mouths
of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Ems. British
goods might be landed there with perfect confidence,
for little need be feared from any naval attack,
and could lie there unmolested until the fishermen
of the island, or of the Hanover and Holstein
coasts, smuggled them into Bremen or Hamburg.
A very valuable trade of this description soon
sprang up, for the profits were great enough to
gild the risks. The goods were, of course, contra-
band in Hamburg, but the exacting requisitions
of clothing for Napoleon's army made it necessary
for the citizens to chance the penalty, and to trade

ix.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. I73

with the smugglers at any hazard for Yorkshire
cloth.

Heligoland was captured on September 4th, 1807,
and whilst the Government were still debating about
the best means of making use of it, news was
arriving from the opposite corner of Europe which
made the new acquisition seem more and more
valuable, for . the French designs on Portugal were
becoming manifest. The Prince Regent's friendship
for us was receiving shock after shock from Napoleon's
menaces, and it was obvious that the time was at
hand when the cordon which had blocked against
our shipping every harbour from the Baltic to
Dalmatia, except Gibraltar and the coasts of
Portugal, would be drawn across the entrance of
the Tagus also.

Napoleon demanded three things of the Prince
Regent Two of these demands, of which the
whole number were levelled against England, the
Prince had courage to refuse, namely, the detention
of all Englishmen then in Portugal, and the con-
fiscation of their property. The third demand,
which was also the most important of the three,
he at last conceded, with a kind of weak belief
that he would thereby, while sacrificing the neu-
trality of his country, promote a general peace; and
accordingly, on October 27th, Mr. Chamberlain,
the Post-Office agent at Lisbon, transmitted to his
Department a copy of a proclamation issued on the
22nd, which announced that the harbours of Portugal

! 74 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

were henceforth closed to British vessels, whether
of war or commerce.

"Some private information I have just received,"
wrote the agent, in commenting on this proclamation,
"leads me to apprehend that this government may
seize the English who remain here — and certainly
they have had strong and sufficient warning to
withdraw — in order thereby to appease the wrath
of Bonaparte." And he went on to lament that
the moment had been let slip for supporting the
Prince Regent with a British fleet. " Every prepara-
tion is made to oppose the entry of a fleet, and I
much fear that it will now be impossible for any
but a very immense force to attempt the Tagus.
I have long dreaded this, for I have been aware
of the system that was being carried out, and it
grieves me beyond expression to see the moment
rapidly approaching when the navy and all the
Brazilmen, which are just so many men-of-war, the
finest vessels in the world for carrying troops, fall
into the hands of Bonaparte. There is perhaps yet
time to prevent this evil, but it is barely possible. . . ."

On the following day he wrote again. "We are
in hourly expectation of a proclamation ordering
his Majesty's subjects to quit the kingdom. Our
stay must be short" It was, indeed, a hazardous
position. Junot at the head of his army was pushing
rapidly through Spain. The Portuguese Cabinet
saw no safety save in acts of hostility towards the
English. The crime of Helvoetsluis stood on record

IX.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 175

as a warning of what might be expected when the
French arrived, and the British residents on the
Tagus poured out of the country day by day.
Mr. Chamberlain's duty was to maintain the Postal
Service until the very last moment; no order for
arresting the English had yet appeared, but it was
expected hourly, and the agent, who could not hope
to be exempted from its scope, took the precaution
of chartering a small armed schooner which was
to lie off the coast in readiness for sailing night
or day.

The crisis came on November nth. All
Englishmen, save the Ambassador and his staff,
were to be arrested. Mr. Chamberlain concealed
about his person a number of despatches for the
Foreign Secretary, and, escaping from his lodging,
made his way to the coast. To his dismay his
schooner was nowhere to be found. A violent storm
had blown her out to sea. He hired a boat, and
made efforts to reach some of the British vessels
in the offing, but the sea ran so high that he was
obliged to put back three times, and at last the
sailors declined to go out again. Mr. Chamberlain
therefore started off on foot, and after a perilous
journey reached Cascaes, where, by good luck, he
found the " Walsingham," a Falmouth Packet, which,
on attempting to enter the Tagus as usual on the
previous day, had been fired on from the batteries,
and was now standing on and off the coast in the
hope of ascertaining the precise situation of affairs.

I7 6 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Mr. Chamberlain's arrival settled* any doubt as to
the hostility of the Portuguese, and the "Walsingham"
at once set sail for Falmouth.

The only hope of the Post-Office now lay in
schemes of smuggling, conducted from Heligoland.
Suggestions were pouring in upon them. Plans
more or less impracticable emanated from every
crazy enthusiast in London, and the general public
demonstrated no less clearly than in our own times
its conviction that it was qualified to instruct the
experts.

There were anxious consultations at the Foreign
Office between Mr. Canning, Mr. Freeling, and Mr.
Thornton, who was fortunately at hand to give the
benefit of his unrivalled local knowledge and of
that sagacity which had extorted the admiration
of Bourrienne.

The immediate difficulty was to find a means of
communicating to the Senate of Hamburg, then,
as always, friendly to the English, the fact that
mails were lying at Heligoland, and to concert
with them some scheme for introducing those mails
into the city.

To do this was a matter of great difficulty, since
all the approaches to Hamburg were very closely
watched. It was also dangerous, for if the messenger
were captured, he would certainly have to face a
long imprisonment; and worse than imprisonment
might befall him, for he ran an excellent chance
of being shot as a spy. A man of courage must

IX.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 177

therefore be chosen, and one of resource, of undoubted
honesty, faithful to his employers, and adroit in
action. Such a man was not easily found ; but
Mr. Thornton at last put forward his servant, James
Giltinan, who had been long with him in Hamburg,
and was well acquainted with all the surrounding
territory.

Giltinan accepted the dangerous mission very
readily. He sailed from Harwich on a Packet bound
for Heligoland, and within a few hours of his arrival
in that island he left it again on board a schuyt,
bound for the mouth of the Elbe. The Heligolanders
were confident that he would never succeed in
penetrating to Hamburg, and the event proved
them right A furious storm delayed all news for
some days, but at last the schuyt returned with the
melancholy news that Giltinan had been made
prisoner between Neuwerk and Cuxhaven, and sent
to Hamburg in close confinement What befell him
there does not appear ever to have become known.

Upon the failure of this gallant venture various
plans were considered, but all were laid aside as
offering no prospect of success commensurate with
the risk involved. The Post-Office declined to make
itself responsible for any further efforts, and resolved
to confine itself to landing the mails at Heligoland,
where they must lie until good fortune provided
some means of forwarding them. To such a con-
dition of impotence the policy of Napoleon had
reduced the Post-Office in the year 1807.

M

178 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

It is now time to return to the operations of the
Falmouth Packets. A new service to Gibraltar
and Malta had been opened in the year 1806, in
deference to the wishes of the Mediterranean
merchants, and still more perhaps to the foresight
of the Government which anticipated the closing
of the Northern ports. The " Cornwallis," Captain
Anthony, was the first Packet despatched on this
voyage, which the hostility of Spain rendered
rather dangerous. The passage through the Straits
brought the "Cornwallis" into close quarters with
the Spanish coast, and six gun-boats sallied out
from Tarifa to intercept her.

These gun-boats carried 24 and 30-pounders,
heavy guns for those days, with from fifty to
seventy men each, and their plan of attack was
a simultaneous onslaught They were probably
Privateers, for they fought under the bloody flag
in token of their resolution to give no quarter.
Captain Anthony had anticipated some such attack ;
and on meeting Collingwood's fleet on the previous
day, had asked for convoy through the straits.
Collingwood, however, could not spare a convoy,
being in constant hope of meeting the French fleet
and bringing it to action.

"Just at first," says a passenger on board the
" Cornwallis," " when we saw the enemy coming we
wished we had had the convoy; but we soon forgot
that when our blood warmed, for all on board had
to turn to and work his best Everybody on board

IX.]

TWO BRILLIANT YEARS.

179

did not seem to mind at all, down to the little
boy who serves us in the cabin, although we could
see they more than twice outnumbered all of we, for
one Englishman is as good as two frog-eaters, and
I am sure as good as any two of those rags of
Spaniards. I saw that little David, the cabin lad
who carried up the powder from below, sang merry
until he had no wind with running up and down
so much, and he only cried one bit at first, when
a splinter from the boat's bottom cut his forehead.
His face was very black from the smoke, and he
looked mighty comick when I wrapped his head
up in my large kerchief, which I did when I was
recovered from my fright.

"It was at ten o'clock on Monday morning, July
28th, 1806, a very hot day with little wind, that
we engaged in coming through the Gutt, and we
fought them for getting on for two hours, till nearly
noon, about fifteen to twenty miles from Gibraltar.
. . . The captain, seeing as how I was quite well
again from my sea-sickness, and that I look steady,
gave me the charge of all the powder, which gave
me plenty to do. To every man on board cutlasses
was served out, for we must not trust to our cannon
alone, as they mostly try to board a ship, and take
it by power of numbers.

"If a light wind, they make use of their oars
and sweep along very fast, and board on all quarters
at once if they can. Our ship with her stern gun,
a long 9-pounder, spoke such language as they

1

180 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

could not understand. She fired about sixty shots,
and kept them at their proper distance, and was
our principal defender. I suppose we fired two
hundred shots on the whole, and did much damage
to the gun-boats, one of which we sunk, and many
i of her men, thank God, was drowned in the sea,
though the other boats being near picked up some.
Once or twice when we struck them with our grape
their shrieks was verry awful and loud.

" Captain Anthony behaved bravely, and much
praise is due to him for his spirited conduct Mr.
Mitchell, from Berwick on Tweed, fought with un-
common vigour; he fired three of the guns. As
soon as one was discharged he ran to another ;
and directed the shot in a gallant style. The first
shot that the Spaniards fired blew away the bottom
of the boat which hung astern of the ship, and
broke the cabin windows. A piece of wood from
the boat struck me in the back, and I was much
alarmed lest I was shot ; but I received no hurt,
only a great fright, at which Captain Anthony
found time to laugh heartily.

"They fired grapeshot at us, which did much
damage to the sails, and broke one of the irons
which support the boarding net, and wounded some
of our men. Only one was killed in the engage-
ment, a man named Reeves, from Lichfield it is
thought, who was a brave and good sailor. He
was shot through the thigh and breast, and must
have been killed instantaneous, for he did not look

ix.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 181

agonized. This is the first man I have seen killed.
At about twelve o'clock the five gun-boats retired,
having had more than they expected ; the breeze
was still light, and they returned, but we think
not all of them, to Tarifa." 1

Now this somewhat rambling account, the narra-
tive of a plain merchant, not much skilled in the
use of his pen, telling us exactly what struck him,
too manly to be ashamed of owning himself to
have been both sea-sick and frightened, yet showing
us in his modest way that he was usefully employed
in helping those who did the actual fighting, this
straightforward, sensible story puts the whole scene
before us more clearly than a thousand official
reports. Little David running upstairs "singing
merry," not old enough to keep his tears back
when the splinter wounded him on the forehead,
forms a picture too vivid to be forgotten. Captain
Anthony's hearty laugh when his passenger thought
himself shot, helps us to realize the joviality with
which our grandfathers went into action, too con-
fident in themselves to trouble their heads about
the issue, even when fighting against six enemies
at once.

The Postmaster General did not think much of
this action, ranking it somewhat low among the

1 This quotation is made, with the kind permission of the
editor of the Cornhill Magazine y from an article which
appeared therein in May 1887, entitled "From a Diary of
1806."

182 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

achievements of the Packets chiefly because it was
a running fight. One might have supposed that
the sinking of one of the gun-boats, together with
the skill in manoeuvring exhibited by Captain
Anthony in repelling the other five, entitled him
to a considerable share of credit. He gained more
however for his conduct nearly a year later, namely
on July 2nd, 1807.

On that date the " Cornwallis " was chased by a
lugger about thirty leagues off Brest. The lugger
came on under English colours; but Captain
Anthony, finding that she made no answer to the
private signal, instantly cleared his decks, called
his men to their stations, served out cutlasses and
pistols, and waited for the lugger with his guns
ready shotted.

It was well that he had sailed the seas long
enough to be cautious ; for the lugger, having flown
her English colours until she came within half
pistol shot distance, suddenly hauled them down,
and ran up the Spanish flag at the mizzen, and the
French ensign, topped with a red flag, the signal
of no quarter, at the main. In the same moment,
without hail or summoning-gun, a broadside roared
out, followed by a rattling volley of small arms,
by which her commander doubtless thought to
shake the nerve of the Falmouth men, and by one
sudden blow to win an opportunity of boarding.

He was mistaken in his men, and he had for-
gotten the "Cornwallis* " stern guns. Her broadside

IX.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 183

came crashing into him before the smoke of the
first discharges had blown away, and Captain
Anthony was perfectly awake to the manoeuvre
his enemy was contemplating. He saw the lugger
making sail ; he understood full well that she was
bearing down to grapple him on the starboard quarter.
His couple of 12-pounder carronades were double
shotted, and as the lugger sheered up under the
stern of the " Cornwallis " she got such a storm of
grape and canister along her decks as took the
heart out of her for boarding ; while as she fell
away in some confusion the Packet's starboard
guns came to bear, and were discharged at short
range with terrible effect.

This was the decisive moment of the action, and
the event was never afterwards doubtful, though the
fight was by no means over. The lugger sheered
off to a safer distance, and commenced a heavy
cannonade which did much injury to the " Corn-
wallis," dismounting one of the stern guns which had
served her so well, wounding three men seriously,
and almost crippling her in sails and rigging. The
enemy, however, either suffered more, or did not
realize how effective her fire had been ; for she
showed no inclination to come to close quarters
again, and after about an hour hauled off, and
stood away to the southward, leaving the Packets-
men to enjoy their triumph.

Somewhat earlier than this, namely on May 28th,
1807, the "Duke of Marlborough" was in the neigh-

1 84 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

bourbood of Barbados, when the lookout at her
mast-head reported a schooner in sight running
before the wind a few miles away to the south-
ward. Captain Bull was not on board! and the
Packet was in charge of Mr. James, the master, an
officer whose growing reputation both as a navigator
and in action already marked him as destined for
an independent command. Mr. James was well
aware of the great probability that any strange
vessel encountered in that situation was an enemy;
and he made his preparations without loss of time.
It was half-past- four in the afternoon when the
schooner was sighted. By five o'clock the decks
were cleared, the boarding nettings triced up, the
arms served out, the mail brought on deck, the
guns loaded, and the men were at their quarters,
cheerful and confident.

Hardly were these arrangements completed when
the schooner tacked and made all sail in chase. At
10.15 P.M. she came up astern and fired the first
shot, to which the Cornishmen replied with their
full broadside. On this the action became general,
and the two vessels pounded each other for three-
quarters of an hour at close range without serious
damage on either side.

Mr. James, confident in the gunnery of his men,
felt no apprehension about the result of this
cannonade. What he did fear was a boarding
assault, for the numbers of the enemy were far
superior to his own. At 1 1 P.M. he perceived that

ix.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 185

the French were collecting their boarders. The
moment was favourable to them. The vessels were
nearing each other. The boarders were gathering
in numbers sufficient to sweep the little crew of
Cornishmen into the sea ; and Mr. James saw with
alarm that the situation of the vessels was such that
for the moment he could not bring a single gun to
bear.

There was not an instant to lose. The Frenchmen
were already clambering upon the bulwarks of their
ship balancing themselves in the act of springing.
In another moment the whole party would have
been scrambling over the nettings of the Packet,
when Mr. James, seizing the helm, jammed it
hard-a-port, and laid the "Duke of Marlborough"
right across the enemy's bows.

By. this bold manoeuvre the tables were turned.
As the Packet forged across the schooner's track,
every gun in her broadside came to bear successively.
Each one in turn raked the French ship from stem
to stern with grape-shot and canister, and when
Mr. James had leisure once more to look about him,
he saw that there was confusion among the enemy,
who had evidently sustained a heavy loss. The
Frenchmen rallied from this blow . surprisingly fast,
and in a few minutes secured another opportunity
of boarding. The favourable moment had gone by
however. The Cornishmen were fully prepared, and
not one of the boarders managed to gain the deck
of the " Duke of Marlborough." This second failure

186 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

seemed to take the heart out of the attack, for
shortly afterwards the Privateer sheered off and was
seen to heave to with the evident intention of
repairing damages.

She had not yet done with the Packet, and about
midnight made sail once more in chase, coming
within range at 8 A.M., when a heavy fire of great
guns were opened on both sides, and maintained
very warmly for two hours and a half. At the end
of this time, finding she had gained no decisive
advantage, and having had enough of close quarters
on the previous evening, the Privateer again sheered
off and left the " Duke of Marlborough " to pursue
her voyage unmolested.

In these two actions six Packetsmen were wounded,
one mortally. The amount of loss sustained by the
Privateer, which was a large vessel of fourteen guns,
well known as having captured many English
merchantmen, could not be ascertained, but it was
the opinion of some of the officers of the " Duke
of Marlborough," that if they had pressed their
advantage she could not have escaped. Allowing,
however, for very heavy losses, the number of
Privateersmen capable of fighting at the close of
the action doubtless far exceeded the whole com-
plement of the Packet, and Mr. James, whose first
duty was to expose the mails to no unnecessary
risk, certainly exercised a wise discretion in refusing
to embark in such an adventure.

This, it may be added, was by no means the

ix.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 187

only case in which the crew of a Packet, flushed
with success, were compelled to refrain from pushing
their victory to a conclusion, and so to abandon the
prize money which was almost in their grasp. It
was hard to let a beaten enemy escape, and it is
a striking proof of the good feeling existing among
the sailors on the Falmouth Packets that they
tolerated such an event without a mutinous outbreak.

A few months later there occurred a fight, which,
if not more bold and desperate than half a dozen
others recorded in this volume, attracted a larger
share of public recognition, and won for the officer
in command something like that fame which was
so often deserved by the Falmouth commanders,
but so very seldom bestowed on them. The action
of the "Windsor Castle" on October 1st, 1807, is, '
indeed, one of the three or four fights to which the
world outside Falmouth paid some attention. It
has found a niche in the naval histories, and is still
remembered when almost every other action of the
Packets, however glorious, is forgotten.

The " Windsor Castle " was commanded by
Captain Sutton, but that officer had remained at
home, and the ship was in charge of Mr. William
Roger, the master. She sailed from Falmouth at
the end of August, 1 807, with mails for the Leeward
Islands, and after a tedious voyage was nearing
Barbados, in those waters which were a veritable
cockpit of the Atlantic, when the look-out reported
that a strange schooner, which came in sight a few

1 88 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SEP VICE. [chap.

minutes earlier, had altered her course and appeared
to be chasing the Packet

Mr. Rogers at once caused every stitch of canvas
to be set; but at the end of an hour there could
be no doubt that the enemy had the heels of the
" Windsor Castle/' and that an action was inevitable.
Perhaps Mr. Rogers and his crew, having obeyed
their orders by attempting to escape, were not ill-
pleased on finding that they could not do so. To
the former, especially, who held only a temporary
command, the chance of distinguishing himself was
doubtless welcome, and he set about his preparations
with a cheerful confidence which had an excellent
effect upon his men.

About noon the strange schooner came within
range, hoisted French colours, and opened fire.
The Cornishmen replied by playing on the enemy
with their stern-chasers, those long brass guns which
in so many other fights had proved serviceable
in delaying the advance of an enemy. On this
occasion, however, they appear to have done little
execution, for the schooner drew on rapidly, and,
coming within hail, ordered Mr. Rogers, in what
he termed "very opprobrious language," to strike
his colours. On finding that he treated this demand
as it deserved, the French opened a very heavy fire,
both of cannon and musketry, which they maintained
without intermission for more than an hour.

The Privateer carried three guns in her broadside,
as did the "Windsor Castle" also, but they were

IX.} TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 189

9-pounders, whereas the Packet's broadside guns
were only 4-pounders, and her chasers 6-pounders.
Moreover the Privateer had a long 18-pounder fixed
on a swivel in the centre of the main-deck, and
traversing on a circle, so that it could be brought
to bear on any point with ease. The fire of this
powerful gun could not fail to exercise a large effect
on the action, and in fact great damage was done
by it to the spars and rigging of the Packet At
last the French, believing the moment favourable,
seized an opportunity of boarding, and grappled
the "Windsor Castle" on the starboard quarter.
A strong party leaped into the nettings of the
Packet, slashing at them with swords, and hacking
at the ridge-ropes with long poles armed with hooks
of sharpened steel. But the nettings were lofty
and well-secured, the Falmouth men understood the
use of pikes and cutlasses, and in a few minutes
several of the boarders were wounded and thrust
into the sea, while the remainder leaped back to
their own ship. On the failure of this attack, the
French cut the grapplings, and would have sheered
off, probably to resume their cannonade, but the
mainyard of the Packet had locked itself in the
rigging of the Privateer, and the wind having almost
completely died away, the two vessels could not
possibly separate. "Thereupon," says the account,
written by a passenger on the "Windsor Castle,"
"our pikemen again flew to their muskets, pistols
and blunderbusses, our gallant captain all the while

l 9 o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

giving his orders with the most admirable coolness,
and encouraging his crew by his speeches and
example in such a way that there was no thought
of yielding, although many of our heroes now lay
stretched upon our deck in their blood. But then
we saw the enemy's decks completely covered with
their dead and wounded, and the fire from our
great guns doing dreadful execution."

For more than two hours the Packet and the
Privateer lay locked together, and during all that
time the cannonade was furious, while the losses
on both sides were very heavy. The French gunnery
seems to have been defective, and though men were
falling fast on the " Windsor Castle," — out of eight-
and-twenty men and boys three were killed and
ten wounded — they were dropping infinitely faster
on the Privateer. "At every discharge," says the
account already quoted, "we began to hear them
scream, which so inspired our gallant crew that
many of the wounded returned to their quarters," —
a ^ivid touch of description, which helps one to
realize the desperate character of this long day's
fighting off the shore of Barbados.

At three o'clock this stage of the action terminated.
The French, seeming to feel the necessity for some
great effort, formed a second boarding party, mus-
tering every available man for the attack. Happily
Mr. Rogers detected their design, and bringing to
bear on them one of his 6-pounders, "crammed
with double grape, canister, and one hundred musket

ix.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 191

balls," let fly this murderous charge into their midst
at the very moment when they were grouped together
for the assault A great number fell, the rest made
a dash under cover. They were becoming de-
moralized, and Mr. Rogers saw that the moment
for which he was waiting was at hand. His men
saw it too, and were growing eager, but there were
only fifteen of them unwounded, and the French
were still at the smallest computation, two to one.
And so Mr. Rogers held his men back, and let
the gunners have their way a little longer. At last,
about a quarter-past three, he leapt upon the
bulwarks, and, followed by five or six of his best
men, sprang down, sword in hand, on the decks
of the Privateer. There ensued a fierce scuffle, but
it lasted only a few minutes. The French captain
led his men on bravely, but he fell dead, and his
men, dismayed at the loss of their commander,
wavered, lost heart, and were driven below decks.
A Packetsman exultingly hauled the French colours
down, and the day was won.

Thus ended this long and memorable fight, a
striking instance of the degree in which courage
and skill could, in the old days, overcome a superiority
of force and armament Praises and rewards were
unsparingly bestowed on Mr. Rogers and his brave
crew. The former received, almost immediately, his
commission as commander of a regular Packet,
together with a complimentary letter from My Lords
the Postmaster General, and a gratuity of a hundred

1 92 POST-OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap,

guineas; the inhabitants of Tortola presented him
with a sword of honour and an illuminated address,
and the city of London, on his return to England,
conferred its freedom on him. Moreover, the value
of the prize was paid over to the General Post-Office
and divided among the officers and crew, for though
the Packets were not licensed to take prizes, it was
obvious to everybody on this occasion that the
" Windsor Castle " had no alternative but to capture
or be captured.

It appears that at the time of this action the
" Windsor Castle " had no surgeon on board, a most
unfortunate occurrence, which probably resulted in
the unnecessary sacrifice of several lives. Many
other Packets were in the same plight, for the
Falmouth captains found it difficult to induce
surgeons to offer themselves for the pay authorized,
and it does not seem to have occurred to them to
supplement that pay out of their own resources.

The navy offered better terms than the Post-
Office, and so secured almost all the young surgeons
who were willing to go to sea. In former times
the difficulty had been met by stifling all curiosity
about the qualifications of candidates for employ-
ment, but such an accommodating attitude naturally
resulted in bringing into the service men of no
qualifications at all, and a stricter rule was reluctantly
adopted. It was not, however, until the year 1810
that the pay of surgeons in the Packet Service
was increased to a point which attracted a sufficient

IX.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 193

supply of competent men. The chief duty of the
surgeon at ordinary times was, it may be added,
to read prayers to the crew, he being regarded by
My Lords as the most suitable person to perform
that office; but the opportunity of officiating as
chaplain does not seem to have added materially
to the attractions of the post

There were no other actions in 1807, but the
following year was marked by two or three which
deserve to be recorded. The fact is, however, that
at this period the conduct of the Packets was so
invariably distinguished by the highest courage and
the most zealous sense of duty, that the narrative of
events is perhaps open to the charge of monotony,
and the inclination of the chronicler is to pass
somewhat lightly over the details of many a fight
which, if the balance of account were not already so
much in favour of the Packets, would shine with
considerable lustre. Yet it would be manifestly
unjust to omit the mention of any considerable
action, and such certainly was that in which the
" Prince Ernest," Captain James Petre, was engaged
in March, 1808.

Captain Petre had been a master in the navy.
He bore an excellent reputation, and kept his men
at such a point of training in the use of their arms
as might have been anticipated from an officer of
long experience in war. On March 19th, 1808, the
"Prince Ernest," outward bound, had entered the
belt of ocean patrolled by the Privateers of

N

194 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

t

Guadeloupe, and a most careful look-out was being
maintained. At 8 A.M. a hail from the mast-head
informed Captain Petre that a schooner of suspicious
appearance had been sighted to the northward, and
somewhat later a second schooner came in view
some miles to the east Both these strange vessels
altered their course, and bearing down towards the
Packet chased her all the morning.

Captain Petre, as he watched the two enemies
crawling up, may well have felt doubtful of success
in the coming fight. Most fortunately, however,
one of the schooners abandoned the chase early
in the afternoon, and by half-past two o'clock only
one was in sight. That one was almost within
range of shot, and Captain Petre, recognizing that
there was no longer room for effort to avoid an
action, shortened sail and waited for the enemy.

There was no long delay. At 3 p.m. the Privateer
was within pistol shot, and opened a tremendous
fire. She carried ten guns of which four were of
very large calibre, together with over a hundred
men, and in the first half-hour the " Prince Ernest "
received so much damage in her sails and rigging
that it was very difficult to handle her. Accordingly
about 3.30 P.M. the French secured an opportunity
of boarding. They were repulsed, however, with
some loss, and the cannonade recommenced, con-
tinuing unabated for another hour. At 5 o'clock
the enemy prepared themselves for a great effort.
The great guns roared out with redoubled fury, the

IX.] TWO BRILLIANT YEARS. 195

musketeers planted in the tops of the Privateer
seat a storm of balls on the deck of the Packet,
and at the same moment the French captain
laying his ship alongside the "Prince Ernest" hove
his boarders into her in great numbers.

"My choice little crew," as Captain Petre called
them, were perfectly prepared to receive their
enemies, and harassed them with pikes and cutlasses
as they struggled up the boarding nettings. The
numbers of the French were so great, however,
that they would doubtless have overpowered the
Cornishmen in the end, had not Captain Petre,
noticing that the enemy had omitted to cast out
grapplings, so that nothing but the direction of the
Privateer's helm kept the ships together, ordered
his best marksman to shoot the steersman.

As the man fell, and the tiller swung round,
another ran forward and jammed it into the necessary
position, but he had hardly done so when he too
fell across his comrade's body. There was a
moment's hesitation before another man sprang to
seize the helm, and in that moment the vessels parted.

It was then an easy matter to dispose of the
few Frenchmen who had made good their footing
on the Packet As the Privateer sheered off, the
Falmouth men clutched at the colours flying from
her maingaff, and tore away the greater part of
them. " I regret," said Captain Petre, with pardon-
able triumph, when on his return to England he
forwarded this trophy to the Postmaster General,

196 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap. ix.

"I regret that they had hold of nothing stronger."
Perhaps he did, but looking at the relative force of
the two vessels it can scarcely be supposed that
My Lords with their higher responsibility shared
his regret

In September, Captain Anthony, whose successful
actions in the ° Cornwallis " have been described
above, fought the Privateer " La Duquesne M of twelve
guns for over two hours at close quarters, and beat
her off at last with the loss of two men killed
and two wounded; while in November, Captain
John Bull had the misfortune to be captured, after
a very gallant resistance, by "La Josephine," a
French brigantine carrying fourteen 24-pounders
and sixty-eight men.

CHAPTER X.

THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH.

For some years My Lords the Postmaster General
had found an ever growing source of satisfaction
in the conduct of their Packets in face of the
enemy. There was abundant credit to be had out
of controlling a body of officers who went into
action with the spirit of Captain Anthony, Captain
Rogers, or Mr. James. The navy itself could have
produced no better seamen or more gallant officers :
yet, just as the navy was tainted here and there
with mutiny, so the sailors of the Post-Office
Service broke out occasionally in revolt, which was
the more difficult to quell since the men were not
subject to the provisions of the Mutiny Act

The source of the disturbances, which occurred
at Falmouth in the year 1810, is to be found in
the suppression of the private trade, of which a
description was given in a former chapter of this
work. From that suppression the Lisbon Packets
had been exempted; and this preferential treatment
of that section of the Service which in other ways

198 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

enjoyed the greatest opportunities of profit, natur-
ally increased the feeling of injustice which rankled
in the minds of the men employed on the West
India boats.

It was long before the sailors could believe that
their little opportunities of making profit were at
an end. "The Government has been obliged to
prohibit trade," they argued among themselves,
"but they will wink at it all the same." And so
the men laid our their savings on boots and
cheeses just as before, fancying that the "searcher,"
the newly appointed officer who was to examine
every Packet before she proceeded to sea, would
be conveniently blind, that the whole search was
to be a farce, and that all they were asked to do
was not to flourish their cheeses in the searcher's
face, but bring them up the side disguised as
bedding, or hidden in their sea-chests.

At first this answered well enough, for the
searcher had to gain his experience, and some time
elapsed before he was a match for the seamen in
wiliness. At last, however, he gained ground upon
them, and the following list of goods turned out
of the "Townshend" will be read with admiration
of the cunning which could bring so many and
such bulky articles on board and secrete them in
the face of the officers and in defiance of their
commands : eleven loose cheeses ; two baskets of
cheese; three large bundles of dried ling; four
hogsheads of potatoes ; six bales of dry goods ;

• «i "" n^m^m^B^^^mm^mmmmmmmU

x.] THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH. igg

three boxes of the same ; three bags of shoes ;
a large quantity of shoes secreted loose in different
places. The major part of these articles was turned
out of the sailor's hammocks, some few came out
of the boatswain's cabin ; but with one consent all
the men professed the greatest astonishment on
seeing them. The boatswain was confident that
the sailors must have put them in his cabin ; the
sailors themselves could offer no explanation at
all, but were indignant at the mere suspicion of
having had any hand in the affair. The searcher
was perplexed. The Inspector of Packets wanted
to make each man declare on oath whether he
had or had not brought the goods on board; but
Lord Auckland, with his usual good sense, declined
to " place a whole ship's company in the alternative
between worldly ruin and a perjury," and so the
affair remained one of those insoluble mysteries
which occur in the experience of every public
department.

The goods which were nobody's property were
sent on shore before the "Townshend" sailed, and
doubtless were reclaimed by their original owners,
so that, though the seamen lost their chance of
profit, they incurred no actual loss. Possibly this
is the reason why the seizure made so small an
impression on the Service. If the goods had been
confiscated, the searcher's duties might have been
less arduous; but, as it was, he found it necessary
to report a few months later, that only four

aoo POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Packets out of the entire number employed on
the Falmouth Station had not been detected in
breaking the rule. It seemed impossible to teach
the men that the new rule was intended seriously;
and many a brave fellow, who had fancied foolishly
enough that he would be exempted, or that he
could evade the searcher, had the mortification of
seeing the boots and cheeses which he had bought
out of his scanty savings swimming in the harbour,
or tossed unceremoniously into the first boat which
came alongside, to be landed on the quay, where
they would be at the mercy of any chance
Autolycus.

These things were hard to bear and not easily
forgiven; while the blow was driven home on the
arrival of the Packet at her destination, when the
merchants' clerks would come down offering Jack
famine prices for the very goods he had been
robbed of — so he would naturally put it to himself —
and the price of many a spree on shore, to say
nothing of pretty things for the wife at home, would
go back into the merchant's pocket instead of
jingling in Jack's.

The wages were raised on the boats which were
no longer allowed to trade, but the increase by no
means compensated for the profits lost, and the
seamen maintained that they were still lower than
the current rate in the Merchant Service. If they
were reminded that merchant sailors were exposed
to the danger of the pressgang, while Packetsmen

x.] THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH. 2 0I

carried protections, they retorted that the protections
were not always respected.

This was true enough. For when the pressgangs
were sweeping the streets of Falmouth, bursting
forcibly into sailors' drinking shops, and, half drunk
themselves, giving chase to any sturdy fellow whom
they met, it often happened that a Packetsman
was seized and only laughed at, or knocked down
and soundly cursed, when he claimed exemption.
Sometimes his protection was torn in the scuffle.
Sometimes it was fraudulently taken from him;
and if then he lost his temper and became violent,
he was told that his mutinous conduct had deprived
him of any right to protection; and not even the
intervention of the agent, or of the Postmaster
General, could restore him to the Packet Service.

So the irritation at Falmouth went on, some-
times seeming to die away, but ever reasserting
itself, and often threatening serious trouble. There
needed but some natural occasion for an outbreak;
and such an occasion was found in 1810.

In that year, for some unrecorded reason, the
Lisbon Packets were brought into line with the
West India boats, and private trade was henceforth
forbidden on both. The Lisbon sailors resented
the new rule fiercely ; and the long-threatened tumult
broke out at last in resentment over the somewhat
excessive zeal with which the searchers and the
Custom-House officers enforced it

Before entering on the details of the curious

202 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

events which accompanied this outbreak, it will be
well to refer to two actions fought about this time,
not only because both were skilfully conducted and
very gallantly fought; but even more because the
crew of the "Duke of Marlborough," which was
the Packet engaged, were ringleaders in the coming
revolt, and the circumstances show that their dis-
content in no way affected the spirit in which they
fought

The first of these actions occurred on July 26th,
1 8 10, when the "Duke of Marlborough" was on
her homeward voyage from Lisbon, under the
command of Mr. James, who had defended her so
bravely in 1807. Her adversary was a French brig
Privateer, carrying no less than eight guns (believed
to be 18-pounders) on her broadside, in addition to
one on the forecastle, with a very large complement
of men ; and the action was conducted at such
close quarters that one of the French sailors, having
fired his musket at Mr. James, and missed him,
threw the weapon at him. It was well for the
Falmouth men, outnumbered as they were, that this
was so ; for if the Privateer had chosen a more
distant position, her heavy guns must in the end
have given her the victory ; whereas in meeting
boarders the British sailor is in his element, and
time after time as the French came on the Falmouth
men met them cheerfully, and always drove them
back.

For an hour and fifty minutes of almost ceaseless

X.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 203

fighting Mr. James and his brave crew maintained
their dogged and obstinate resistance, until at last
a well aimed shot brought down the Privateer's
foretopmast, and she sheered off, leaving the "Duke
of Marlborough" to pursue her voyage. It was
not too soon, for there were several feet of water
in the Packet's hold, and she would probably have
sunk if the fight had lasted much longer. Mr.
James had three men wounded, but fortunately
none killed.

The second action was remarkable in this respect,
that it occurred in full sight of home.

It was on October 1st, in the same year 18 10.
The " Duke of Marlborough " was once more home-
ward bound from Lisbon, and was approaching the
coast of Cornwall on a thick, hazy morning, when
she sighted a strange schooner, but almost at once
lost her again in the mist At 9 A.M. the Packet
was within three leagues of the Lizard, and
Pendennis Castle, which crowns the entrance to
Falmouth Harbour was in sight, when the strange
vessel reappeared suddenly, standing towards the
Packet under a press of sail. Captain Bull made
the private signal, but it remained unanswered;
and though the English coast was so close that it
appeared the height of audacity for an enemy to
venture an attack, he judged it prudent to order
the ship to be cleared for action. His orders were
obeyed with alacrity; and having seen the boarding
nettings triced up, the mail brought on deck and

ao4 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

shotted, and every other preparation made, he spoke
a few encouraging words to his crew. He was a
man of brief and pithy speech, and knew his crew
too well to suppose that any but the plainest
eloquence was needed. Therefore, pointing to the
shore, which was then clearly visible, he simply
said, "Now, my lads, there is Pendennis, there are
your homes/' and felt content, as well he might,
that no man on board would forget that he was
about to fight under the eyes of his friends, and
in sight of his own cottage door.

The wind had almost dropped, and the sea was
perfectly smooth, so that the vessels neared each
other slowly, and in silence. There was a period
of waiting. The schooner had hoisted no colours,
and her nationality was still uncertain, when Mr.
James, perhaps losing patience, fired a musket at
her, whereon she ran up the French ensign, with
a bloody flag, in token that she would give no
quarter. This was quite enough for Captain Bull.
He gave the word to his gunners, and a broadside
of canister and musket balls roared out across the
bay, doing great execution at the short distance
which separated the vessels.

This was at 10 A.M., and the engagement at
once became general. At 10.30 A.M. the Privateer
ran down with the evident intention of boarding ;
and as the enemy were seen to be in great numbers
it was judged prudent to sink the mail. It was
unfortunate that this decision was not delayed a

x.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 205

few minutes longer; for just as the two ships were
grazing each other, and the boarding party were
grouped together on the forecastle of the Privateer,
they were discouraged by a gun crammed with
canister which Captain Bull fired into their midst

In the confusion following this slaughter, the
Privateer fell away, and the opportunity of boarding
was lost. The cannonade was then resumed, but
without much spirit, and in half an hour more the
Privateer got out her sweeps, and placed herself
beyond the reach of her adversary's guns. It was
indeed high time for her to be off: for Lieutenant
James Cock, R.N., who was stationed at the signal
post at Falmouth, put off from land with two boats
full of men as soon as he heard the firing, and
was now close at hand. The action was over
however before he came on board, and there was
nothing left but for him to congratulate the victors.
Such was the conduct of the crew of the "Duke
of Marlborough " in face of the enemy ; and it will
be only fair to set this conduct to their credit as
against the part they took in the events now to
be related.

In August, 1 8 10, Mr. Saverland, the Post-Office
agent at Falmouth, reported to his chiefs in London
that there was some " uneasiness " among the sailors
of the Lisbon Packets. This restless and dissatisfied
feeling originated of course in the sailors 9 standing
grievance, namely the suppression of the private
trade. But it had another basis also ; and they

206 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

were certainly on stronger ground when they pointed
out that since the rate of their wages was fixed,
a rate intended to include some compensation for
the loss of trading profits, the prices of all com-
modities had risen so enormously as to render it a
sheer impossibility for the men to support their
families on their pay.

There seems little doubt that the rate of wages
was too low. The agent certainly was of that
opinion ; and he stated that the seamen urged their
complaint with great moderation and propriety.
They assembled in great numbers outside the agent's
office on August 15 th, and selected two men from
the crew of each Packet, whom they charged with
the presentation of their memorial. This document
contained a temperate statement of their case, and
was in due course forwarded to London for con-
sideration.

The Post-Office took the not unnatural view that
the question of increasing the wages of the seamen
was one for the consideration solely of the captains,
who received a fixed yearly payment from the office,
and might distribute it, within certain limits, as
they pleased. There was, moreover, some intention
of re-opening the question of the private trade, and
of seeking legal sanction for it, on the condition
that a certain portion of the profits should be
appropriated by the Department Both these con-
siderations led to some delay in dealing with the
memorial.

x.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 207

On August 24th the seamen returned in a large
body to the agent's office, and inquired whether
there were any answer to their memorial. On being
told that none had been received they dispersed
quietly, and Mr. Saverland, in reporting the matter
to London, stated that he did not apprehend any
disturbance, but thought that if the position of
the men was not in some way improved, many of
them would leave the Service. It was finally
resolved to obtain the materials for a full com-
parison between the wages paid to the seamen
serving on the Packets and those employed in the
navy and the Revenue Service. With some care
the comparison was made, and it resulted that the
seamen on the Packets were somewhat better paid
than those in the navy. It did not of course
follow necessarily from this that the wages were
fully adequate, but none could expect that a public
department would pay more than the current rate.

It was early in October when this conclusion was
reached ; and though it was of course not acceptable
to the sailors, it seems possible that a contented
feeling might have sprung up again. At this
moment, however, the smouldering discontent was
blown up into a fierce fire by the action of the
Customs officers.

The "Prince Adolphus," Captain Boulderson, was
announced to sail on October 24th, for the Medi-
terranean, and at noon on that day her crew was
mustered, the mails and passengers were on board,

208 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SER VICE. [chap.

and the Packet was ready to slip her moorings.
The "Duke of Marlborough" was to sail in com-
pany with her for Lisbon. At the last moment
the Customs officer came on board; and, not content
with satisfying himself that no large quantity of
goods was stored in either Packet, he caused the
sailors' chests to be broken open, and confiscated
the little private ventures which the men considered
themselves entitled to retain. The crew of the
"Prince Adolphus" at once refused to take the
ship to sea; and after trying in vain to induce
them to return to their duty, Captain Boulderson
made the signal for the agent to come on board.
Mr. Saverland lost no time in boarding the Packet,
and reasoned with the crew, pointing out that by
refusing to obey orders they forfeited their claim
to protection against the Impress. He failed, how-
ever, to produce any effect ; and was returning on
shore to consult with Captain Slade, the senior
naval officer then at Falmouth, when he was hailed
by Captain Bull. On pulling alongside the "Duke
of Marlborough," Mr. Saverland learned that the
Customs officer was then on board that Packet,
acting with the same violence which had provoked
the sailors of the "Prince Adolphus," and that
Captain Bull feared the same results would follow.
Mr. Saverland was, however, powerless to interfere
and returned on shore where he held a consultation
with Captain Slade. They were quickly joined by
Captain Bull, who stated that his crew had, as

x.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 209

he feared, refused to proceed to sea. He thought,
however, that the personal influence of the agent
might have a good effect, and it was noticed that
the rt Duke of Marlborough's " men did not return
the cheers with which the crew of the "Prince
Adolphus" announced what they probably con-
sidered a moral victory. Having arranged therefore
that Captain Slade should forthwith board the
" Prince Adolphus," and impress the mutineers, Mr.
Saverland returned to the " Duke of Marlborough "
where he remained for two hours, using every kind
of argument, but in vain. Captain Bull therefore
ordered the sails to be furled : and the mutinous
seamen from his ship also were pressed. This was
not done without some difficulty. Several of the
older men resisted stoutly; and one drew his knife
on Captain Slade, fortunately, however, without
injuring him.

On the following morning a very large number
of seamen assembled in the court-yard before the
agent's office, loudly demanding the release of the
men who had been pressed ; 'and asserting that
they would not return to their duty until this
demand was complied with. It was unanimously
resolved that no concessions could be made to
the men while they remained mutinous; and the
disturbance shortly became so great that the
magistrates were sent for and the Riot Act read.
The seamen thereupon retired, cheering as they
went, but the aspect of affairs was so threatening

210 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

that the garrison was got under arms, and Mr.
Saverland thought it prudent to acquaint Sir Robert
Calder, who was then in command at Plymouth,
with the facts of the case.

On the following day there was no improvement.
The sailors assembled on the bowling green, on an
eminence above the town. They had been joined
by practically all the Packetsmen who were in
Falmouth at the time; and Mr. Saverland, visiting
each Packet in succession, found only the officers
and a few boys on board. The mutineers had now
added to their demand for the release of the pressed
men, a claim for additional pay. The next day the
public crier went round the streets of Flushing
calling on all Packetsmen, lumpers, and riggers, to
assemble that evening at the " Seven Stars " Tavern.
The object of the meeting was to select two dele-
gates who were to proceed to London, and lay the
complaints of the men before the Postmaster
General. Accordingly two men, Richard Pascoe
and John Parker, were chosen; and started by
the mail coach for London on the morning of
the 28th.

The naval officers, who were acting in concert
with Mr. Saverland, were strongly of opinion that
the mutiny was the work of a few men, and would
collapse if the ringleaders could be secured. They
determined, therefore, to surround the "Seven
Stars" while the meeting was in progress, and
with this view a boat's crew entered Mylor Creek,

x.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 2 1 1

and was marched over the hill down into the town
of Flushing. The mutineers kept good watch how-
ever, if, indeed, the suspicion entertained by the
naval officers, that there was bad faith on the part
of some of the magistrates acquainted with the
scheme, was groundless, and the attacking party
found the tavern empty.

By this time a certain friction was manifest
between the mayor (Mr. Angove) and magistrates
of Falmouth, and the naval officers with whom the
agent acted. Mr. Saverland complained that the
magistrates had shown no proper anxiety to secure
the ringleaders ; and there is little room for doubting
that not only the magistrates, but the whole town
of Falmouth, sympathized with the seamen ; and, if
they did not openly help them, were yet unwilling
to take side against them. On the morning of
the 28th Captain Slade urged the mayor to call
in military aid, and to forcibly enter the houses
of the ringleaders to secure their persons. At noon
he left the mayor in the belief that both his
proposals had been accepted; but the suggestion of
search warrants was quietly dropped; and though
a body of the West Essex Militia, then quartered
in the neighbourhood, were summoned, they did
not enter the town till six o'clock, while at four
o'clock the sailors had marched in large parties,
quite unmolested, into the open country.

In the meantime two cutters sent by Sir Robert
Calder had arrived in the harbour, and were

212 POST-OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

placed under the command of Captain Slade. The
West Essex Militia were quartered in the town,
and a sergeant's guard was located in Flushing.

It is now necessary to return to the delegates
chosen by the seamen to represent their grievances
at the General Post-Office. Mr. Saverland had
been careful to acquaint his chiefs with the fact
of their departure; and had despatched an express
for this purpose, which, out-stripping the coach,
reached London on the morning of October 29th.
A consultation was at once held as to how Pascoe
and Parker should be received. It seemed to the
strict disciplinarians of that day impossible to
countenance an act of mutiny by parleying with
these men. Whatever foundations of justice there
might be in their complaints, it was essential that
the sailors should return to their duty before any
discussion could take place. It was therefore
suggested to the Admiralty that Pascoe and Parker
should be impressed as soon as they arrived ; and
having obtained the necessary instructions to the
Regulating Officer at the Tower, and had the warrant
backed by the Lord Mayor, whose authority was
required before the men could be pressed within
the limits of the city, the chiefs of the General
Post-Office awaited the coming of the delegates
with confidence. The men arrived late on the
afternoon of the 29th, and were ushered into the
room where the Secretary sat expecting them in
company with the City Marshall. Their explana-

X.] THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH. 213

tions were cut short ; they were told that they had
no claim to be heard; and they were handed over
without more ado to the City Marshall, who
forthwith lodged them in the Poultry Compter.

It must be remembered, if this proceeding seems
harsh, that Pascoe and Parker came to London as
representatives of men who were in open and riotous
mutiny, and whose conduct, by impeding the mails,
was inflicting serious loss on the mercantile com-
munity, and possibly even hampering the movements
of the commanders of our troops and fleets then
engaged in active operations. Had these men come
to London to present a memorial temperately urged
by persons who were at the same time performing
their duty, they would have been very differently
received.

It appears, moreover, that the delegates had not
been discreetly chosen. Pascoe, who was known in
Falmouth by the nickname of " Sir Francis Burdett,"
had served as steward of the "Prince William Henry"
Packet, and had afterwards been in the Excise,
whence he was discharged for " seditious and treason-
able expressions." Parker was an American. There
is no doubt that both men were noisy demagogues.

It had been the intention to bring the men up
for examination at the Mansion House on October
30th, but on the morning of that day it was dis-
covered that the Lord Mayor had doubts about
his powers of impressing, within the city, men
whose offence, if any, had been committed at

^

214 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Falmouth. A remand was accordingly granted in
order that the matter might be reconsidered.

By this time the situation at Falmouth had
materially changed. That firmness and zeal against
the seamen which no entreaties or arguments used
by the naval officers could arouse in the mayor
and magistrates, was inspired in a moment by a
happy thought of Mr. Saverland's. He commenced
to throw out hints of an important decision which
would be taken very shortly if the mutiny did not
subside, and which would be regretted by the town
for many a day. The seed thus sown sprang up
in a few hours into a very promising crop of rumours
and reports. People went about with an uncomfort-
able suspicion that something was about to happen,
and Mr. Saverland's office was besieged by persons
anxiously inquiring whether it was true that the
Government had decided to remove the Packets to
Plymouth. Mr. Saverland had received no hint of
any such intention, but, seeing how great an effect
the mere suggestion had produced, he dilated on
the extreme probability of such a step, and protested
that the conduct of the Falmouth seamen, and the
almost avowed sympathy shown them by the con-
stituted authorities of the town, had brought him, and
his chiefs also, to the extreme limit of their patience.

The situation thus created was, as the mayor
immediately felt, too serious to be ignored. The
loss of the Packets would bring ruin on the town ;
and on October 30th, a meeting of the citizens was

x.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 2 1 5

hastily convened, and the whole situation was fully
discussed.

There is perhaps some room for doubt whether
the naval officers and the agent, on whom the chief
burden of responsibility fell throughout these anxious
days, did not overrate the extent to which the
mayor and magistrates supported and encouraged
the mutineers. It is certain, however, that on the
very day on which the town's meeting was held
the aspect of affairs began to improve, and that
evening Mr. Saverland was able to report to London
that some men were already returning to their duty.
On the following day the upward tendency was more
marked, and it was intimated to the agent that the
greater part of the men would return if they could
be assured that they would be well received, and
would not be abandoned to the pressgang. Mr.
Saverland at once caused a notice to be printed
and distributed, promising protection to all men
who would return except four or five who were
specially named, and who had distinguished them-
selves by particularly riotous conduct This notice
had an excellent effect, and on the evening of the
day on which it was issued there was a full muster
of men on board all the Packets.

The mischief was, however, done. The threaten-
ing aspect of the mutiny, and the impossibility of
despatching the mails, had caused an amount of
anxiety and alarm which was not to be allayed
by the simple announcement that the men had

216 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

returned to their ships. It was felt necessary to
mark the occasion in some signal way, and the
idea of removing the Packets to Plymouth, which
had entered Mr. Saverland's mind on October 30th,
occurred quite independently to the Secretary of
the Treasury on the same day. It thus happened
that the Secretary of the Post-Office, on repairing
to Whitehall on October 31st, to suggest the
adoption of this plan, found that it was already
being favourably considered, and that very day
instructions were sent to Sir Robert Calder to
despatch forthwith to Falmouth a force sufficient
to navigate the Packets round to Plymouth.

The news fell like a thunderbolt on Falmouth. It
was received on November 2nd, and even Mr. Saver-
land was not prepared for it The sailors had, as
already stated, returned to their ships, and the step
appeared so little necessary that the agent thought
that his chiefs in London must have failed to com-
prehend how much the situation had improved, and
he consequently sent off an express with a full report
The measure was, however, dictated by a strong
feeling that it was necessary, once for all, to show
the seamen and the inhabitants of Falmouth that
they were not masters of the position. It was felt,
not unjustly, that the danger and inconvenience of
any interruption of the Postal Service was great
enough to warrant the Department in giving a severe
lesson, and the decision to remove the Packets was
consequently persisted in.

x.] THE MUTINY A T FALMOUTH. 2 1 7

On November 6th "H.M.S. North Star," accom-
panied by a frigate and two sloops of war, entered
Falmouth Harbour, and set sail again for Plymouth
in company with six Packets. On first reaching
Plymouth the Packets lay in Hamoaze, while a
temporary office was secured for the agent and his
staif at the " Fountain Inn."

It was not long before agent, officers, and
men, wished themselves heartily back at Falmouth.
Writing to the Secretary of the Post-Office on
November 13th Mr. Saverland says:

" I hope the Packets will not remain here as a fixed station.
If they do, the establishment must be greatly increased and
the correspondence delayed. Both the West India and
American Mails were ready yesterday by about noon, but
what with the passengers in different and distant inns, the
Packets in different places, the cartage of the mails, the
purchasing of their anchors in very deep water — pilotage not
one man-of-war ever goes to sea without, so dangerous is the
passage — that I see very clearly we shall not gain anything
in getting to sea, though the mail arrives here in the morning.
. . . In the late gale the 'Diana' parted her cable and was
nearly on shore, and the ' Stately,' a 74, nearly ran on board
the "Despatch," and would have sunk her if she had, but
fortunately she ran on board a hulk, and just saved the Packet
... In Hamoaze and the Sound the water is so deep that
if it blows a little the Packets cannot weigh their anchors,
and anchors are so distributed about by ships cutting and
slipping their cables that cables are worn out in a few hours.
The "Elizabeth' 1 cut a new cable which cost ,£140 nearly
through last night, getting foul of some anchor or wreck. . . ."

Again a few days later he wrote :

"The Packets lie very badly here. . . . Unless moorings are
laid down, and a separate place assigned, some of them will

2 1 8 POST-OFFICE PA CKET SEP VICE. [chap.

be lost before the winter is over. The seamen are obliged to
be victualled constantly on board, and stock of all kinds is
dearer than at Falmouth, together with greater wear and tear,
exclusive of risk. . . ."

These representations were of course not without
effect, and were pressed home by the fact that on
more than one occasion Packets which set sail from
Plymouth in stormy weather were obliged to run for
Falmouth for shelter. The Post-Office, moreover, was
exposed at this time to strong pressure exerted by
prominent persons in Cornwall, who used all their
influence to secure the return of the Packets to
Falmouth.

At that time forty-four members were returned
to the House of Commons from Cornwall, and it
was rightly foreseen that these members would act
unanimously in the matter. A deputation of the
inhabitants of Falmouth had, moreover, reached
London early in November. It consisted of the
mayor, Mr. James Bull, Mr. John Carne, and Mr.
Robert W. Fox. These gentlemen had an interview
with the Secretary of the Post-Office on November
ioth, but received what was to them an unsatisfac-
tory answer to their representations. The unyielding
disposition shown to them was due not only to a
conviction that it was much too soon to give way,
but also to the difficulties arising from the case of
Pascoe and Parker.

These two men were in a high state of exultation.
The consultations held upon their case had led to

x.] THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH. 219

the conclusion that they could not legally be
punished, and there was no alternative but to set
them at liberty. It was not to be expected that
under the circumstances they would let slip the
opportunity of making capital out of their arrest,
and they promptly commenced an action for false
imprisonment against the Secretary of the Post-
Office, laying the damages at the modest sum of
^5000 each. In order to obtain the funds necessary
for the preliminary steps in the matter they issued
an appeal at Falmouth. It was headed, "To the
Friends and Advocates of Justice," and described
in feeling terms the sufferings endured by the
delegates during their confinement of three days
"in a dreadful gaol, having nothing to make use
of, not even straw to lie on." It does not appear
what response this appeal met with.

The mayor and his companions passed many
days in London, and at last returned to Cornwall
without having obtained any pledge concerning the
return of the Packets to Falmouth. In fact, a
strong effort was made at this time by persons
interested in the port of Fowey to persuade the
Post-Office that that harbour was better suited for
a Packet station than Falmouth. There was never
any great prospect that this contention would prevail,
but it deserved consideration, and it was thought
desirable to have a full report upon Fowey made
by a competent engineer.

That report when received was unfavourable, and

aao POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

by the end of the year there was no longer any
doubt in the minds of the Government that no
harbour existed which combined so many advantages
for the purposes of a Packet station as Falmouth.
It was not thought, however, that the town had
been sufficiently punished, and only at the end of
January, 1811, did the Treasury sanction the
return of the Packets. Long before that time the
action threatened by Pascoe and Parker had been
dropped. Pressure was applied to them by the
townspeople, who rightly judged that it was their
interest to conciliate the Post-Office rather than to
fight it The first result of this pressure applied is
shown in the following curious letter addressed
apparently to the attorney who had charge of the
case: —

"Mr. Andrew Young,

"Sir,

"Having maturely considered our discourse
this morning relative to the Packets, and being ever anxious
and desirous, as far as lie in my power and compatable with
the true feelings of a man, to render every assistance to man-
kind in general, but more particularly to our Friends, Relatives,
and the Inhabitants of Falmouth, have well weighed and
thereby fixed unalterably (like the Laws of the Medes and
Persians) the Rule and Criterion whereon and whereby we fix
the Basis on which we make this Declaration, and offer terms,
which when we consider the damages we have laid, namely
Five Thousand Pound each, are not nominal, but such as we
have reason to expect will be allowed by Lord EUingboro 1
and an Impartial Jury of our countrymen. By which means
it will appear we are ready to sacrifice a large sum ; and like
Brutus and Manlius, altho' not offering up our children for a

x.] THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH. 2 2I

total sacrifice, offer up that patrimony they for the unhappy
moments have suffered thro' their fathers and only friends
being unlawfully detained in a dreadful gaol, and which they
are lawfully and justly entitled to. But to return to the
Question, we are of opinion, and that not a vague one formed
in a hasty moment, that the town of Falmouth is in a ruined
state unless the Packets return ; and well knowing that the
Inhabitants (those principal ones we mean) are deprived of
their lucrative trade and great rents unless the Packets can
be restored to their former channel, and which we learn and
anticipate cannot be done without our sacrificing our private
feelings, which although difficult to do, we will do provided
we receive the pecuniary satisfaction we demand, which is
when considered, a trivial sum, one thousand pounds each.
Now, Sir, far be it from us to beg or desire a settlement of
the Business in this way, but for the good of the town, and
we leave you to make, according to your judgment, whatever
use you think proper of this our Final determination.

"Richard Pascob.

"John Parker.
" Falmouth, Sunday, Nov. 25, 1810."

This document breathes such an elevated spirit
that it is painful to have to relate that the
moderation of these two estimable men did not
serve them. The action was not compromised on
these or any other terms, but was dropped un-
conditionally.

CHAPTER XL

THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR.

The contrast between the events detailed in the
last few chapters on the one hand, and on the
other those which occurred in the nine years
preceding the Peace of Amiens, must strike the
most casual reader very forcibly. Where, in those
earlier years, was that splendid daring with which
Captain Rogers led his men to victory, that dogged
obstinacy which brought Captain Anthony success-
fully out of three fights against a heavy superiority
of force within two years, that self-sacrificing zeal
which animated Captain Dyneley in his great
exploit at Dominica, enabling him to accept the
whole burden of the risk which the merchants
declined, and so to save a rich island for the
British crown ?

The evil days on the Falmouth Station had
passed away like a dream, and if they are here
recalled, it is but with the object of claiming for
the Headquarter Staff, and for the officers them-
selves, full credit for the patient labours which had

chap. XL] OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 223

destroyed the evil practices and created the better
spirit. None but those who have shared in the
labour of controlling a large body of subordinates
can fully appreciate the difficulty of carrying out
even such changes of practice as are generally
accepted as necessary and reasonable. There is
among every large body of men an inertia which
only time and patience can overcome. The
individual can be moved, but the mass as a whole
declines to stir. So it is when rules not specially
distasteful are enforced ; but when the new regula-
tion cuts at the root of ancient privilege, when it
strikes off a profit which by long prescription is
regarded as a right, then a number of forces come
into opposition more powerfully than the dead
weight just mentioned, and the administrator finds his
judgment and discretion subjected to a heavy strain.

Therefore, to have enforced the new rules, and
not only that, but to have evolved and called out
a spirit so different from that which existed on the
Falmouth Station ten years before, was an achieve-
ment of which the Postmaster General and the
Secretary might well feel proud. The conduct
of the Packets had been increasingly brilliant, and
when the year 181 2 began they were in a state of
discipline and ardour which would have done
credit to any naval force.

It was well that their condition was so good, for
the time was at hand when they were to be put to
a fiercer test than any which the French Privateers

224 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

had been able to apply. There were still old men
at Falmouth who could remember how the Packets
fared in the first American War, and who knew
well that the Privateers of Boston or Newport were
ten times more formidable than those of Nantes or
of Bordeaux. The national belief in the superiority
of British pluck to that of any other country would
scarcely hold against sailors of our own race; and,
as a matter of fact, it is well known that the *
American cruisers, both national and private, were
largely manned with picked men from the British
navy, driven by the somewhat harsh and incon-
siderate treatment which was too prevalent in our
ships to take service with a power which at least
fed and paid them well, and treated them with
reasonable consideration.

The temptations offered by the Americans to
the trained sailors of English ships had always
constituted one of the greatest difficulties of the
Packet captains, any one of whom had lost at
different times numbers of his best men by desertion.
Probably many of the sailors who thus deserted
their flag rejoined it on the outbreak of war ; but
it is certain that a great number remained in their
adopted service, arguing, perhaps, in some confused
way, that a war between two sections of the English
race which only a generation ago were one united
power was of the nature of a civil war, in which
there was no question of treason, but every man
might take sides according to his judgment

xi.] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 225

Whether they salved their consciences with
sophistries or not, yet there they were; and the
knowledge of this fact was alone sufficient to
convince My Lords the Postmaster General that
an enemy very different from the French was at
hand. It was indeed ; but few even of the officers

m

who formed this conclusion could have anticipated
such desperate fighting as actually occurred, or
could have looked to the little Packets for such
splendid conduct as they showed, in what, if the
truth must be admitted, was not the brightest period
of British naval history.

The war broke out in June, 18 12, but it was
not until September that any one of the Packets
was brought to action.

On the 15th of that month the "Princess Amelia,"
three days out from St Thomas on her homeward
voyage, was brought to action by the Privateer
"Rossie" of Baltimore, Commodore Barney. The
"Princess Amelia" was commanded by Captain
Moorsom, a brave and energetic officer of a family
well known in our naval annals, both then and
since. The "Rossie" carried ten 12-pounders, in
addition to a long 9-pounder mounted on a traverse.
The "Princess Amelia" had but six guns — she
should have carried eight ; the cause of the deficiency
is not explained — of which at least four were only
6-pounders, the others expounders, and she carried
twenty-eight men and boys as against ninety-five
upon the Privateer.

226 POST- OFFICE PA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

There are but scanty details of the fight. The
"Rossie," which had chased the Packet for several
hours, and had not answered the private signal,
came within range at 6 P.M. She was flying
Spanish colours ; but Captain Moorsom, suspecting
her nationality, ordered a shot to be fired at her,
whereupon she immediately hoisted the Stars and
Stripes, crossed the Packet's stern, and fired a broad-
side as she did so. The action immediately became
warm, and the first ten minutes proved that the
Americans were masters of their weapons. Within
the first half-hour four or five of Captain Moorsom's
crew were hit. At half-past six the master, Mr.
Nankivell, was shot through the head. Twenty
minutes later Captain Moorsom himself was killed
by a grape-shot which pierced his left breast. The
command devolved on Mr. Ridgard, the mate, who
was himself badly wounded ; and on looking round
he discovered that out of the complement of the
" Princess Amelia," consisting only of twenty-eight
hands, three were killed, and no less than eleven
wounded, for the most part seriously, so that the
crew was already reduced to half its number, while
the enemy were as five to one. Mr. Ridgard
reluctantly concluded that all had been done which
was possible to save the Packet. Accordingly the
mail was sunk, and at seven o'clock the "Princess
Amelia" hauled down her colours.

Such was the first action fought by the Falmouth
Packets during the American war, a rough forecast

xi.] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 227

of what was to come, justifying anxiety about the
immediate future. For Captain Moorsom was one
of the ablest of the Post-Office commanders. His
ship and crew were in high condition ; and yet the
accounts of his last fight showed that the event
was never doubtful, though his high courage led
him to prefer dying on his own quarterdeck to
surrendering his trust, even to a crushing superiority
of force.

In November of the same year a fight upon a
greater scale took place, one indeed which was
perhaps the most memorable of all those in which
the Packets were engaged. Many of the actions
described in these pages are out of the common ;
but a few stand forth from among the rest, marked
by quite exceptional circumstances of bravery and
devotion. Among these few the action of Captain
James Cock in the " Townshend " on November
22nd, 1 8 12, stands first, though unsuccessful

The "Townshend" was armed somewhat more
heavily than the u Princess Amelia," having on
board eight 9-pounder carronades, with a long gun
of similar calibre used as a chaser. Her crew was
also slightly larger, numbering twenty-eight men
and four boys. She was within a few hours of
dropping her anchor at Bridgetown, Barbados, when
the first light of morning revealed two strange
vessels cruising in company at no great distance.

These vessels proved to be two American
Privateers, the "Tom," Captain Thomas Wilson,

228 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

and the "Bona," Captain Damaron. The former
was armed with fourteen carronades, some 18 and
some 12-pounders, as well as two long g-pounders,
and carried a hundred and thirty men. The latter
had six i8-pounders, with a long 24- pounder mounted
on a traverse, and a crew of ninety men. The
forces on each side were therefore as follows,
assuming that the " Tom " carried as many 18 as
12-pounders : —

Privateers, -

Weight of metal,
in pounds.

- 360

Number of men.
220

Packet,

- 78

32 (besides four
passengers, who seem
to have rendered some
assistance).

This enormous preponderance of force was greatly
increased in effective power by being divided between
two opponents. A single vessel might be crippled
by a lucky shot; but if good fortune rid the
"Townshend" of one antagonist in this way, there
still remained the other to be reckoned with, more
powerful in every way than herself.

If ever circumstances justified surrender after a
short resistance, they were present in this case. It
might even be thought that resistance was a useless
sacrifice of life ; but such was not Captain Cock's
view. He held it to be his plain duty not only
' to keep the mails out of the hands of the enemy —
which could be done effectually by sinking them
at any moment — but to use every means in his
power to preserve them for their proper owners,

XL] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 229

and not to abandon hope of delivering them at
the agent's office in Bridgetown until every chance
of doing so was gone. Now there were still two
chances in his favour; first, that he might hold
out until the noise of firing attracted some of the
British cruisers which were probably in the im-
mediate neighbourhood, and if that chance failed,
he might run the " Townshend " ashore on some
shoal of the coast now in sight where the Privateers
could not follow him. Both these chances were
desperate enough ; but Captain Cock saw his duty
clear before him, and cared nothing for the con-
sequences. All his preparations were quickly
made, and every man was at his post before the
Privateers came within range, which they did about
7 A.M.

At 7.30 A.M. the "Tom" had placed herself abeam
of the Packet to larboard, while the "Bona" lay
on the starboard quarter, and both their broadsides
were crashing into the "Townshend" at pistol shot
distance, all three vessels running before the wind.
This lasted till eight o'clock. The Americans, as
was usual with them, made great use of "dismantling
shot," i.e. chain and bar shot; the effect of which
upon the rigging of the " Townshend " was most
disastrous. It was not long before her sails were
hanging in ribbons, and her spars greatly damaged;
and in some momentary confusion from this cause
the " Tom " seized an opportunity of pouring in
her boarders, while the "Bona" redoubled her fire,

230 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

both of great guns and of musketry, to cover their
attack.

In what force the boarders came on this occasion
we are not told, but as the crew of the " Tom "
consisted of one hundred and thirty men there is
no improbability in supposing that they numbered
fifty or sixty. Captain Cock, moreover, having a
foe on either quarter, could not bring the whole
even of his handful of men to meet them, but must
leave a sufficient number to work the guns, which
were keeping the "Bona" at a respectful distance.
He may perhaps have had twenty men at his back
in this hand-to-hand fight; but each one of them
acquitted himself so well that after a fierce tussle
the Americans were driven back to their own ship.
This success was only won by the loss of four of
Captain Cock's best hands, who received disabling
wounds in the fight.

Thereupon both Privateers resumed the cannonade,
maintaining the positions which they had taken up
at the commencement of the action, and for another
hour the tf Townshend " endured the fire of her
enemies' heavy guns, the courage of her commander
and crew remaining as high and stubborn as ever.

The Packet was now so much shattered that she
could with difficulty be handled. Again and again
the "Tom" bore down upon her, and hurled fresh
boarders up her sides. Time after time Captain
Cock led his wearied men to meet them, and each
time drove them back.

XL] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 231

In these repeated close fights the Cornishmen
met with heavy losses, Mr. Sidgman, master of the
"Townshend" being killed, and six more sailors,
making ten in all, desperately wounded. His crew
was now so reduced in numbers that it was with
the greatest difficulty that Captain Cock could
continue to serve the guns, and at the same time
to collect sufficient men to meet the constantly
recurring boarding attacks. It was plain that this
situation of affairs could not last There was no
sign of succour on the sea, and when Captain Cock
looked aloft, he could not but admit that in the
crippled condition of his ship, all chance of running
her ashore was gone. The " Townshend " was in
fact a mere wreck. Her bowsprit was shot in pieces.
Both jib-booms and head were carried away, as well
as the wheel and ropes. Scarcely one shroud was
left standing. The Packet lay like a log on the
water, while the Privateers sailed round her, choosing
their positions as they pleased, and raking her again
and again.

Still Captain Cock held out. It was not until
ten o'clock, when he had endured the attack of his
two powerful enemies for nearly three hours, that
he looked about him and recognized that the end
had come. There were four feet of water in the
hold, and the carpenter reported that it was rising
rapidly. The Packet was in fact sinking. Nearly
half the crew were in the hands of the surgeon.
The rest, exhausted and hopeless of success, had

232 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

already fought more nobly than even he could have
foreseen, and were now being uselessly sacrificed.
Still Captain Cock's pride rebelled against surrender;
and as he saw the colours he had defended so well
drop down upon the deck, it is recorded that he
burst into tears.

There lies before the writer a faded yellow scrap
of paper on which one of the American captains
recorded in generous terms his opinion of his foe.
It runs as follows : " I do certify that Captain James
Cock, of the Packet brig 'Townshend/ captured
this day by the private armed schooners 'Tom*
and 'Bona/ did defend his ship with courage and
seamanship, and that he did not strike his colours
until his vessel was perfectly unmanageable and in
the act of sinking. Sd., Thomas Wilson, on board
the 'Townshend/ November 22nd, 1812." Subjoined
to this certificate is a statement of the force of
the Privateers, as given above. The loss of the
"Townshend" has already been indicated; that of
the Privateers Captain Cock was allowed no
opportunity of ascertaining. He believed, however,
that it was heavy, and he mentions positively that
the "Tom," the larger of the two, had received so
much injury in her spars, sails, and rigging, that
it was the intention of her captain to put back to
port to refit

When the Americans took possession of the
" Townshend," they found her so literally a wreck
that they could make no use of her; and they

XL] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 233

therefore resolved to set her on fire, sending the
crew, whom they did not wish to retain as prisoners,
ashore in their own boats. Against this decision
Captain Cock protested vehemently, pointing out
the inhumanity of exposing so many wounded men
to the perils of a voyage in boats which were so
much shattered as to make it extremely doubtful
whether they could reach the land. Finally, he
was permitted, in exchange for a bill for £1200, to
resume possession of his ship, after it had been
plundered of everything of value. His unwounded
men set to work with a will, plugged the shot
holes, held the leaks in check, and at 7 P.M. the
"Townshend" dropped her anchor in Carlisle Bay.
There her injuries were repaired as far as the
imperfect appliances of the dock-yard permitted,
and shortly after the New Year she set sail for
England, still in a rather crazy state.

On January 18th at 1 P.M. a large schooner
came in sight, about four miles away on the
larboard bow. When first seen, the schooner was
laying-to; but she made sail in chase almost
immediately, and at 2.30 P.M. hoisted English
colours. At 3 P.M. the stranger was within half a
mile ; and was seen to be hauling down the
English ensign and hoisting the Stars and Stripes.
At the same time she fired a gun across the
" Townshend's " bows, a summons to which Captain
Cock replied with his full broadside, running up
his own colours to the main-peak as he did so.

234 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Half crippled as she was, the "Townshend" was
in for it again.

The Privateer hung on the wake of the Packet,
yawing every few minutes so as to deliver her
broadside. Captain Cock on his part, not choosing
to risk the loss of ground, kept a steady course,
and confined himself to the use of his chasers, those
long brass nine-pounders — "Post-Office" guns, as
they are still called by the old sailors at Falmouth
— which had so often served the Packets in good
stead. With these two pieces he kept playing upon
the following enemy with such good effect that at
3.30 P.M. he had the satisfaction of seeing her
foreyard rattle down. There was some confusion
on her decks in consequence of this disaster, and
Captain Cock, seizing the opportunity to drive home
the blow, gave the word to yaw, and delivered his
full broadside of round and grape-shot with such
precision as did great injury to the enemy's spars
and rigging, then hauling to the wind again, resumed
practice with his stern guns.

The excellence of the Cornish gunnery had done
its work, and by 4 P.M. the Privateer was observed
to be dropping fast astern. In another quarter of
an hour a severe squall came on, and the vessels
parted. When the enemy was last seen she was
laying-to, her sails hanging in every direction, and
her crew employed in knotting the shrouds and
backstays and repairing the running rigging.

So, in a manner beyond all praise, ended this

XL] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 235

cruise of the " Townshend," a glorious incitement
and example to all the other Packets on the
Falmouth Station.

Great as was the satisfaction at Lombard Street
when Captain Cock's story became known, there
was yet an admixture of less pleasurable feeling.
It was already perfectly clear that the Packets were
in greater danger than at any previous time, unless,
indeed, in the first American war. Already two
had been captured by squadrons of frigates, one
by the famous Commodore Rogers, the other by
the almost equally well-known Captain D. Porter,
each of whom commanded a force against which it
would have been madness to resist. And now two
accounts were to hand of fights with Privateers ;
and in both, though the resistance of the Post-Office
commanders was even desperately gallant, the force
of the enemy had proved irresistible. However,
where the spirit of the officers and men was so
high, My Lords could not doubt that they would
give a good account of themselves ; and just at this
time an incident occurred which, though not very
important in itself, served to show that audacity
was sometimes the safest of all policies.

The "Lady Mary Pelham," Captain Stevens, was
on her voyage to Malta, when at daylight on October
15th a large brig was seen standing across the bows
of the Packet She was evidently a Privateer, and
a powerful one. Captain Stevens felt no doubt that
if it came to a fight his vessel would be over-matched,

236 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

and he resolved accordingly to play the game of
bluff, relying, as he said "on the 'PelhamV good
looks." The "Lady Mary Pelham," though her
force was no greater than that of any other Packet,
had in a remarkable degree the appearance of an
eighteen-gun brig, and this resemblance was in-
creased by Captain Stevens' conduct For instead
of manifesting any desire to escape, he showed by
all his actions the greatest readiness for a fight,
and hauling up, waited to receive his enemy. The
Privateer came on in doubt, and Captain Stevens,
playing his part boldly, fired a gun across her bows
as soon as she came within range, and ordered her
to heave to. On this the enemy, convinced that she
had encountered a British cruiser, hoisted English
colours, and made all sail to escape. Captain
Stevens desired nothing more than to let her go,
and resumed his course without any effort to stop
her. The very celerity with which he did this
aroused suspicion on board the strange vessel, which
hoisted French colours and fired several guns, where-
upon Captain Stevens, with unabated impudence,
hauled up and waited for her again. This second
demonstration of readiness for action convinced the
stranger, which went her ways and troubled the
" Lady Mary Pelham " no more.

In the following month an important service was
rendered to the colony of Demerara by Captain
Kirkness, commanding the Packet "Queen Charlotte,"
a service recalling in some degree the patriotic

xi.] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 237

conduct of Captain Dyneley at Dominica six years
before.

The " Queen Charlotte " was lying in Georgetown
harbour in the month of November, waiting for her
mails, and Captain Kirkness from the deck of his
ship could see hanging about the entrance to the
port a suspicious-looking vessel. He made his
observations quietly, and, having satisfied himself
about the matter, took his boat, went on shore,
and demanding an audience of the governor, General
Carmichael, informed him that an American Privateer
was cruising outside the harbour.

It so happened that General Carmichael had that
day received letters from Berbice, informing him,
on the authority of a captured merchant captain,
that the " Rattlesnake," a Privateer which had made
herself extremely notorious since the outbreak of
the war, was on her way to Demerara with the
design of intercepting the Cork fleet, which was
expected to arrive in Georgetown from day to day.
He had, moreover, information of another powerful
Privateer, which, a day or two before, had engaged
a well-armed merchant vessel for three hours, and
which had since captured several smaller craft within
sight of the shore. Both these vessels were known
to be heavily armed and manned. The "Rattle-
snake" carried sixteen 9-pounder carronades, two
long nines, and her "Long Tom/' mounted on a
traverse, was no less than a 42-pounder. If her
consort carried an equal weight of metal, the two,

238 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

acting together, could easily scatter the Cork
fleet

General Carmichael stated these facts to Captain
Kirkness, and appealed to him to do whatever might
be in his power to hold the Privateers in check,
and so provide for the safe arrival of the expected
fleet, there being at the time no British ship of war
at his disposal. Captain Kirkness undertook the
adventure willingly. There was, indeed, no other
course, unless he was prepared to stand by idly
while the Privateers swooped down and worked
their will on the coming merchantmen. He received
on board a large party of troops, with some volun-
teers from the militia ; and aided, as Captain Stevens
had been, by his Packet's " good looks," sallied out
to meet the fleet

The two Privateers were sighted as soon as the
"Queen Charlotte" left the harbour; but by some
curious hesitation, a most unusual quality in
Americans, they did not attack, but hung on
the wake of the Packet, as if believing her too
strong for them, until she met the fleet; and then,
recognizing that their opportunity was lost, they
bore away on another tack, and were not seen
again.

The credit due to Captain Kirkness for this
exploit is not lessened by the fact that the enemy
hung back from action, for this was a stroke of
luck on which he could not have calculated. He
risked a fight against overwhelming odds — for the

N

N

XI.] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 239

" Rattlesnake " alone could have blown the " Queen
Charlotte" out of the water — and by his courage
and audacity saved the merchants of this country
and of Demerara from very serious losses, which
nothing but his interposition could possibly have
averted.

Time has dealt hardly with the records of the
Falmouth Service, and the historian, anxious to do
justice to the memory of every officer whose conduct
was distinguished, searches in vain among the brown
and dusty papers for full reports of many a stubborn
fight Eighty years of neglect have broken frequent
gaps in what might have been a continuous story.
As a rule the Post-Office actions were not reported
either in the Gazettes or in the public press; and
thus it happens that when the original letters are
not forthcoming, the details of the whole story
are irretrievably lost

Such is the case with Captain Hartney's fight
in the "Montagu" on February 1st, 181 3. Captain
Hartney had on board no less than £16,000 in
bullion, a fact of which the Privateer which attacked
him may have got wind. At any rate she fought
with great obstinacy. The battle raged for three
hours within pistol-shot, till at last the Americans
sheered off, in the very nick of time, for the
Falmouth men had fired away the whole of their
grape, canister, and double-headed shot, and had
only a few round shot left. So ended triumphantly
what was evidently a gallant fight, about which

I.

240 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

we would gladly know more than the scanty record
tells.

In June the " Duke of Montrose," Captain Blewitt,
was in mid-Atlantic, outward bound for Halifax,
when, on the 9th of that month, she encountered
an American Privateer of superior force. The crew
of the "Duke of Montrose" were in a high state
of training, having succeeded, about five months
previously, in beating off the assault of a similar
craft, which they repulsed after an action of six
hours, never having allowed her to close with them
during the whole of that long period. The con-
fidence in themselves and in their officers which
they won on that occasion stood them in good
stead now; and, as they watched the onset of
their powerful adversary, every man was cool and
confident of success.

At noon the schooner was closing . fast on the
Packet, and at 12.30 P.M. she fired three guns.
Captain Blewitt, thinking that the enemy would
shortly close, ordered the gunners to reserve their
fire until it could be delivered with more effect;
but the Privateer had no intention of coming to
meet the broadside at short range, and Captain
Blewitt, seeing that she hung back, bore up, gave
her his stern guns, and then, hauling across the
schooner's bows, raked her with his starboard guns,
and wore again with the intention of closing,
pouring in the fire of his larboard guns as they
came to bear. Thus, while the " Duke of Montrose "

XI.] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 241

had received only a single broadside, every gun
that she carried had been fired into the Privateer
at short range! and the execution must have been
deadly. At 145 P.M. the schooner ran down and
endeavoured to grapple the Packet, but the fire
of the Cornish gunners was too well directed, and
she sheered off again to a safer distance. Half-an-
hour later she ceased firing and tacked to the
eastward, whereupon Captain Blewitt tacked to the
westward and resumed his voyage in the best of
spirits.

Unhappily his elation was short-lived, for on the
following morning Commodore Rogers in the United
States frigate "President" passed that way. Resist-
ance against such a force as the "President" possessed
was out of the question. The mails were sunk, and
the "Duke of Montrose" surrendered.

Commodore Rogers treated his prisoners with

very honourable forbearance and liberality. He

would not permit them to be plundered of the

least trifle, and informed Captain Blewitt that he

proposed to send him, with all his crew and

passengers, back to England in their own ship,

on condition that they would enter into a contract

to send the Packet back to America with an equal

number of American prisoners in England. This

agreement, drawn up in the most binding terms,

was subscribed "upon our sacred honour" by all

the persons concerned; and the "Duke of Montrose,"

having on board a single American officer, arrived

Q

242 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

at Falmouth towards the end of June. It then
appeared that in the view of the British Government
the agreement was contrary to law; and as it had
been notified to the American Government that
exchanges of prisoners on the high seas would not
be recognized as valid, the whole transaction was
declared void ; the " Duke of Montrose " was restored
to the Post-Office, the officers and crew were told
that they might resume their duties without being
exchanged, and the American officer was sent back
to his own country empty-handed.

The story is not a pleasant one ; and while the
action of the Government may have been strictly
warranted by the notification made to the United
States, yet the transaction smacks overmuch of the
methods of a sharp attorney, and one cannot but
regret that the generous confidence of Commodore
Rogers was not met in the same spirit

It is impossible to describe, even with the fulness
of the official records, every action which took
place during this war ; and yet . where all were
gallant there is some injustice in making a selection.
One would willingly linger over the story of how
Captain Elphinstone in the "Manchester" fought
the "York Town" through a whole day, and did
not surrender till his last round of ammunition had
been fired ; of how Captain White in the " Princess
Charlotte" beat off an unknown American vessel
in three separate actions extending over four days,
during the whole of which time the enemy kept in

xi.] THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 243

company; or of Captain Caddy's plucky conduct
when the " Governor Tompkins," a Privateer of ten
long 9-pounders, a long 24-pounder on a traverse,
and ninety-nine men, captured his Packet, the
" Mary Anne," after a fight in which the latter was
reduced to a mere wreck.

These fine stories must be summarized; but one
fight which occurred about this time takes rank
among the greater actions of the Falmouth Service,
and deserves a fuller description.

The " Express," Captain John Quick, sailed from
Rio de Janeiro on March 23rd, 181 3, having on
board, in addition to the mails and despatches,
about £20,000 in specie. There seems to have been
something in the smell of specie which attracted
Privateers, for the " Express," which had made her
outward voyage without sighting any suspicious
vessel, encountered near the Cape Verde Islands the
" Anaconda," an American Privateer, carrying sixteen
long 9-pounders, and a hundred and twenty men.
This formidable adversary chased the " Express,"
and, after a long pursuit, brought her to action.

Unfortunately no account has been preserved of
the details of the fight. We are told that it lasted
for an hour at close quarters, and it is clear that
the cannonade during that hour must have been
very fierce, for the record says that "the Packet's
sails were cut in pieces fore and aft, the main and
foremast very badly wounded, the main-topmast shot
away, the fore-topsail yard shot away, the foreyard

244 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap. XI.

badly wounded, the main and forestay shot away,
the main and fore-rigging very badly cut, the braces
fore and aft and the topsail-sheets shot away, all
the rigging fore and aft in a most shattered con-
dition, four of the starboard guns dismounted (the
'Express' carried only eight), several shot between
wind and water, three feet and a half of water in
the hold, and the Packet actually sinking." To
such a condition had Captain Quick's ship been
reduced before he judged it consistent with his
honour to surrender. And this in face of a Post-
Office regulation, never yet repealed, which instructed
him that "the idea of resistance, except against
Privateers of the smallest class, must be abandoned."
So far from abandoning resistance, this gallant
captain fought his ship till she was sinking under
him, and would certainly have gone down carrying
her brave defenders with her had the surrender
been delayed a few minutes longer.

Such is the spirit in which the Falmouth men
fought their losing battles, earning glory if they
could not reach success.

CHAPTER XII.

THE AMERICAN WAR.

The number of Packets stationed at Falmouth was
not as large as to enable My Lords, or their
Secretary, Mr. Freeling, to contemplate the ravages
of the American Privateers without dismay. The
mere fact that so many Packets were either in the
hands of the enemy or undergoing repairs which
must necessarily be lengthy, was enough to create
much embarrassment in the present, while the outlook
for the immediate future was gloomy and depressing.
The difficulties were exasperated by the total loss
of the " Hinchinbrooke " in a hurricane in the West
Indies, while, as if to show that Fortune had turned
her back on the Post-Office, the news of this
disaster was quickly followed by the report that the
"Lady Emily" had been wrecked on a reef of
rocks near Bermuda.

Even these misfortunes did not exhaust the run
of ill-luck. A violent outbreak of plague occurred
at Malta. Every Packet arriving from the Mediter-
ranean must perform quarantine at Sandgate Creek

246 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

on the Kentish coast, and the delay and inconven-
ience thus caused proved a well-nigh intolerable
addition to the perplexities of the administrators at
Lombard Street

The West India merchants, moreover, who had
held their peace of recent years, as well they might,
seeing with what courage and devotion their interests
were guarded, were once more complaining of the
loss of mails, and demanded that every Packet
should have twenty guns and sixty men. My
Lords, however, in the gallantry of their officers and
men, were fortified with arguments which they had
not possessed in former discussions with these critics.
Twenty guns, they pointed out, would not have
saved the "Duke of Montrose" from Commodore
Rogers, and though Captain Cock in the "Town-
shend" had achieved so much with his scanty
armament that it was difficult to say what he
might not have done with an increased force, yet
My Lords claimed, not unjustly, that such a case
was too far removed from ordinary experience to
serve as the basis of an argument

Yet the prayer of the merchants was not altogether
set aside; and when in July the brig "Morgiana"
was tendered for service as a temporary Packet, Mr.
Freeling noted that, being of 260 tons, considerably
larger than any other vessel on the station, she
ought to carry forty men and sixteen guns, and
expressed the hope that this larger armament would
restore some confidence in the city. The sequel is

xii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 247

now to be related. It is curious to notice how
some malignant influence mocked at all these efforts
to arm the Packets more heavily, and rendered them
all in turn equally vain.

For some unexplained reason the "Morgiana" was
not provided on her first voyage with the sixteen
guns which Mr. Freeling had declared to be proper
to her size ; but was armed with eight 9-pounders,
which were perhaps all that could be procured in
the short space of time available for fitting her
out She received, however, the complement of
men which the Secretary had indicated; and thus
equipped, she sailed from Falmouth at the end of
August, bound for Surinam, under the command of
Captain James Cunninghame, who had been Lord
St Vincent's sailing master in the action of February
14th, 1797. Early in the morning of September
26th, the "Morgiana" being then off the coast
of Surinam, a large hermaphrodite brig hove in
sight, which, on perceiving the "Morgiana," at once
crowded all sail in chase. The wind was very light,
and at seven o'clock it was observed that the
stranger vessel had got out her sweeps, and was
gaining fast on the Packet

About 10 A.M. the sea breeze made partially, and
the Privateer, receiving it first, was enabled to
decrease the distance between the two vessels so
materially as to render it shortly obvious that
there would be no escape by sailing. At half-past
twelve Captain Cunninghame gave orders to pipe

248 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

to dinner, conceiving that by the time his crew
had dined, the enemy would be within range of
shot What followed should be told in his own
vivid words: —

"In this interval I cautiously inspected every article of
preparation we had made, and confess that I felt a great
satisfaction, and no small share of confidence at the arrange-
ments. At 1.30 p.m. the hands were turned up, and, calling
them aft, I addressed them to the following effect : 'That they
had witnessed my endeavours to elude engaging an enemy
who to all appearance was much superior to ourselves, but
that the chances of action, if supported with steadiness and
courage, might not only give us an opportunity to beat him
off, but also to capture; that they were aware that, besides
my holding a commission to command the Packet, I had
passed the great proportion of my life as an officer in His
Majesty's Naval Service ; that I had been frequently engaged
with the enemy, consequently a battle was no new thing to
me ; and that, independent of our characters as Englishmen,
we were bound by our duty to the service now employed on
to defend the mails with all possible obstinacy; that it was
my own determination not to give the ship away till I was
no longer able to defend her, and hinted that should any of
them feel unwilling to support me in my resolution, they had
my full liberty to go below, and that I would endeavour to
fight the ship with the braver part of the crew who would
remain to second me.'

"With much pleasure I have to acknowledge that one senti-
ment of determination pervaded all; all were unanimously
anxious to engage, and showed a disposition to cheer, which
I checked. At 2 p.m., the enemy being within range of shot,
I took in the studding sails, ordered the jolly boat to be cut
adrift, and opened a fire on him from our stern guns, which
evidently disconcerted him, the first shot having carried away
some of his standing rigging. He then yawed, and gave us
his whole broadside, which did no other injury than a shot

xii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 249

or two through the topgallant sails. We continued to play
the stern guns on him, and he to give us an occasional charge
from his foremost guns, when he could get them to bear
without losing ground ; but finding himself exposed to a raking
fire, which he stood well, he endeavoured to gain our starboard
quarter, and his superior sailing soon placed him in a situation
in which our after guns could be used with effect Anxious
to profit by this event, and with the hope that our broadside
would deter him from closing with us altogether, we gave him
the fire from our starboard guns, then bore up till the stern
guns could again act; but after five or six discharges from
them I had the mortification to see that the ringbolts had
drawn out from both sides the stern, and these guns, which
had as yet been our principal defence, rendered of no more
use in that point The disposition of the enemy was now
evidently directed to boarding us on the larboard quarter, and
he accordingly ranged up with that intent ; but our fire was
too heavy to be despised. He therefore gave up the idea of
boarding, and, manning his guns, returned our broadsides
with vigour.

"The action was now something hot, and was supported by
both sides with an equal degree of spirit for about an hour
and twenty minutes, both vessels running before the wind,
within pistol distance of each other, and at times not more
than a few fathoms apart

" The tops of the Privateer were filled with men armed with
blunderbusses and muskets who gave us great annoyance, and
his fire of grape was sharp and galling, wounding several of
our men. In this part of the action I found that a grape
shot had grazed my left leg, and stuck in the opposite side
of the ship. It was not, however, of very serious consequence,
and, tying it up with a handkerchief, I was enabled to resume
my station. A short time after a musket ball struck my
left wrist, which made but a slight wound, and at the same
instant I saw the sailmaker, who was stationed at the wheel,
fall, he having received a mortal wound from a charge of
grape.

"In consequence of the helm being left the ship took a

250 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

sheer, by which the sides of the two vessels came into contact,
and the enemy, exasperated at finding himself so long dis-
appointed of his prize by such a handful of men, and with a
hope of ending the contest, took this opportunity of heaving
his boarders into us. I ran to the wheel, and put the helm
apart, which caused us to separate, and his people, many of
whom had established themselves in the main rigging, with
some on the poop, now thought of nothing but securing a
retreat, which we endeavoured to cut off. We pressed them
warmly — some gained their vessel, others jumped overboard
to escape our pikes ; and one man, who had reached the top
of our boarding netting, with whom I had been personally
engaged, now begged for quarter, which of course I granted.
In this conflict I received a severe cutlass wound on the head
from the man alluded to above, who in a state of desperation
from his pistol aim having missed, hove his cutlass at me
with an extraordinary violence which levelled me with the
deck, from which position I prepared to fire at him when he
sued for mercy and obtained it

" Our firing again commenced, but finding the strength of
the enemy much too powerful for us, and with some appre-
hension of defeat should he still attempt to carry us by
boarding, I took the first opportunity of tearing up my private
signal sheet, and hove it overboard together with my instruc-
tions, and gave the master fresh injunctions respecting the
destruction of the mail in case of necessity.

"Our sails and rigging being now rendered nearly useless,
and the ship unmanageable, the enemy was enabled to pursue
his resolve to carry us by heaving the bulk of his crew on
board, and accordingly closed with us on the larboard bow,
which I found it impossible to prevent With an anxious
desire to make every practicable resistance, I was in the act
of running forward to the threatened part of the ship when I
was struck by a musket ball in the upper part of the right
thigh, by which the bone was shattered, and which brought
me once more to the deck. In this state, with a third part
of my crew either killed or wounded, and those my best men,
I consequently gave up all hope of further success in a

xil] THE AMERICAN WAR. 251

contest so very unequally maintained; and waving to the
master to sink the mail, felt a secret relief when I saw that
object accomplished. At the same time one of the people
asked me if he should haul down the ensign, to which I
reluctantly assented. The crew of the Privateer had gained
complete possession of the forecastle and forerigging, and the
remainder of the 'Morgiana's' men fled for shelter. Further
resistance was now out of the question, for more than seventy
men had gained a footing in the Packet, the two vessels
lying yard-locked with each other. I was much weakened
with the loss of blood, which was flowing fast from four wounds,
but had strength to intimate to the first that approached me
that 'we had struck,' but this did not appear to satisfy the
fury of a few, who rushed at me with uplifted cutlasses,
evidently to despatch me altogether, had it not been for the
man to whom I had given quarter. He advanced to check
their rage, begging them to spare my life for having given him
his when I could easily have taken it, and to his timely
interference I am certainly indebted for my existence. . . .
I was now carried below to have my wounds staunched and
examined, when I felt extreme grief to see so many in the
same state. I requested the surgeon to give me his candid
opinion of my thigh, when I was informed that he feared the
wound would be of mortal consequence. I then asked to be
put into my cot, and carried to the upper cabin, which was
done, and from thence I exultingly surveyed the shattered
state of both vessels. Scarce a sail was left to the yards,
every standing or running rope either wounded or carried
away, the sides and spars studded with shot, and everything
a wreck; and I learned from the prize-master that His
Majesty's Packet, armed with eight 9-lb. carronades, and
manned with only thirty-nine persons altogether, which had
only been one month in commission, had been thus contending
for two hours with an enemy carrying sixteen long carriage
guns (chiefly 12-pounders), a powerful train of small-arms, and
a crew of one hundred and thirty-six picked seamen. . . .
" The captain of the Privateer confessed that we had fought
him bravely, nay, desperately, and added (though with no

252 POST- OFFICE PA CKE T SEP VICE. [chap.

idea of complimenting me) that I had fought him too long
with so weak a crew."

The Privateer was the " Saratoga " of New York,
Captain Thomas Adderton. That gentleman, in his
letter to the owners (published in a New York
paper of October 23rd, 181 3), assigned to the
"Morgiana" eighteen guns, presuming perhaps on
the fact that, as was probably the case, she was
pierced for that number of cannon. He did not,
however, attempt to conceal the desperate character
of the resistance which he encountered. " The ' Sara-
toga/" says the letter, "as well as her prize were
made almost wrecks — stays, shrouds, etc., almost all
cut away, and more than a hundred shot-holes
in our mainsail, many in our masts, spars, hull,
etc. . . . They fought desperately, and even beyond
what prudence would dictate." From other sources
it appears that eighteen were killed or wounded on
the Privateer.

The " Morgiana " was conveyed to Newport, Rhode
Island, where Captain Cunninghame was landed on
October 19th. From a letter written by him in the
following March it appears that his wounds still con-
fined him to bed, and that his recovery was even then
uncertain. He did, however, eventually recover;
and was not without friends who could alleviate his
sufferings ; for he states that he received much
kindness from a Mr. Baring, nephew of Sir Francis
Baring, as well as from other persons in Newport

In August, 1 8 14, he was able to appear before

r

xil] THE AMERICAN WAR. 353

a Court of Inquiry held at Falmouth to investigate
the circumstances connected with the loss of the
"Morgiana." The court found, "That the conduct
of Captain Cunninghame on this occasion was that
of a most brave and experienced officer, . . . and
do therefore most strongly recommend him to their
Lordships as highly deserving of their attention."
This recommendation was not neglected; though
indeed Captain Cunninghame would have obtained
a permanent appointment in the Falmouth Service
even if the approval of the Court of Inquiry had
been less strongly expressed. Mr. Freeling needed
no prompting when it was a question of rewarding
bravery, or of securing gallant officers for the
service of the Department

The "Morgiana" had three men killed and nine
wounded ; a heavy loss out of a crew of thirty-nine
men. That loss was, however, exceeded in the
next action, which indeed presents a heavier list of
casualties than any other recounted in these pages.
The fighting was not perhaps more desperate ; but
it would be an ungracious task to measure against
each other the conduct of the crews of the " Towns-
hend," the "Moqjiana," and the "Montagu/'

This action, fought by the " Montagu " in company
with the "Lady Mary Pelham," was one attended
with circumstances which roused an extraordinary
degree of heated feeling not only in Falmouth, but
far beyond; and which involved the Post-Office in
a controversy more troublesome and difficult than

256 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

lieutenant for gallantry in the well-known action
with the "C16opatre" frigate, in which he was
wounded. He served with Pellew in all his actions

*

until the year 1799, and was second lieutenant of
the "Indefatigable" on that January night in 1797,
when, in company with the "Amazon," she fell in
with the "Droits de rHomme," the last remnant of
Hoche's scattered expedition, labouring homeward
full of troops. The circumstances of the action
which ensued will hardly be forgotten by any one
who has read the story in James* work; and for his
conduct in that most memorable fight, Norway was
appointed first lieutenant of his own ship. In this
capacity he served until 1798, when he was invalided
home, but was shortly afterwards appointed to
command a cutter on the Irish station. And when
war broke out afresh he obtained a command at
Portsmouth. He had been made commander in
1802, and in 1806, in consequence of broken health,
was placed on half pay. On recovering he found
his applications for employment disregarded, in
common with those of many other good officers
who lacked interest ; and after having spent several
years fruitlessly in importuning the Admiralty he
resolved to enter the Packet Service, which he
accordingly did, with the advantage of testimonials
of the highest kind.

The " Montagu " made a better passage than
the " Pelham," and at 1.30 P.M. on November 1st
she landed her mails at Funchal. Captain Norway

xii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 257

did not anchor, but stood off and on, waiting for
the mails to be brought on board. Early in the
evening he sdw the " Lady Mary Pelham " to
windward, and made the night signal, but received
no answer. Shortly before 2 A.M. a strange schooner
hove in sight. The crew were called to quarters;
and at 5 A.M. the schooner ran down alongside the
" Montagu," poured in her broadside, received one
in return, and sheered off without much damage on
either side.

The officers of the " Lady Mary Pelham " lying
to under the land heard the firing, which appeared
to them to be coming off shore, but at daybreak
they sighted the " Montagu," whereupon Mr. Carter,
the master, boarded her, and learned what had
occurred. The schooner, which was evidently a
Privateer, lay to all day in sight of the land,
obviously waiting for the Packets, and it was
apparent to everyone that there was going to be a
fight

Both Packets received their mails between 7 and
8 in the evening, and set sail in company without
delay. Nothing was seen of the schooner during
the night, but on the following morning, November
2nd, she appeared in chase, though at some distance.
The crew of the * Montagu " exercised their great
guns, and both Packets were cleared for action.

The wind was moderate, blowing from the east
or north-east; and at 2 p.m. the Privateer was
coming up fast astern under studding sails. Captain

R

258 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Norway, having ordered the " Lady Mary Pelham n
to take up a position ahead of the " Montagu " on
the starboard bow, and within hail, hoisted his
colours, and the crew of both Packets gave three
cheers.

At 2.50 P.M. the " Montagu " opened fire with her
stern chaser (a long 9-pounder), to which the
Privateer replied with her bow guns. This can-
nonade caused little damage on either side ; and
the enemy, continuing to come up quickly with
the " Montagu," was upon her starboard quarter
shortly after 3 o'clock.

A close engagement ensued within half pistol-shot
distance, which was vigorously supported on both
sides. It had lasted only a short time when the
jib-boom of the Privateer ran into the " Montagu's "
main rigging, and a party of twenty boarders came
swarming out along it, dropping from it on the
deck of the Packet A desperate struggle followed,
and the schooner, having brought an 18-pounder
swivel to bear, sent repeated charges of grape and
chain-shot among the Cornishmen. A great number
of the latter were hit Captain Norway was
wounded severely in the leg, but refused to go
below, though the enemy were by this time retreating,
and the Packetsmen drove them back upon the
main-boom, along which they had come. At this
moment by some wrench of the vessels the main-
boom was unshipped, and ten of the retreating
Americans fell into the sea. The rest were either

an.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 259

killed or piked overboard. None of them regained
their own ship.

The affair lasted only a few minutes. Just before
it ended a chain-shot struck Captain Norway in the
body, cutting him almost in two. The surgeon,
Mr. Ure, who saw the captain stagger, ran up to
catch him, but as he held his commander in his
arms his own head was shattered by a round shot,
and the two men fell to the deck together. Two
seamen were killed in this sharp encounter, and
four wounded, so that the force of the " Montagu "
was now reduced to twenty-four men and boys,
while the Americans were still nearly a hundred.

When the captain fell the command devolved on
Mr. Watkins, the master. The Privateer probably
perceived that her true tactics were to remain at
close quarters with one of her antagonists, in which
her great superiority in men gave her an enormous
advantage, and at all hazards to avoid placing her-
self in a position in which both could manoeuvre
round her. Up to this moment, moreover, the
4t Lady Mary Pelham " had taken no part in the
fight. Had she, too, closed with the Privateer the
case of the Americans would have been desperate ;
and they, well knowing this, resolved to make a
final effort to carry the "Montagu" before her
consort had plucked up courage to assist.

Accordingly, the Privateer sheered over on the
larboard quarter of the "Montagu," and prepared
to board in overwhelming numbers. The musketry

2 6o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. ' [chap.

fire from her tops was very galling, and to this the
" Montagu " could make hardly any effectual reply,
having scarcely more men left than were needed to
work the guns. Those few were dropping fast
Mr. Watkin's left hand was shattered by a ball,
and almost immediately afterwards he was shot
through the body, and carried below incapable of
giving any further orders. The mate and the
carpenter were both severely wounded, and the
gunner, Mr. Hensell, was called up from below to
take the command, and do what he could with the
ship. The colours were shot away, but were Im-
mediately re-hoisted. The pendant remained flying
throughout the action.

When the gunner came on deck, seeing nearly
half the crew killed or disabled, and the Americans
preparing to board in great numbers, he judged it
prudent to sink the mail. This was scarcely done
before the enemy were upon them once more, and
the handful of men remaining were summoned to
repulse them. There was a second desperate scuffle.
Four only of the enemy set foot on the deck of
the "Montagu." One was killed as he reached it.
Another was recognized as a Packetsman who had
deserted at New York, and for such as he there
was no quarter. The other two, of whom one was
the first lieutenant of the Privateer, were made
prisoners and sent below.

In this second fight the cook was mortally
wounded, and the total number of casualties brought

xii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 2 6l

up to eighteen — a heavy loss out of a complement
of thirty-two.

It is now necessary to turn to the a Lady Mary
Pelham," which vessel had, it will be remembered,
been ordered by Captain Norway to take up her
station ahead of the "Montagu," on the starboard
bow. From this position an easy manoeuvre would
have laid her also alongside the Privateer.

At this crisis, however, the incompetence of her
lawyer commander began to exhibit itself. His
orders betrayed so absolute an ignorance of the
management of a ship in action that after some
precious minutes had been wasted Mr. Carter and
Mr. Pocock, the master and the mate, jointly
represented to him the propriety of deputing to the
former the conduct of the fight. They understood
that he had done so; but at the moment when the
seamanship of Mr. Carter was about to repair the
follies of the commander, the helm was suddenly
shifted, and the "Lady Mary Pelham" sheered
away from the fight

Mr. Carter attributed this alteration of the ship's
course to cowardice on the part of the steersman;
and knowing only one punishment for such an
action in presence of the enemy, he ran towards
him, drawing a pistol as he did so, when the man
cried out, "Don't kill me, sir, it was the captain's
order." The proper position of the Packet could
not be regained until all the fighting which has
been described had occurred. The "Lady Mary

262 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Pelham " then, however, intervened, and maintained
a cannonade for some time. She was not engaged
close alongside ; she sustained very slight damages ;
her captain received a ball through his thigh, and
one seaman was slightly hurt There were no other
casualties.

The Privateer sheered off soon after four o'clock.
She was evidently much damaged ; and both the
Packets chased her, but she outsailed them.

The official papers from which the foregoing
account is taken are very bulky. They contain
many positive declarations of irreconcilable facts,
with accusations and insinuations, which, as Mr.
Freeling said in deprecating their publication, would
inevitably lead to one or more duels if they should
become known. The present writer has desired to
record only those facts which are not open to
dispute, and he believes that the story as told above
is demonstrably true.

The lawyer, whom an unkind destiny had placed
temporarily in a position for which he was utterly
unfit, made many charges against most of the
persons concerned in this affair. His conduct was
emphatically condemned by his own officers, and
needs no further comment

Of Captain Norway, Mr. Freeling, who was
certainly better qualified than any other person to
form an impartial opinion, wrote in the following
terms to the Postmaster General on receiving news
of the action : "Your Lordship's Service, distinguished

xil] THE AMERICAN WAR. 263

as it is, cannot boast a more gallant officer, a better
seaman, or a more honourable man." Two years
later, when the commander of the "Lady Mary
Pelham" thought fit to have his case brought up
in Parliament, and a member speaking in his interest
had used some words depreciating Captain Norway's
seamanship, Mr. Freeling observed : " The reputation
of Captain Norway stands too high to be assailed

by anything which the partizans of Mr. can

say. In conduct and in character he was alike
irreproachable." About the same time a merchant
who had been in the Canary Islands at the time
when the Privateer put in there to refit after the
action, and had availed himself of opportunities of
hearing the story from the American officers, wrote
to Mr. Freeling a letter which is still extant, and
which remarkably confirms the account of the affair
which has just been given.

The Privateer was the "Globe" of Baltimore,
Captain Moon. The total loss was not ascertained,
but it was known that out of thirty-nine men
engaged in the two boarding assaults on the
"Montagu" not one had escaped. The crew of the
" Montagu " had, therefore, disposed of considerably
more than man for man of their number.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE AMERICAN WAR.

It is now necessary to revert briefly to the state of
the postal communications with northern Europe,
which, when the subject was last mentioned in the
ninth chapter of this work, were stated to depend
on the chances of a system of smuggling organized
from the newly acquired island of Heligoland.
Within two years from that time (1807) the contra-
band trade had increased along the whole coast of
the North Sea and the Baltic in an astonishing
degree. Bourrienne, who was still at Hamburg, and
who did not love the continental system, on which
his master relied for striking his "mortal blow" at
England, remarks with a half-sympathetic amuse-
ment how very little difference that system made
in postal and commercial arrangements when once
the smugglers had become expert "The continental
system," he observes, " had made the smuggler's trade
a necessity, so that a great part of the population
depended on it for subsistence." Moreover, not
goods alone, but news also circulated pretty freely

chap, xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 265

from England in 1809, and correspondence addressed
to merchants in the German towns was posted by
agents despatched from Heligoland to Embden,
Knipphausen, Varel, and other towns.

In truth, the great barricade proved little better
than a trellis, penetrable anywhere by those who
possessed the necessary courage and audacity. A
good supply of those qualities was of course needed,
for the trade was risky; and yet the disposition of
the country people, which was strongly hostile to
the French Customs officers, did much to rob it of
its dangers. So determined were the people to
obtain the English goods that they did not hesitate
to take arms against the over-zealous Customs
agents; and at Brinksham, in July, 1809, when the
officers had seized no less than eighteen wagons
loaded with English goods, the peasantry rose in
force, recaptured the wagons, and escorted the goods
to their destination.

To keep apart, on the one hand, a people so
resolute to trade, and, on the other, a nation whose
prosperity, if not its existence, depended on main-
taining its commercial supremacy, something more
was needed than a paper decree and a staff of Cus-
toms officers. " The trade with Oldenburgh," writes
Bourrienne, " was carried on as uninterruptedly as in
time of peace. English letters and newspapers arrived
on the continent, and those of the continent found
their way into Great Britain, as if France and England
had been united by ties of the firmest friendship."

266 POST-OFFICE FA CKET SER VICE. [chap.

Such was the testimony of the man who of all
others was best qualified to appreciate the enterprise
and skill with which the operations of the Post-Office
were conducted in these troublous days. It may,
no doubt, be true that the credit of this success
is to be divided between the Post-Office and private
persons; for the merchants, in their constant com-
munications with the smugglers, doubtless entrusted
to them a considerable number of letters which had
not passed through the British Post-Office. When
all deductions are made, however, one cannot fairly
refuse to Mr. Freeling and his colleagues the praise
due to success in a perilous and difficult under-
taking.

Circumstances which had already turned the
peaceful officials of the Post-Office into arbiters
of battles, had now made them smugglers, con-
trollers of a series of operations as wild, as dangerous,
and as picturesque as any which have been conducted
within the limits of history. They took up their
new parts with a happy adaptability, and played
them with a degree of skill and resource which
must always be remembered as constituting one of
the greatest achievements in the past history of
the Post-Office. When to this success is added
the credit of having evolved out of the chaos of
disorder and misrule which existed at Falmouth
when he entered on office, a Service which could
boast of such triumphs as those which have been
described in this book, one is inclined to credit

XIII.]

THE AMERICAN WAR.

267

Mr. Freeling with capacities for administration which
have not often been surpassed.

Only once after 1803 did any Packet surrender
to the enemy without a resistance which was
obviously the utmost that she could offer. In that
single instance a captain of old service and of
honourable record, both won by himself and in-
herited from his father, was cashiered for cowardice
in the face of the enemy. Such incidents will
happen occasionally in every body of men trained
to war; and, even if it could be proved that the
officer was rightly punished, there would be no
occasion to make much of a solitary exception.
The justice of his treatment was, however, very
strongly questioned ; and as all, or nearly all, the
official papers which contain the evidence have
been lost, the facts can never now be fully stated.

There was no other commander whose conduct
was even doubtful, and as report followed report,
each bringing the news of some fresh feat of
gallantry against great odds, the satisfaction and
pride of My Lords and Mr. Freeling mounted very
high.

Early in November, 18 13, the "Lapwing" sailed
from Falmouth for Barbados, under command of
Captain Furze. The " Lapwing " had been captured
earlier in the year, and stripped of her guns. When
she came to be refitted at Falmouth, it happened,
unfortunately, that the store-keeper could not supply
the long brass 9-pounders, " Post-Office guns," which

268 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

the Atlantic Packets used as chasers, and which
had done them yeomen's service in many a hard
fight. Captain Furze would have willingly given
any other three guns in exchange for the "Post-
Office guns" which he lacked. However, he could
obtain only one long 6-pounder to serve as a
chaser, and six 6-pounder carronades — a scanty
weight of metal with which to run the gauntlet
of the most heavily armed Privateers yet seen on
the seas.

All went well until the voyage was nearly over;
but on November 22nd, when the coast of Barbados
was in sight, the "Lapwing" was chased by an
American Privateer, the "Fox," which brought her
to action towards evening about three miles from
shore.

It was now that Captain Furze had reason to
lament the want of his two brass guns, by the aid of
which he felt confident that he could have crippled
his enemy. At any rate, the lack of all effective
means of attacking her rigging before she closed
took away his only chance of success; for the
result of an action alongside could not have been
doubtful to the least experienced sailor. The "Fox,"
it is true, mounted only five guns, but three of
these were long 12-pounders, and two were heavy
carronades, while all five were mounted on circular
platforms amidships, so that they could be directed
with ease on any point, thus giving them a united
power much greater than their weight The

xm.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 269

"Lapwing's" guns, on the other hand, could be
fired only through her ports, which meant that
in a close fight, only three could be in action at
one time. Moreover, the " Fox " carried a hundred
and seven men, of whom no less than seventy were
in her tops armed with muskets, and these marksmen
kept up a constant fire throughout the action, doing
great execution. The "Lapwing," out of a crew
of thirty-two men and boys, could spare but few
from the handling of the ship and the service of
the guns.

However, in a fight so close to port, there was
always the chance that the sound of cannon might
attract some friendly cruiser; and Captain Furze
answered the summoning gun with a broadside.
The American immediately ran down and closed.
A desperate fight followed. After the cannonade
had lasted some considerable time, the American
captain seized a favourable opportunity, and hurled
his boarders into the Packet. They were bravely
met with pike and musket, and in the end repulsed
with loss. A second time the stormers came
swarming up the "Lapwing's" nettings, and again
they were driven back. But by this second success
the small numbers of the Post-Office men were
sensibly diminished, while the musketry fire from
the enemy's tops made itself severely felt. Four
of Captain Furze's men lay dead, eight more were
in the hands of the surgeon, and others were falling
fast Mr. Henry Senior, an ensign in the 60th

270 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Regiment, who was on board as a passenger, was
shot through the thigh. A musket ball broke
Captain Furze's arm, and he had barely gone
. below to have his hurt tended, when Mr. Hodge,
the master, who had been left in command on deck,
was brought down, shot through both thighs. The
resistance had lasted three hours. Half the crew
of the Packet were disabled, and, near as the coast
of Barbados was, there appeared no sign of succour.
Captain Furze reluctantly concluded that it was
hopeless to prolong the struggle, and he ordered
the mails to be sunk, and the colours to be struck.

Unfortunate as the result of this action was,
Captain Furze received considerable credit for the
gallant resistance he had made, and there can be
no doubt that this credit was fully earned.

Very early in the new year the Falmouth Service
sustained a heavy loss by the capture of the
" Townshend," which had been so nobly defended
by Captain Cock hardly more than a year before.
She was on her way to Lisbon, when she fell in
with the French frigate "La Clorinde," an ancient
enemy of the Packets, which had certainly captured
one at least before, and had not improbably been
detached to cruise in their track, in the hope of
intercepting despatches. That this was her object
on the present occasion admitted of little doubt,
for when "La Clorinde" overhauled the "Townshend,"
she concealed her nationality, though no resistance was
offered, ran up Portuguese colours, and sent off a boat.

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 271

Some officers might have been deceived, but
Captain Cock was too experienced to be entrapped
by so artless a device. He had caused the mails
to be brought on deck as soon as the chase began.
The bags, heavily shotted, lay beside an open port-
hole, and a sailor was told off to throw them
overboard the moment the captain gave the signal.
The boat drew nearer, and Captain Cock, while it
was yet at a safe distance, hailed in Portuguese,
which he spoke fluently. The halting accent of the
answer told him he had no Portuguese to deal with.
He raised his hand. The mails slid into the water;
and before the angry Frenchman came on board,
despatches and commercial letters were safely
delivered at the bottom of the sea.

The disappointed tricksters revenged themselves
by scuttling the " Townshend," and Captain Cock
had the grief of seeing the ship, which he had
fought so bravely, sunk ingloriously in mid-ocean.
He and his crew were taken on board " La
Clorinde," where for ten days they were allowed a
good deal of freedom, and enjoyed an excellent
opportunity of studying the internal discipline of a
French ship of war. They were not favourably
impressed with what they saw; and the near
prospect of a French prison made them gloomy
enough. It is easy, therefore, to imagine their
feelings when on the tenth day, an English 38-gun
frigate, the "Eurotas," commanded by Captain
Phillimore, hove in sight.

272 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

Captain Cock was convinced from what he had
observed on the French ship that however suitable
she might be for capturing Packets, she was by no
means a match for any English frigate of her own
size and class, and he begged to be allowed to
remain on deck to witness the action. This was
not permitted. He and his brave crew were
conducted down into the hold, where they remained
listening with exultation to the roar of cannon and
the din of musketry. For a long time they had
no means of discovering which way fortune was
inclining, until Captain Cock, wearied of pacing up
and down, threw himself back against the mizzen
mast, and felt it tremble. He listened attentively,
and a moment later he heard the crash of its fall.
He sprang up and placed his ear to the mainmast.
In a very short time that also began "to beat,
tremble, and shake/' and ere long a second crash
announced its fall. With what impatient eager-
ness the prisoners heard these evidences of their
countrymen's success may be imagined. They
could scarcely believe that "La Clorinde" was not
captured, and every moment they hoped to be
released. But to their intense disappointment the
noise of battle died away, and no tidings reached
them.

At last Captain Cock was summoned on deck.
He found the ship had suffered terribly in the
action, though her English antagonist could claim
little advantage over her in this respect, being

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 273

likewise dismasted, and lying a mile or two away.
Night had fallen. The "Eurotas" appeared in a
blaze of light. Lanterns were hung all over her;
blue lights were being burnt, and from time to time
a rocket shot up into the sky. The French captain
consulted Captain Cock as to the meaning of this
illumination. Were the lanterns signals of distress ?
Did Captain Cock think the "Eurotas" was sink-
ing, and, if so, could they offer any assistance?
Captain Cock had formed a shrewd guess as to
why Captain Phillimore wanted all this light, but
he was discreet enough to hold his tongue, and
professed an entire inability to divine what was
going on. In the morning the mystery was cleared
up ; for the dawn revealed to the astonished French-
men their crippled foe of the previous evening
coming up in the handsomest style at the rate of
seven knots under jury masts, which her crew had
worked throughout the night in rigging up, while
another English cruiser, the "Dryad," attracted by
the rockets, was standing down, and would evidently
come into action before the " Eurotas," which during
the night had drifted to a considerable distance.
"La Clorinde," in her shattered state could make
only two knots, and was incapable of defending
herself adequately against a perfectly fresh anta-
gonist Captain Phillimore had thus the mortification
of seeing the work which he had begun taken out '
of his hands, and all the great exertions of the night

rendered fruitless.

s

274 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Captain Cock, who by this fortunate turn of affairs
regained his liberty, did not live to fight more
battles for the Post-Office. Worn out by hardships,
he died a few months later. Shortly before his
death he received from the Prince Regent of
Portugal, who understood better than his -own
government how to acknowledge faithful and
devoted public service, a gold medal of honour
and the military Order of the Sword; but White-
hall had no distinctions for officers of the Packet
Service.

The circumstances of the action next to be narrated
are very singular.

On the 1 2th March the "Duke of Marlborough,"
under the command of Captain John Bull in person,
was off Cape Finisterre on her passage to Lisbon.
At one o'clock in the afternoon a strange brig was
seen from the masthead, laying to with her head
to the eastward. At three o'clock this vessel hoisted
her mainsailtand bore down on the " Marlborough,"
which accordingly altered her course and made all
sail to avoid an encounter. At the same time
Captain Bull made the private signal, and kept it
flying. The signal was not answered; and without
further delay the crew of the " Marlborough " were
called to quarters, the boarding nettings were got
up, and stuffed with spare sails, hammocks, and
mattresses; the topsail-sheets were stoppered; and
a spare topsail-yard was slung across the stern for
a boarding boom. At four o'clock the brig hoisted

v^^v^^^^-^^^m^^^^mmmmmmmma^*^

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 275

a blue ensign, yawed, and fired two guns to lee-
ward, and shortly afterwards hauled down the blue
ensign, and hoisted another which Captain Bull and
his officers believed to be American, but which they
could not distinguish clearly. These details have
an important bearing on the event.

Thereupon, since an action appeared to be inevi-
table, the " Marlborough's " private signal was hauled
down, and her colours hoisted. It was then growing
dark, and Captain Bull made the private night signal,
consisting of two blue lights, one on each quarter.
This signal also remained unanswered; and as he
was in the act of making it, Captain Bull plainly
saw in the gathering darkness a match put to a
gun on the forecastle of the approaching vessel,
which was then full in view right astern of the
Packet.

By this time the round shot from the brig were
going over the "Marlborough." Captain Bull cut
away his boat so as to free the stern guns, and
fired each of them twice. He then hoisted a lantern
at the mizzenpeak, and waited for the enemy to
come up. The strange vessel soon came up
abreast of the Packet and poured in her starboard
broadside with round and grape shot at half pistol-
shot distance. The "Duke of Marlborough" was
not slow in replying ; and the action was continued
hotly for an hour and a quarter, when the enemy
bore down and attempted to board the "Duke of
Marlborough " on the starboard quarter. On coming

276 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

up, however, his bow struck the boarding boom,
which Captain Bull's forethought had provided, and
compelled him to sheer off. The Falmouth men
improved this advantage by firing their two brass
guns and several muskets right into their enemy;
and, as the two vessels were almost grazing each
other at the time, they doubtless did, as they
supposed, great execution.

The enemy thereupon hauled off to repair
damages; and Captain Bull, examining the injury
which his own ship had received, found that a
32-pound shot had passed between wind and water,
that there were already three feet and a half of
water in the hold, and that the leak was increasing
fast The carpenter was sent below to endeavour
to stop it, and the pumps were being actively
worked, when, at nine o'clock, the enemy ran down
and renewed the action at close quarters. The fire
of her heavy guns had by this time reduced the
"Duke of Marlborough" to a mere wreck. The
running and standing rigging was cut and torn in
every direction; the Packet was almost unmanage-
able, and in a half-sinking state. Her lantern was
twice shot away; but a fresh one was prepared,
and for greater security lashed fast to the main-boom.
No less than eleven of Captain Bull's men had been
wounded; one of them had lost both arms, and
several others were seriously hurt. Lieutenant
Andrews, of the 60th Regiment, a passenger on
his way to Lisbon, was killed after showing great

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 277

bravery throughout the action. Notwithstanding
these losses, however, and the manifest superiority
of the enemy, the Cornishmen were quite prepared
to fight it out ; and when, after another close contest
of fifty minutes, resulting in no obvious advantage
to either side, the enemy hailed them, asking, " What
ship is that?" Captain Bull, not choosing to own
his inferiority of force, replied, "His Majesty's
brig ' Vixen,* " demanded the name of the other,
and must have doubted his ears when he received
the answer, " His Majesty's brig ' Primrose.' " There
was a pause ; then another hail was heard from the
" Primrose," asking again with what ship she had
been contending. To this question, there being now
no object in evasion, Captain Bull replied by stating
the name and service of his vessel ; and was desired
to make the private signal, which he did. It was at
once answered ; and the captain of the " Primrose "
thereupon requested Captain Bull to come on board.
Being informed that the "Duke of Marlborough's"
boat had been cut away, he sent his own; but
Captain Bull allowed no one except the lieutenant
in command to come on deck until he had satisfied
himself that the vessel he had to do with was really
an English cruiser. When he was convinced of this
he went on board the " Primrose " ; and on returning
to his own vessel found that five 32-pound shot had
gone through her side close to the water's edge;
so that he was obliged to get immediate assistance
from the carpenters of his late antagonist

278 POST OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

That the "Duke of Marlborough" was much
shattered in this action is not surprising. What is
really extraordinary is that she was not blown out
of the water at an early stage of the affair. The
" Primrose " carried sixteen 32-pound carronades, one
12-pound carronade on the forecastle, and two long
6-pounders. Her crew consisted of one hundred
and twenty-five men. The "Marlborough" carried
twelve guns, mostly 6-pounders, and none heavier
than nine, with thirty-two men and boys. She had
also on board seven male passengers ; but it is not
stated that any of these took part in the action,
except Lieutenant Andrews, who was unfortunately
killed.

On the arrival of the " Duke of Marlborough " at
Lisbon, the passengers, feeling grateful to Captain
Bull not only for his gallantry, but also for his
kind treatment of the ladies who were on board,
presented him with a sword, and distributed four
hundred dollars among the crew.

The account of this action given by James {Naval
History, Vol. VI., page 278, ed. 1837) is not written
with the evident desire to be fair which that historian
usually evinced. The story as told by him suggests
that Captain Bull was solely, or at least chiefly to
blame; and as the Post-Office came to a totally
different conclusion, while the Admiralty itself cen-
sured Captain Phillott, and made no complaint
concerning Captain Bull, it cannot be presumptuous
to question the accuracy of Mr. James* conclusion.

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 279

In an earlier edition of his history it appears that an
account more favourable to Captain Bull appeared;
but in the edition of 1837 this account was revised ;
and the author states that when the former one was
written, he had not seen the minutes of the court-
martial on Captain Phillott As reference is thus
pointedly made to the court-martial, it would 'have
been more candid to notice the fact that the finding
of that court imputed negligence to Captain Phillott.
The sentence of the court, held at Plymouth on April
1 6th, 1 8 14, was in the following words: "The Court
is of opinion that the circumstance of the * Duke of
Marlborough* being in moderate weather without
any lower studding sails, and with her royal masts
down, appears to have left the Prisoner, Captain
Phillott, and the officers of the 'Primrose/ under
an impression that she was a merchant vessel;
and the very small size of the flag and pendant
used by the Packet in making the private signal,
and the top-gallant sail being close up to the
mast-head, may reasonably account for not seeing
the signal; and the night private signal made by
the Packet, viz., two false fires, appears not to have
been seen on board the 'Primrose.' But the Court
is of opinion that when the Packet was found to
be an armed vessel, by firing a stern chase gun, it
was the duty of the Prisoner to have made the
private signal And the Court laments that the
then near approach of the vessel induced Captain
Phillott to prefer hailing the Packet ; and this Court

2 8o POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

doth therefore judge the said Captain Phillott to
be admonished to be more circumspect in future."
This is the whole sentence, the preamble only
being omitted. It will be observed that while the
circumstances favourable to Captain Phillott are
duly brought forward, no word is said in condem-
nation of Captain Bull. If anything had been
elicited at the court-martial which cast blame on
the Packet, the Admiralty, which was never very
favourably disposed towards the Post-Office Service,
would at once have forwarded a copy of the
pleadings to the Postmaster General, with a request
that Captain Bull might be punished. Nothing,
however, was heard at the Post-Office of the result
of the court-martial until ten days had passed,
when Mr. Freeling wrote and asked for it It
was then sent to him, with a short covering letter,
which contained absolutely no comment whatever.

Probably it is not necessary to go beyond these
indisputable facts in defence of Captain Bull; but
a few comments upon the account given by James
may not be misplaced. His unfavourable verdict
on the "Duke of Marlborough " appears to be
based on four circumstances : (i) that she had
no lower studding sails or royals set when the
"Primrose" first sighted her; (2) that no one on
board the Packet, except the gunner, knew the
difference between a blue light and a false fire;
(3) that whereas Captain Phillott hailed once, and
his second lieutenant (who had a loud voice) twice.

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 2 8l

the hail was answered only by a broadside; (4)
that the flags used by the Packet were only half
the established size. The first of these points was
carefully investigated by the Court of Inquiry at
Falmouth, which obtained from Captain Bull a
written statement of his reasons for having his
royal masts on deck. The explanation was per-
fectly natural and clear; and whereas it was
admitted that Captain Phillott, not knowing the
circumstances, might have been misled, Captain
Bull pointed out that the square rig of the "Duke
of Marlborough" ought to have shown that she
was no merchantman. The second point is of no
value. It is not probable that so experienced an
officer as Captain Bull was ignorant of any detail
connected with the private signals which were so
important to the safety of his ship. Even Mr.
James admits that the gunner had proper know-
ledge on the subject. If the night signal had been
made in an improper manner, the court-martial
would have adduced that fact in support of Captain
Phillott. A signal was certainly made on the
Packet, whether with blue lights or false fires.
The officers of the " Primrose " alleged that they
did not see it That could scarcely be the case;
since the vessels were so near at the time that
Captain Bull, who assisted in making the signal,
distinctly saw the match put to a gun on board
the sloop of war. No hail was heard on board the
Packet, until the action had lasted more than two

282 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE, [chap.

hours, as already described. It is difficult to believe
that the " Primrose " really hailed three times before
opening fire. There were upon the Packet many
persons who had an interest in avoiding an engage-
ment; there was not one who had the slightest
motive for forcing one. Several passengers were
on board ; two of them were accompanied by their
wives. If these gentlemen had heard English voices
hailing them, can it be supposed that they would
not have interfered, and done all in their power to
stop the fight? So far, however, from showing the
least dissatisfaction with Captain Bull's conduct,
even when they learned with what vessel he had
been contending, they united in an address of
gratitude to him, in which they used the following
terms : " No words which we can make use of can
sufficiently convey to you an idea of our admiration
of your conduct and that of your gallant crew. ..."
They marked this admiration by presenting the
captain with a sword of honour. These were the
persons chiefly injured by negligence on the part of
Captain Bull, if any such charge could be sustained ;
and this is how they estimated his conduct, being
in the best possible position for judging of it As
for the fourth point, the ensign and pendant were
produced at the Court of Inquiry at Falmouth.
The pendant was thirty feet long ; the ensign was
nine feet four inches by four feet six inches, and
was larger than was usual in the Packet Service.
James remarks with some complacency that

xin.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 283

"the damages received by the 'Marlborough/ as
admitted by Captain Bull and his officers, were of
a very serious nature." No admission from anybody
is needed to show that when a vessel carrying
sixteen 32-pounders and three other guns (James
does not count the 12-pounder at the forecastle)
engages one armed with twelve 6 and 9-pounders,
the latter must suffer very heavily. It is astonishing,
and by no means creditable to the " Primrose," that
her heavier metal did not end the action at a very
early stage. James admits that "owing to the
manoeuvres of the 'Duke of Marlborough/ the
' Primrose ' found a difficulty in firing with any
effect." Very probably she did: Captain Bull was
an excellent seaman, and could not be expected to
heave to in order to present an easier mark to the
gunners of the " Primrose." The fair judgment upon
his proceedings on this occasion is that he acted
like a good sailor and a brave commander. This
was certainly the opinion of Mr. Freeling, and few
people were more competent to judge.

On May 1st, 1814, the " Hinchinbrooke," to which
Packet Captain James, so often distinguished as
master of the "Duke of Marlborough," had been
promoted, was on her homeward passage from St.
Thomas, and had reached the neighbourhood of the
Azores — a favourite cruising ground of the American
Privateers, and one on which their ravages were
long unchecked by the presence of any British
man-of-war — when the look-out at the masthead

J

284 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

reported a suspicious-looking vessel to the eastward.
The strange sail drew rapidly nearer. At half-past
four she hoisted American colours, and was drawing
on fast She fired no gun, nor was any hail heard ;
and as Captain James bade his men reserve their
fire for closer quarters, the two ships neared each
other in grim silence for the best part of an hour.
At twenty minutes past five they lay within pistol
shot distance, and, as if at a preconcerted signal,
the two broadsides roared out in the same moment.

_ «

On this followed a tremendous cannonade. The
American carried sixteen heavy guns, the calibre
of which could not be ascertained. They were,
however, certainly of greater weight than the
" Hinchinbrooke's " 9-pounder carronades, and at the
short range at which they were discharged, did
great execution on the Packet's hull and rigging.
This lasted for an hour; at the end of which time
the Packet had suffered so much that Captain James
was scarcely able, if he had wished it, to avoid the
boarding attack which he saw the Americans were
preparing. Indeed, confident in the strength of his
nettings, and in the quality of his small handful of
men, he may possibly have even welcomed the
prospect of a hand-to-hand fight, wherein his men,
who were doubtless growing restive under the long
pounding of guns heavier than their own, might
work off their suppressed fury, and perhaps gain
an encouraging success. The assault was quickly
upon them, delivered in great numbers, and with

xili.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 285

all the impetuosity which the Americans evinced in
these attacks. Had the nettings been one whit less
lofty, or less firmly secured, the Privateersmen must
have gained a footing on the Packet's deck. As it
was, impassable though the nettings were, the small
band of picked men led by Captain James to repulse
them suffered heavily, one being slain outright, while
three others, who could very ill be spared, received
disabling wounds.

Relieved for the moment from the apprehension
of boarders, Captain James could turn his attention
to the state of his ship, which by this time had
received serious injury. The Privateer had drawn
off again to a little distance, and her heavy shot
were crashing into the "Hinchinbrooke's" sides in
a manner which justified anxiety. Already several
shot had passed between wind and water. The
carpenter was one of the men badly wounded in
repelling the boarders ; and as the ship was reported
to be making water fast, Captain James sent the
master below, ill as he could spare him from the
deck, with instructions to search for the leaks and
endeavour to stop them.

The master found that the ship was in danger of
sinking ; and, what was almost worse, that the water
had already entered the magazine and was spoiling
the powder. There was no time to be lost He
returned on deck and asked for a party of men to
help him in removing it to the after cabin. It was
a difficult matter for Captain James to find these

286 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

men. In the interval of the master's absence from
deck five more men had been hit, and the number
available for fighting the ship was now lamentably
small. Two or three sailors were, however, told off
for the purpose, while the Americans, observing that
several men had left the deck, seized the moment,
and cast their boarders a second time upon the
sides of the " Hinchinbrooke " with more fury than
before, covered by a tremendous fire of great guns
and of small arms from her tops. Reduced in
numbers as they were, the Falmouth men succeeded
in beating back this second assault as they did the
first, and then, quite suddenly, came Captain James 1
chance.

Throughout the action up to this point the
Privateer had chosen her position as she pleased,
being a much faster vessel than the Packet But
this very quality of speed now served her ill,
for, when the ships separated, on the failure of
the boarders, the American shot ahead. Instantly
Captain James saw his opportunity, and, without a
moment's loss of time he luffed under his opponent's
stern, and raked her in succession with each of his
three larboard guns, loaded with a treble charge.
What execution he did by this manoeuvre he could
not judge, but it was probably deadly, for it shook
off his enemy's hold Very shortly after it occurred
the Cornishmen had the satisfaction of seeing her
haul her wind to the northward, and she gave them
no more trouble.

in.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 287

Thus ended this brave and well-fought action, con-
ducted against heavy odds with a courage beyond
all praise. The exact force of the Privateer was
not ascertained. She carried sixteen guns, which
may probably have been 12-pounders, and was
"full of men." It is scarcely likely that her crew
numbered less than a hundred and twenty men;
and, accepting that not excessive estimate, it must
be allowed that for Captain James, with his eight
9-pounders and thirty-two men, to fight so strong
a vessel for three hours, and to beat her in the
end, was creditable to the last degree.

Captain Furze, who defended the " Lapwing " so
gallantly at the end of 1813, was incapacitated by
his severe wound from serving during the early
part of the following year. On his recovery he
was appointed to the "Chesterfield/ 9 and towards
Christmas sailed once more out of Falmouth with
mails for Surinam.

The voyage passed without incident until January
4th, when the " Chesterfield " had entered the
cruising ground of the American Privateers. Early
in the morning when Madeira was well in sight, a
strange schooner was spied from the masthead,
and ere long it was manifest that she was chasing
the Packet, and gaining on her fast

The morning wore away before Captain Furze
had convinced himself that escape was impossible,
but being at last fully satisfied of the necessity of
fighting, he took in his studding-sails and awaited

288 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

the attack. The schooner, as she came nearer, was
seen to be a formidable antagonist, mounting six-
teen guns, and having her decks literally crowded
with men. She was flying American colours, which
fact of itself was enough to show the Packetsmen
that if they were to save their vessel and their
liberty, it would be no child's play that they had
to face.

The unfortunate result of Captain Furze's former
action in the * Lapwing" was attributed, as will be
remembered, to the fact that he had been obliged
to sail from Falmouth without the two long brass
9-pounders which the Atlantic Packets used as
chasers, and with which he believed he could have
kept the enemy at a respectful distance. On the
present occasion he had his guns; but, as if some
destiny were resolved to equalize the conditions of
the two fights, the slide of one of the 9-pounders
broke at the second discharge, and the gun was
thenceforth useless. The remaining one was served
with redoubled vigour, but it was not enough to
keep off a determined enemy, and about one o'clock
the action was in full progress.

At half-past one the enemy came close up under
the larboard quarter of the " Chesterfield," with the
evident intention of boarding; whereupon Captain
Furze put the helm hard a-starboard, and gave him
the larboard broadside. The guns were skilfully
pointed, and must have done great damage, for
the American sheered off in some confusion, and

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 289

resumed her cannonade at pistol-shot distance,
pouring in also a fire of musketry, which, from
whatever reason, did less execution on the Packet
than was usual on such occasions. One man was
killed about two o'clock, and shortly afterwards two
others were severely wounded. But these casualties,
which were the only ones throughout the action,
were not in proportion to the number of the
enemy's sharpshooters, and were insufficient to
discourage the Packetsmen.

A more serious misfortune was that a round shot
dismounted one of the "Chesterfield's" guns, thus
reducing her broadside to two guns. By dint of
great exertions, however, two guns were brought
over from the starboard side (the Packets were
always pierced for more guns than they carried),
and the lost ground was quickly recovered. Indeed,
the fire of the Cornish gunners was so steady and
continuous that the Americans seem to have had
no further opportunity of attempting to board, and
confined themselves to endeavouring to cripple their
plucky little opponent. At this game the Cornish-
men were as good as their enemies; and after the
action had lasted for three hours, Captain Furze
had the gratification of seeing that the fire of the
Privateer was gradually lessening. About four
o'clock she hoisted her squaresail, and made off,
apparently much damaged ; though had she per-
\ sisted a little longer, she might possibly have been

rewarded by success, for the "Chesterfield" was

290 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

left in a sorry plight. Her mainmast was very
badly wounded, not a single brace or bowline left
intact. Her sails were hanging torn in every
direction, and the number of shot lodged in her
hull testified plainly enough to the severity of the
struggle. However, the ship was still quite sea-
worthy, and after such repairs as the stores on
board enabled Captain Furze to make, she resumed
her voyage, and reached Surinam without further
mishap.

In the course of this year, 18 14, some fresh dis-
turbances among the seamen at Falmouth revealed
the fact that the lesson taught by the removal of
the Packets to Plymouth in 18 10 had already been
in part forgotten.

On the 1 2th July, when the "Speedy" Packet
had completed her complement of men, had taken
her mails on board, and was about to slip her
moorings, a number of her crew refused to join the
vessel, and, headed by the gunner, went to the
agent's office and demanded their discharge. Being
asked for their reasons, they had nothing better to
say than that they did not like the voyage, and
that if they were to go upon it they must have
more pay. The agent, willing to concede whatever
was possible, paid them a month's wages in advance,
whereupon they became more riotous and intractable
than before. Seeing that they were quickly passing
out of his control, being in fact in a state of
excitement which made them for the time quite

xiil] THE AMERICAN WAR. 291

inaccessible to reason, the agent sent a message to
the captain of the Guardship; and in an hour two
strong parties were scouring every alley and public-
house in the town in search of the malingering
seamen of the " Speedy," but could find no trace
of them-. Nor was this surprising, for the deserters
were all Falmouth men, and the old town contained
hiding-places which more careful searchers than
the press-gangs might have failed to discover.

Meanwhile, Captain Sutherland, who commanded
the "Speedy," had engaged other men at unusually
high rates of pay, to take the place of the missing
ones. But these new men were resolved not to
fall short of the high example set before their
eyes, and they too decamped as soon as they had
secured a payment in advance.

It was impossible to allow the mails to suffer
delay from conduct such as this, and in order to
demonstrate that the Service could go on very well
without the Falmouth sailors, the "Speedy" was
sent round to Plymouth, where she completed her
crew without difficulty. This reminder of the ease
with which the prosperity of Falmouth, dependent
as it was chiefly on the Packets, could be destroyed
by their removal, had a very sobering effect. The
sense of insecurity which outbreaks of this kind
created in the minds of the authorities was, however,
a grave misfortune for Falmouth, contributing, as
it doubtless did, to the formation of the scheme
which a few years later placed the Service under

^v

29a POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

Admiralty control, and ultimately removed it from
Falmouth altogether.

It is scarcely possible within the limits of a work
such as this to describe all the gallant fights of
the Falmouth vessels in the period under considera-
tion. The conditions of naval warfare in those
days were simple, the incidents of one sea-fight
resembled ' another, and the recital of them is apt
to become wearisome, unless kept within narrow
limits. There is one fortunate little action which
may, however, be described before the subject is
closed; a fight which is less remarkable for the
desperate or bloody character of the fighting than
for the breezy confidence with which the Falmouth
commander took his ship into action, and the skill
or good luck which brought him through it with
absolute success.

The " Walsingham," under the temporary command
of Mr. William Nicholls, was on her way to Barbados,
and about a hundred miles distant from that island,
when a sail was seen from the masthead standing
towards the Packet It was not long before the
strange vessel was made out to be a schooner under
easy sail, having her fore-topsail close reefed. In
those seas any vessel of such a class was far more
likely to be a privateer than a peaceful trader;
and Mr. Nicholls, who was well aware of this,
turned the hands to quarters and cleared the ship
for action while the stranger was still hull down
on the horizon.

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR.

293

A short time made it plain that the "Walsing-
ham" was the inferior sailer, and that the other
vessel was overhauling her fast, keeping her wind
until she got upon the Packet's quarter, about two
miles away, when she fired a gun, and hoisted a
blue English ensign. This was a favourite trick
with Privateers, the only object being to gain time
and the choice of positions; but Mr. Nicholls had
not sailed those waters from his boyhood without
having learnt to distinguish the lines and rig of
an American ship from an English one, and he
calmly proceeded with his preparations, paying not
the smallest attention to the blue ensign.

Seeing this, the enemy set her main-topsail and
squaresail, let three reefs out of her fore-topsail,
and bore up in chase. When she had gained a
little more ground, Mr. Nicholls, who was busily
engaged in getting the 9-pounder guns aft, suspended
his labours for a few minutes in order to see the
private signal properly made. It was kept up ten
minutes, but no reply appeared. By that time the
enemy was coming up very fast Mr. Nicholls took
in his studding-sails and awaited the approach of
the Privateer.

He had not long to wait The enemy was scarcely
more than a mile away. The Cornishmen could see
her decks completely covered with men ; while from
her sides projected twelve guns of unusual length,
which Mr. Nicholls subsequently concluded to have
been long 9-pounders.

294 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

The Privateersmen gave three cheers as they
came into action, but reserved their fire; and from
the circumstance that a large party of men was
collected on the forecastle, Mr. Nicholls judged that
the Americans intended to board at the very outset,
and so, by their superior numbers, finish the action
at one blow. He therefore began to play upon the
advancing vessel with his stern chasers, in the hope
of checking her onset; but though the range was
already so short that the fire of the Cornish gunners
must have done some execution among the dense
masses of men on their adversary's decks, yet the
Privateer did not alter her course, but kept on with
a deadly persistency until considerably within musket
shot, when, yawing suddenly, she poured in a raking
broadside of round and grape from her starboard
guns, accompanied by a rattling musketry fire.

By this impetuous assault the Americans had
doubtless hoped to disable the " Walsingham," or,
at least, in the confusion, to gain an opportunity of
boarding. But the event was otherwise. There was
no confusion, and very little damage ; whilst on
the other hand, the onrush of the Privateer brought
her within pistol shot of the Packet's larboard
guns.

This was an effective distance. The guns were
crammed to the muzzles with double-headed shot,
grape, and canister; and a well-directed fire swept
over the enemy's decks, doing mischief enough
to discourage his inclination to close with the

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 295

" Walsingham," and to cause him to sheer off to
a safer distance.

The Cornishmen, inspirited by their advantage,
served their guns eagerly; and for about half-an-
hour the action went on very warmly, both vessels
receiving much damage, while five men on board
the Packet were wounded by musket balls. Mr.
Nicholls, however, had the satisfaction of seeing that
the fire from the Privateer was gradually lessening;
and he thereupon called on his men to redouble
their efforts. All the guns in action were double-
shotted by his orders, most carefully levelled at
the rigging of the enemy, and discharged simul-
taneously. As soon as the smoke cleared away it
was seen that their broadside had been splendidly
successful, for it had brought down the enemy's
maingaff, cut his foresail through in the after leach,
shot away his squaresail, and rendered his fore-
topsail nearly useless.

The Falmouth men, seeing prize-money before
their eyes, attempted to close. But every brace
on board had been shot away, and before the
"Walsingham" could be got under management,
the Americans had succeeded in reeving main
halliards, got their mainsail up, and were sailing
away from the Packet at such a speed that pursuit
was useless. Mr. Nicholls and his crew were
disappointed at the loss of a vessel which they
believed they could have captured with ease.

In the early summer of 18 14 the hired Packet,

296 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

" Little Catherine/' Captain Vivian, was captured by
a French frigate, " Le Sultan." The Packet was
scuttled, her officers and crew were taken on board
the frigate. There they remained, as Captain Vivian
himself used to tell the story, amused spectators
of the unsailorly conduct of the French crew, who
were, in fact, not seamen at all, but landsmen swept
together, in the course of Napoleon's desperate
efforts to create a powerful fleet, from every fortress
in the country. The captain was a brave old
officer, recalled from a long and honourable retire-
ment by the necessities, of the moment, and age
had largely unfitted him for command. Upon the
vessel thus manned a furious storm broke. The
landsmen could do nothing with the ship. Half of
them lay about in the scuppers, sea-sick and helpless ;
the rest were as incompetent as untrained men must
be at sea.

In this emergency the French commander appealed
to Captain Vivian, asking him to undertake with
his own men the navigation of the ship, on the
pledge of handing her back when the weather
moderated. This offer Captain Vivian accepted,
and kept most honourably ; restraining his men
when they pressed him almost to mutiny for per-
mission to overpower their sea-sick enemies ; and in
the end handing back the vessel as he had received
her. It had been part of the understanding that in
exchange for his services he was to have the first
prize captured by the French frigate. This happened

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 297

to be the Packet "Duke of Montrose," which was
accordingly handed over to Captain Vivian, who
embarked in her with all his crew, and returned
safely to Falmouth. It is pleasant to dwell on the
honourable temper in which this understanding was
kept on both sides.

The American War, which had called forth so
much gallantry among the Falmouth Packets, was
now nearly over. The date was fixed for the
cessation of hostilities, but before it arrived one
more glorious memory was added to the records of
the Packet Service.

Nearly eight years had passed since Mr. (at this
time Captain) Rogers, in the "Windsor Castle,"
repulsed and captured the French Privateer, "Jeune
Richard." It was this Packet, now commanded by
Captain R. V. Sutton, which, four days before the
close of the war, encountered the American Priva-
teer " Roger." The weather was very hazy ; and
neither ship saw the other until they were scarcely
more than a mile apart The enemy hoisted English
colours ; but Captain Sutton, on making the private
signal, found that it remained unanswered, and
accordingly prepared for action.

At 7.15 P.M. the American was coming up fast,
and the Falmouth men opened fire with their stern
guns. The enemy replied with such guns as could
be brought to bear, and very shortly ranged up
alongside the "Windsor Castle," lying now on one
now on the other quarter, and maintaining steadily

298 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

a very galling and • destructive fire. This lasted for
more than two hours ; but shortly after 9.30 P.M.
the fire from the "Roger" slackened, and she
dropped astern. Captain Sutton availed himself of
the opportunity to repair the rigging, which was
much cut, so far as possible. Only one man was
hit in this first action, namely the master, Mr.
Foster, whose knee was smashed by a musket ball.

The attack was not renewed for some hours, but
throughout the night the "Roger" ranged up
frequently within musket shot, keeping the crew
constantly at their quarters, and permitting no
interval for rest At daylight she hoisted American
colours, on seeing which the Facketsmen opened
fire, and a warm contest ensued for about half-an-
hour, at the end of which time the " Roger " hauled
off to repair damages. The damages of the
" Windsor Castle " were by this time such as it was
not possible to repair in the intervals of an action.
Her eight 9-pounders were ill pitted against the
metal carried by the enemy, which consisted of ten
12-pounder carronades, two long sixes, one long
18-pounder on a traverse, and one five and a half
inch brass howitzer.

At half-past eight the "Roger" made sail again,
and laid herself once more alongside the "Windsor
Castle." It was obviously a final effort The little
crew of Packetsmen, who had been at their quarters
for fourteen hours continuously, were greatly fatigued,
but responded with the utmost spirit, and Mr. Foster,

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 299

though suffering great pain from his wounded knee,
returned on deck and did his duty with the rest
Three men were wounded about this time, and as
the surgeon, Mr. Krabb£, was below attending to
their wounds an 18-pound shot entered the cabin
where they lay, and caused a splinter which wounded
him dangerously, breaking several of his ribs.

On deck Captain Sutton continued to defend his
ship with a courage deserving of high praise. The
two vessels lay within pistol shot of each other;
and so long as it was possible to manoeuvre Captain
Sutton defeated all efforts on the part of his
opponent to take up a raking position, or to board.
At 9.45 A.M., however, the " Roger " bore down
with the evident intention of boarding; and, on
endeavouring to handle his ship, Captain Sutton
found her quite unmanageable, and lying like a log
upon the water. Not one brace or bow-line was
left to the yards or sails ; almost the whole of the
running and standing rigging was shot away ; while
the after-yards swinging round brought the ship
by the lee. This gave the Americans the oppor-
tunity to board on the larboard quarter ; and as the
boarding netting in that part of the ship was cut
to pieces, there was no obstacle to their attack.
At this moment Mr. Foster was again severely
wounded, and obliged to quit the deck. The fire
of musketry from the "Roger" redoubled, and
Captain Sutton felt that he had no alternative but
to sink the mails, and to surrender. The last of

300 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

the heavy portmanteaux was sunk before the
colours were struck; and when Captain Sutton laid
down his sword it could not be said that he had
not done his duty to the last

Captain Sutton, with his master, mate, carpenter,
and a boy, were sent back to England on a
merchant vessel. The remainder of the crew were
sent in their own vessel to Norfolk, where the
41 Roger " was owned. The following extract from
The Norfolk Herald of the 28th April, 181 5, throws
some light on their subsequent treatment.

44 The following statement of an affair which took
place in this harbour on Wednesday evening last,
we have prepared from the evidence given before
the inquest which was held on the bodies of the
two unfortunate men who were killed. We have
been more minute in stating the facts than the
importance of the case should seem to demand ;
but we deem the detail necessary to prevent mis-
representations which might obtain credence, to the
prejudice of that magnanimity and justice which
the United States, in all their intercourse with
England, have ever strictly adhered to. The crew
of the 'Windsor Castle/ brought in by the Priva-
teer 'Roger/ were on Wednesday last put on
board a small schooner, and sent down to Craney
Island in charge of Mr. Westbrook, an officer of
the c Roger/ with a guard of eight United States'
soldiers. Owing to a low tide the schooner
anchored some distance from the island, and the

xiir.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 301

prisoners had to be debarked in a row-boat. Mr.
Westbrook took thirteen of the Englishmen, with
four of the guard to row the boat, leaving eleven
others in charge of four soldiers on board the
schooner. Before his return to the schooner, the
prisoners on board rose upon the guard, and en-
deavoured to disarm and throw them overboard, in
which, owing to the suddenness of the assault, they
had nearly succeeded. Mr. Westbrook got along-
side the schooner while the soldiers were yet
struggling with the superior numbers of their
assailants, but they still held their arms. Desirous
to quell the mutinous proceedings of the Englishmen
he expostulated, entreated, and threatened, but to
no purpose; and it was evident from their ex-
pressions that they were determined on taking
possession of the schooner and making their escape
in her. He then leaped on board and attempted
to rescue one of the soldiers, when the fellow who
held him, quitting his hold, seized the tiller and
aimed a blow at Mr. Westbrook, who warded it off
and ordered the released soldier to fire at him,
which he did, and killed him. At the same time
another soldier, having disengaged himself, shot his
opponent dead. The mutineers, having the other
two soldiers confined, exclaimed, ' Now is the time,
boys t don't give them time to load again,' and were
rushing forward to seize Mr. Westbrook, when he
drew a pair of pistols and commanded the mutineers
in a firm and determined tone to go below, de-

J—9- *g~>

302 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

claring that he would shoot the first man who
refused. This decisive conduct had the desired
effect ; they all immediately descended into the hold,
where they were put in close confinement. The
conduct of Mr. Westbrook was truly praiseworthy.
His intrepidity certainly saved the lives of the
soldiers, and prevented the conspirators from carry-
ing off the schooner, an act which, it is said, they
premeditated. The two unhappy wretches who
threw away their lives in this affair are represented
by the mate of the ' Windsor Castle ' to have been
habitually turbulent and mutinous. . . . The
verdict of the jury of inquest entirely acquitted the
two soldiers of any blame in taking* their lives."

It may be added that Captain Sutton gave a
very different character to the two sailors who
perished in this bold attempt to escape, and that
the Postmaster General, regarding their conduct as
natural and praiseworthy, pensioned their relatives
as if the men had been killed in action.

With this fight the battle-roll of the Post-Office
Service ends. A few weeks later the guns were
laid away in store, the pikes and cutlasses were
sold. The crews were reduced to the numbers of
a peace establishment, and the gunners were idle.
The Packets came and went unnoticed by the
Privateers. The fighting days were over, and from
then until now Falmouth has never looked upon
the once familiar sight of a vessel creeping in

xiii.] THE AMERICAN WAR. 303

beneath Pendennis Castle with her sides shattered
by round shot.

It was a momentous change; the opening of a
long peace after more than a century of almost
ceaseless warfare. The first result at Falmouth was
curious enough. A civil department had controlled
the Packets as long as there was fighting to be
done; when there was no longer any, a fighting
department took them over.

The war had not been at an end more than
three years when the Admiralty claimed the Packet
Service as a training ground for seamen, and a
means of providing for half-pay officers, whose
applications for employment were in the highest
degree embarrassing. The Post-Office protested, and
fought to retain the service which had become
distinguished under its control, but all in vain. By
degrees the Admiralty expelled the ancient governors
of the Packets, changed the regulations, altered the
type of ship, and in the end Falmouth knew the
Postal officers no more.

The details of these changes, if of any public
interest, lie outside the scope of this work, which
has aimed only at describing the Packet Service
in its prime.

Three full generations have passed away since
the last fight mentioned in these pages was fought,
and in that long period nearly every detail, even
of the bravest among them all, has been forgotten.
At Falmouth, where there is still a considerable

304 POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE. [chap.

interest in the ancient service of the Post-Office, no
one has collected the facts or given any labour to
preserve them from perishing. One by one, as the
survivors of the Service died, their memories died
with them. Captain Cock has passed out of recollec-
tion in the town of his adoption as completely as
if he had never lived. Nobody remembers Captain
James. The "Morgiana" and the "Montague" are
forgotten as absolutely as if no remarkable events
had been connected with their names. A few stories
are known, half-a-dozen officers are named, but of
precise information there is little indeed to be found
where it might have been sought most confidently.
The present writer, after wandering about the neigh-
bourhood all day in search of recollections, found
himself at last towards evening in the pleasant
churchyard of Mylor. The ground slopes rapidly
down to the beautiful harbour, the blue water and
the white sails of a passing boat were clearly visible
through the openings of the trees. Sitting on a low
wall in the sunshine was the sexton of the church,
an old man blind and bowed with age, who had
crept out, supported on two sticks, to taste the
evening freshness in a spot where every detail of
the scene was clear before his mental sight, and
whence he could hear the water lapping on the
shore below.

Sitting here the old man pointed out that many
of the graves lying round were those of Packet
officers ; and turning his memory back towards those

xhl] THE AMERICAN WAR. 305

days of which few people, he complained, cared to
talk, he brought forth many an anecdote of the
Packets, told with an old man's -relish in the times
which are gone by. At last, warming to his subject,
he plunged into the story of the " Antelope," telling
with spirit and enthusiasm how Pasco, the boat*
swain, had lashed the Packet to the Privateer, and
boarding bravely, had won a noble victory. Not
far away, across the harbour, was the little hamlet
where Pasco lived. The sexton had known his
children ; and, when a child himself, had even seen
the golden call which, as told in the third chapter
of this work, was presented by the Postmaster
General to the hero of the fight It was a pity,
the old man thought, that Pasco was forgotten.
But all the others were forgotten too; many a statue
had been put up in honour of people not so brave.
In this way the old man rambled on till the
weariness of age overtook him, and he could draw
forth no more recollections. He stayed there sitting
in the sun until the child who led him returned to
guide him home — a not unfitting symbol of the
decay which has fallen on the Service for which his
enthusiasm was reserved, and on the reputations of
the officers who made it great

u

INDEX.

"Adelphi" captured, 87.

Admiralty, Packet Service taken
over by, 303.

Admiralty Courts, 24.

Agents, Packet, their duties, 29 ;
malpractices of, 29-32.

Altona, 160, 161, 163, 171.

American ships, largely manned
by British seamen, 224, 225.

"Anaconda," 243.

"Antelope," fight between, and
the privateer "Atalanta," 44-

49, 305; her crew rewarded,

50, 51 ; capture of, 6a

Anthony, Captain, 178-183, 196.

"Arab" captured, 52.

Armaments of the West India
Packets reduced, 37 ; scheme
for increasing them, 72.

"Atalanta" privateer, 44.

14 Attentive," H.M.S., 135, 142,

143-
Auckland, Lord, 85, 118, 120;
inquires into suspicious captures
of Packets, 88-93, 97. 99. 102.

Balloon postal service suggested,

118.
Berlin decrees, as affecting the

postal service, 157*159*
Bideford, 16.
Blewitt, Captain, 241, 242.

" Bona," 227, 228.

Bonell, Captain, 21.

Boulderson, Captain, 208.

Bounties to wounded sailors, 20.

Bourrienne, M. de, quoted, 148,
152, 153, 264, 265.

Bridge, Captain, succeeds in land-
ing his mails, 11 3- 117.

British subjects, seizure and im-
prisonment of, on French terri-
tory, 147-151 ; some attempts
to escape, 151-155.

Bull, Captain James, 72.

Bull, Captain John, 203, 204,
205, 208, 209; his early mis-
fortunes, 124-126; his reputation
made, 127 ; capture of his ship,
128-130, 196 ; nis fight with the
" Primrose," 274-283.

Bullion, amount carried by the
Packets, 10; how transported
to London, 1 1.

Bullock, Mr., and the "Prince
Adolphus," 77-79.

Caddy, Captain, 243.

Calais Packets, 13.

Calder, Sir Robert, 210, 211.

Captains, Packet, their incomes,
9 ; instructions issued to, in time
of war, 38, 51 ; absenteeism
among, 57-59 ; system of fines
for absenteeism, 121.

INDEX.

3°7

Came, John, 152.

"Carteret" captured, 86.

Chamberlain, Mr., 173; his
escape from Lisbon, 175.

Chamberlayne, Mr. Henry, 112,

"Champion," ill.

"Chesterfield," capture of, 86;
beats off an American priva-
teer, 287-290.

Chronological History of the West
. Indies (Southey), cited, 76.

Cock, Captain James, 227 et sea. $
270-274.

Conference between the merchants
and the Postmaster-General, 73,
74-

Continental System, Napoleon's,
147 et seq. ; Post- Office attempts
to evade it, 155, 156, 160-103,
172, 264-266; the Berlin de-
crees, 157-159 ; causes of its
failure, 159, 160, 264, 265.

Contractors, the, for the Packets,
15, 16, 18.

Cooper, Captain John, 2a

44 Cornwallis," her fight with the
Spanish privateers, 178-181 ;
and with the lugger, 182, 183.

Corunna, Packet communication
with, 14, 1 8.

"Countess of Leicester," 73.

Court of Inquiry into captures of
Packets, 99, 100.

Cunninghame, Captain James,
247 ; his description of his fight
with the " Saratoga," 248-252 ;
his services rewarded, 253.

Curtis, Mr. Edward, 45-47.

Cuxhaven, despatch of mails to,
no ; mail service at, during the
great frost, \\\et seq. ; the port
closed, 155.

Drake, Captain, 59, 98.
Deane, Captain, 168, 169.

Decree ordering seizure of British
subjects on French territory,

I47-I5L
Demerara, privateers repulsed
from, 237-239.

Denmark, English mails seized in,
165-168.

"Despatch" Packet illegally
seized, 39, 40.

Dominica, French expedition
against, 134, 135; its repulse
by Captain Dyneley, 136-143.

" Dominica," H. M. sloop, handed
over to the French by ner crew,

133.
"Dryad," 273.

" Duke of Clarence " captured,
89.

"Duke of Marlborough," 124, 127,
208 ; capture of, 128-130 ; fights
with privateers, 184-186, 202-
205 ; her fight with H.M. brig
" Primrose * 274-283.

" Duke of Montrose," 135 et sea. ;
her fight with a privateer, 240,
241 ; how captured and re-
gained, 297.

" Duke of York " captured, 83 ;
surrender of, 98, 99; result of
the Inspector's inquiry, 100-102.

Dundas, Mr. Henry, 91.

Dyneley, Captain, 135 ; repulses
the French expedition against
Dominica, 136-143; his last
fight, 144-146.

" Earl Gowbr," how captured,

98.
" Earl of Leicester " piracy case,
26-28.

East, Mr., 149, 15a

Elphinstone, Captain, 242.

Espriella, Don Manuel, his im-
pressions of a Falmouth inn, 7.

"Eurotas,"27i, 273.

" Expedition " captured, 53.

3<>8

POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE.

«

Express," 243, 244.

Falmouth, before its selection as
the Packet headquarters, 3;
growth and prosperity of, 4, 5 ;
effect of the railway on, 12 ;
why selected for a Packet
station, 14-16 ; natural advan-
tages of the port and har-
bour, 16, 17; a nest of
smugglers, 29; the mutiny at,
197 it seq. ; magistrates in
sympathy with the mutineers,
211, 214, 215; removal of the
Packets from, 216, 217 ; and
their return, 220.

Fares paid by passengers, 10.

Flynn, Captain, 151.

Fowey as a Packet station, 219.

Freeling, Mr. Francis, 85, 93,
112, 120, 246, 253.

Frost, the great, of 1798, no
et stq.

Furze, Captain, 267-270, 287-290,

Giltinan, Jambs, 177.

Gothenburg as a Packet station,

155. 171.
Gower, Lord, 85.

" Grantham," 125 ; capture and
re-capture of, 72.

Gwin, Daniel, 18.

"Halifax" captured, 87.

Hamburg, mails smuggled into,
155 ; occupied by the French,
157 ; Mr. Nicholas* agreement
with the P.O. officials at, 162,
163.

Hammond, Captain, and the
Danish grain-ships, 26-28.

Hartney, Captain, 239.

Heligoland as a mail depot, in,
155 ; capture of, 172.

Helvoetsluis, the port closed,
109 ; seizure and imprisonment
of British subjects at, 148-151.

" Hinchinbrooke " wrecked, 245.

" Hinchinbrooke " beats off an
American privateer, 283-287.

Holland, closing of her ports, 109.

Holyhead Packets, 14, 41, 106,

107.
Husum as a Packet station, 155,

156.

Inspector of Packets, and the
suspicious captures, 92, 93 ; his
inquiries into the private-trad-
ing abuses, 97, 100-102.

Jambs, Mr., 184-186, 202, 203,
283-287.

"Jane," capture and re-capture
of, 89.

Jones, Captain John, 21.

Kempthorne, Captain, 44, 60,
61.

"King George" captured, 54,
122-124 ; action fought by, 62,

63.
Kirkness, Captain, 236-239.

" Lady Emily " wrecked, 245.

" Lady Harriet M captured, 87.

" Lady Mary Pelham," 235, 236,
254, 255 ; the conduct of her
lawyer-captain, 261, 262.

" Lady Nepean," 168, 169.

" Lapwing," 267 ; her fight with
a privateer, 268-270.

Leston, Mr., 149.

Letters, the practice of duplicat-
ing* 53-

Lisbon Packets, private trading
permitted on, 104, 197 ; its
prohibition, 201.

" Little Catherine," 296.

Mails, the insecurity of, 53, 68,
70, 117 ; demand of the mer-
chants for increased security of,
70, 71, 75 ; delays in forward-

INDEX.

309

* n fr 73* "Of 159; smuggling
them into Germany, 155, 156,
160-163, *74> 264-266 ; seizure
of, by the Danes at Tonningen,
165-168.

Maitland, Sir Thomas, 127.
" Marquis of Kildare " captured,
89, 00.

Merchants, West India, 18 ; their
influence on the Post-Office,
36, 37 ; complain of the in-
security of mails, 68, 246 ;
their memorial to the Post-
master-General, 70, 71 ; their
conference with him, 75, 76.

Milford Packets, 14, 106, 107 ;
the arming of, 41, 42.

" Montagu," 239, 255, 256 ; her
6ght with the "Globe* priva-
teer, 258-263.

Moorsom, Captain, 225, 226.

" Morgiana," her fight with the
"Saratoga" privateer, 247-252.

Mudge, Captain, 132.

Mutineers pressed, 209 ; their
demands, 210 ; meeting of, ib.\
magistrates in sympathy with,
211 ; their delegates pressed,
212, 213 ; return to their ships,
215 ; fate of the delegates, 220,
221.

Mutiny of the crew of the
"Speedy," 290, 291.

Mutiny of Packetsmen, causes
leading up to, 197 et seq.

Naval History (James), cited,
49, 50, 52, 80, 278 ; its account
of Captain Bull's case ex-
amined, 280-283.

News, foreign, Packet boats as
vehicles of, 6, 36, 37.

Nicholas, Mr., 161 -163.

Nicholls, Mr. William, 292-295.

Nodin, M., 51, 52.

Norfolk Herald quoted, 300-302.

North Sea (Harwich) Packets.
See Packets, North Sea.

Norway, Captain, his character
and career, 255, 256, 262, 263.

Packet Service, Post-Office, its
chronicles neglected, 2, 239,
3°3> 3°4> established at Fal-
mouth, 3, 4 ; as the vehicle of
foreign news, 6, 36, 37 ; num-
ber of seamen employed by,
8; minor Packet stations, 13,
14 ; reasons for the choice of
Falmouth, 14-16; the con-
tractors, 15, 16, 18; the
Corunna Packets, 18; West
India and other Packets estab-
lished, 19 ; pensions and boun-
ties awarded in, 20, 21 ; a
fighting service, 21 ; lax ad-
ministration in, 22 et seq. ;
piracy as practised by the
ships of, 22-28 ; malpractices
of the controlling agents, 29-
32 ; corruption at headquarters,
32 ; the beginning of the
reforms, 35 ; armament and
type of ships altered, 36-39;
instructions to captains in
time of war, 38, 51 ; superior
officers and the absentee system,
57-60, 84, 121 ; the working
of the new system, 60-62 ; the
demands of the merchants for
increased security of mails, 70,
71, 75 ; amount of annual de-
ficit, 71 ; suspicious captures of
Packets, 88-93 ; the private
trading system, 93-95 ; scandals
rumoured in connection with
this, 96-98 ; result of inquiry
into these, 99-104 ; partial pro-
hibition of private trading, 104;
the North Sea service during
the great frost, 1 10-1 19 ; success
of the firmer administration,
I20, 121, 222, 223 ; seizure of
its employes at Helvoetsluis,
149; now the Continental
System was evaded, 155, 156,

3io

POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE.

160-163, x 7 2 » 264-266; the
Berlin decrees as affecting, 157-
159; reduced to impotence by
Napoleon's policy, 176, 177 ;
mutiny at Falmouth, and its
causes, 197 et seq. ; removed
to Plymouth, 216 ; return to
Falmouth, 220 ; taken over by
the Admiralty, 303.

Packets, Falmouth, their routes,
8, 19, 178 ; tonnage and type
of, 15; reforms in the armament
and type of, 36-39; captures
of, by French ships, $2 passim ;
scheme for increasing their arma-
ments, 71, 72 ; time spent in
building, 84, 85 ; suspicious
captures of, 88 et seq. ; captures
of, by American ships, 226,
232, 241, 251, 270, 30a

Packets, North Sea, 13, 14; the
arming of, 40 ; type and arma-
ment of, 108 ; ports of Holland
closed against, 109 ; their
stations at the outbreak of war,
ib. t 109 ; during the great frost
of 1798, no et seq.

Packets, West India, armaments
reduced and type altered, 37,
38 ; number employed, 83 ;
private trading on, 93-95 ;
abuses in connection with this,
96-104; private trading pro-
hibited on, 104. See Packet
Service and Packets, Fal-
mouth.

Parker, John, 210, 213, 218,
219 ; letter to the attorney, 220,
221.

Pasco, Boatswain, 47, 48, 49,

305-
Pascoe, Richard, 210, 213, 218,

219 ; letter to the attorney, 220,

221.

Passengers, number of, carried by
the Packets, 9; fares paid by,
10.

Patterson, Captain,' 132.

Pender, Mr., 58.

Pension fund established, 121.
Petre, Captain James, 193, 194,

195.
PhiUimore, Captain, 271, 273.

Piracy practised by Packet officers,
22-25 ; the case of Captain
Hammond, 26-28 ; prevented
by decreasing armaments, 37,

38.
Plague at Malta, 245, 246.

Plymouth, 16 ; Packet station re-
moved to, 216, 217 ; the dis-
advantages of, 217, 218.

" Portland," two actions fought
by, 63-67 ; capture of, 74.

Portugal, Napoleon's demands
from, 173 ; her ports closed
against British ships, 174;
seizure of British subjects in,

175.

Postmaster-General, the office held
jointly by two ministers, 4«;
on bounties to wounded sailors,
20 ; and the Quaker merchants,
41, 42; rewards the crew of
the " Antelope," 50, 51 ; on
absentee captains, 57 ; con-
ference with the West India
merchants, 73, 74 ; on the sur-
render of the "Duke of York,"
102.

Post-Office headquarters, lax
administration in, 32 ; influence
of the merchants upon, 36, 37.
See Packet Service.

Post-Office Packet Service. See
Packet Service.

Pressgangs, Packetsmen seized by,
201.

" Prince Adolphus," 207, 208;

capture and redemption of, 77-

79.
"Prince Edward" captured, 73.

"Prince Ernest" captured, 74;
her fight with a privateer, 193-
196.

" Prince of Orange," 113-117.

INDEX.

3"

" Princess Amelia " captured, 89,
225, 226.

" Princess Augusta " burned, 53.

"Princess Charlotte" captured,

89.
' • Princess Elizabeth " captured, 70.
"Princess of Wales" captured,

77.
" Princess Royal," her fight with

a privateer, 79-82; captured,

88.

Privateers, American, formidable
character of, 224; Packets
captured by, 226, 232, 251,
270, 30a

Privateers, French, 43, 44, 69;
Packets captured by, 61 passim ;
armaments of, 71, 74 ; number
captured by British ships, 76 ;
formidable antagonists, 130-
132.

Quaker merchants and the arm-
ing of their ships, 41, 42.

"Queen Charlotte," 236-239.

Quick, Captain John, 243, 244.

Railways, results of the growth
of, 12.

Rapp, Count, quoted, 159, 160.

Records of the Packet Service
neglected, 2, 239, 303, 304.

Riots among the Packetsmen at
Falmouth, 209, 21a

" Roebuck " captured, 74.

Rogers, Commodore, 241, 242.

Rogers, Mr. William, 187-192.

" Rossie," 225, 226.

Routes of the Falmouth Packets,

8, 1% 178.
Russell's wagons, 11.

" Sandwich " captured, 7a

"Saratoga," 252.

Saverland, Mr., 205, 207, 208,
209, 210, 211, 254, 255.

Scheveningen, 15a

Schultz, Mr., 166, 167.

Seamen, number of, employed in
the Packet Service, 8; their
wages, 104, 200, 206, 207,
210.

Servante, Captain, 84; quoted,

74, 75-
Skinner, Captain John, 79, 80,

81, 88.

Slade, Captain, 208, 209.

Smuggling, in the Packet Service,
28, 29 ; on the Continent
during the war, 264-266.

Spain, mail communication with,

14, 15. 16.
" Speedy," mutiny of her crew,

290, 291.

Stevens, Captain, 254; how he
escaped a privateer, 235, 236.

Surgeons, Packet, 192, 193.

Sutton, Captain, 297-300.

"Swallow" captured, 70, 74.

Taylor, Mr. N., 63-67.

Thornton, Mr., 158.

"Thynne" captured, 61.

"Tom," 227, 228.

Tonningen, seizure of mails at.
165.

" Townshend," private goods
found on, 198, 199; her fight with
the two Americans, 227-233 ;
beats off a privateer, 233, 234 ;
capture of, 27a

Trading, private, on the Packets,
9» 93-95 > rumours of abuses in,
96, 98 ; results of inquiry into
these, 99-104; prohibited on
the West India Packets, 104 ;
consequent discontent among
the sailors, i/>. ; evasions of the
prohibition, 198-200; rigorous
confiscations of goods by
Custom-House officers, 208.