King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855

A smuggling vessel was usually provided with what was called a tub-rail--that is to say, a rail which ran round the vessel just below the gunwale on the inside. When a vessel wa...

It is no part of our intention to trace the history of the levying of customs through different reigns and in different ages, but it is important to note briefly that the evadin...

We drew attention some time back to the assistance occasionally rendered by soldiers when the Riding officers were about to arrest smugglers. Early in the year 1740, or about th...

It was not till June of 1746 that the Committee issued their second report, and the evidence therein contained is even more interesting to us than any which had hitherto been gi...

In an earlier chapter we quoted from Marryat a passage which showed that the mariners of a Revenue cutter were dressed in red flannel shirts and blue trousers, and also wore can...

By an Order in Council of May 5, 1821, it was directed that henceforth all sums which were awarded for arrests on shore of any person concerned in smuggling should be paid in th...

If the reader will carry his mind back to 1787 he will recollect that in this year we saw a reformation in the system of the Revenue cruisers, and the practice of employing hire...

Having now seen the evolution of the smuggling methods from brute force and superiority of ships and crews to the point where the landing of dutiable goods became a fine art, an...

Rowing about on the night of Lady Day, 1813, a six-oared boat, which had been launched from the Custom House cutter _Lion_, was on the prowl in that bay which extends all the wa...

We have already frequently referred to the Riding officers who were attached to practically all the chief ports of England. For the reasons already given the south-east coast ha...

The reader is already aware of the practice existing at this time of actually rowing contraband across from France to England in large boats pulling four or more oars. As one wh...

Just as there had been a great improvement in the reorganisation brought about by the advent of the Coast Blockade, so the Preventive service on shore generally was smartened up...

We have spoken during the preceding chapters of the revenue cruisers sometimes as cutters and sometimes as sloops. For the reason that will quickly become apparent let us now en...

Second cousin to the method of filling oars and spars with spirits was that adopted by a number of people whose homes and lives were connected with the sea-shore. They would hav...

By an Order in Council, dated September 9, 1807, certain rewards were to be paid to the military for aiding any officer of the Customs in making or guarding any seizure of prohi...

About the middle of the eighteenth century the smuggling of tea into the country had reached such extensive limits that the revenue which ought to have been expected from this s...

It is conscience that makes cowards of us all, and this may be said of smugglers no less than of law-abiding citizens. A trial was going on in connection with a certain incident...

Had you been alive and afloat in June of 1802 and been cruising about near Falmouth Bay, or taken up your position on the top of one of those glorious high cliffs anywhere betwe...

We come now to consider the desperate character of a band of men who rendered themselves for all time notorious in the domestic history of our country by acts of unbridled viole...

Outside pure Naval history it would be difficult to find any period so full of incident and contest as that which is covered by the exploits of the English Preventive Service in...