Rum and tea seized in first report of smuggling
Last week I wrote about how, because of high export taxation, the Owlers started the illegal trade in wool to the continent.
When the ships returned they often brought back good such as spirits, tea and tobacco, although it seems odd that this trade flourished whilst England was at war with France.
In 1744, although Seaford only had one gun to defend the town, it was in good order because 1.16s.10d had just been spent on repairing it and three years later it was put into good use.
On May 21, 1747 a French privateer attacked an English merchant ship in Seaford Bay. The French boarded the ship but the noise of the assault alerted the men of Seaford, who fired their gun at the French ship.
They were sufficiently accurate to cause the enemy to flee, leaving 23 Frenchmen stranded on board their supposed target and they were all later taken prisoner.
Later that year the Nympha Americana was wrecked at Crowlink and if contemporary press reports are to be believed, the people of Seaford got a taste of ill gotten cargo when they swarmed over the area of the wreck stealing whatever they could salvage.
On the March 10, 1762 is the first report that smuggling was rife when it was reported that the Seaford Customs men had seized eighty eight half-ankers of rum and a hundredweight of tea from a smugglers vessel off Beachy Head.
It is interesting that the Seaford Customs men at this time had a vessel capable of stopping large ships and that they patrolled quite a few miles away from their home port (which must have been Newhaven – so why were they not called the Newhaven Customs men?)
A half-anker was a favourite size of barrel or 'tub' for importing smuggled spirits. It contained about 4 gallons (18 litres) and could be relatively easily handled. Two half-anker barrels would be tied together and smuggler could carry two together over his shoulders.
A few months after this seizure of contraband the two military forts were built at Seaford and Blatchington.
It is unclear what the relationship was between the customs men and the soldiers at the barracks. Some reports show that they patrolled the coastline together, whereas at other times they definitely did not get on as I shall relate later. It is probable that at the local customs men had an understanding with the senior ranks but this did not extend to the ranks. Many of the military units which stayed at the barracks were militia – ordinary men who were called into service in times of war.
It is likely that these men – many of whom came from coastal counties – had more in common with the local smugglers and were not averse to a drop of smuggled booze.
The next report dates from May 8, 1769 when "Mr Harrison's Custom-House Cutter" seized 140 half-ankers of Rum, barrels of Holland Geneva (gin), snuff and tea from a smugglers ship in Seaford Bay.
A couple of years ago my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Seaford Museum in Delaware and we were presented with a block of tea.
I had always assumed that tea was exported as loose tea in tea-chests but in the eighteenth century it was usually exported from China pressed into blocks. This made it much easier to transport and export.
In fact, at the Boston Tea party (just a few years later in 1773) it was blocks of tea – not loose tea which was thrown into Boston Harbour by the American colonists.
The next reported Seaford seizure was just a few weeks before the Boston Tea Party, when, on October 23, 1773 Captain Killick of Winchelsea caught a ship in Seaford Bay carrying 130 half-ankers of brandy.
The ship was brought onto shore at Seaford where the contraband was landed by local people. The Sussex Weekly Advertiser reported that these local people "went with great eagerness to assist in landing the contraband and handled the cargo with great dexterity". This is a strange term of phase and I wonder whether the 'dexterity' was actually a touch of light-fingeredness!
Next week – the reports of smuggling increase as does crime in the area.
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Weather for Lewes
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
