Deal's Smugglers - 18th and 19th centuries
SMUGGLE: 'To import or export secretly and in defiance of law,
or without paying the duties imposed by law…' (Dictionary
definition)
In 1745 Admiral Vernon reported to the Admiralty that two
hundred sea-faring people in Deal were living from the infamous
trade of smuggling.
Deal has many reminders of times when it was a town notorious
for what became known as the Free Trade.
On display in Deal's Maritime Museum is the galley SAXON KING.
This type of craft and the Deal galley-punt were favoured by
'owlers', an old term for those who smuggled wool out of England,
meeting on moonlight nights and giving warnings with a hooting
call.
Concealment
Local boatmen regarded smuggling as their '
second fiddle' and Deal boat builders constructed boats
with false keels and hollow masts, to accommodate contraband goods.
A Deal galley-punt could carry sixty tubs of brandy (four gallons
in each tub). A tub of this spirit – often 180 overproof – was
purchased in France for about five shillings (25 pence) and sold in
England for thirty-six shillings. Some extraordinary devices of
concealment were adopted.
Impounded goods were auctioned in Deal's Custom House. Alcoholic
liquors were sold, also silk, satin, ivory fans, perfume and silver
brocade. More domestic items included starch and salt.
A local boatman, who had smuggled goods with his father, said in
1880 'If a man chose to buy articles in France he had perfect right
to get them to England, free of Duty if he could, so as to make a
fair profit by the sale of them'. He expressed contempt for an
authority which locked up poor men striving to make a 'respectable
living out of them on the other side'.
Public sympathy tended to be with the smugglers. Preventative
officers were known to accept bribes and it was difficult to find a
jury willing to convict friends brought before the magistrate.
Almost everyone in Deal was, to some extent, involved in the
Trade.
Deal boatmen were said to have the ability and means to be
smugglers 'par excellence'. Added to their skilled seamanship and
the close proximity to the continent, was an organised 'ring' for
disposal of goods to a ready market.
Illicit cargo was landed on the easily accessible beach and
swiftly taken, through the lanes and side alleys, to secret hiding
places. One house in Middle Street retains a smuggler's 'box', deep
in the shingle, under a cellar fireplace. Once a fire blazed in the
(moveable) iron hearth no-one suspected the hidden wealth
beneath.
When an old house in Beach Street was demolished it was found to
have a verandah roof especially constructed to store large
quantities of tobacco; always a much smuggled commodity.
Restoration of a house in Golden Street, in 1937, disclosed two
dozen pairs of French gloves, hidden in a package under
floorboards. Years later a Market Street property revealed a hiding
place containing seamen's stilleto knives and coins from the reign
of George II.
Deal once had over two hundred Public Houses. Most were Beer
houses where Landlords brewed their own ales, but spirits were
often available – of the smuggled variety.
In 1877 the Government estimated that three-quarters of tea and
half the Dutch gin consumed in England was brought into the country
illegally.
ELIZABETH CARTER, Deal-born 'blue-stocking' of the 18th century,
deplored watching people of high rank leaving Deal, their carriages
laden with every type of contraband. She wrote that it was 'a plain
practical sin'.
A smuggler signalling to a lugger laying off the shore in
1820
The Prevention of Smuggling
WILLIAM PITT brought severe measures of repression against Deal
smugglers when he ordered the 13th Light Dragoons to set fire to
the Deal luggers, as they lay on the beach in January 1784. This
act is recorded as 'wicked and wanton destruction of the boatmen's
only means of livelihood'.
LORD NELSON used Deal boatmen as Pilots, but disapproved of Free
Trade connections.
Smuggling continued throughout the Napoleonic wars. During the
French Revolution smugglers conveyed about £10,000 in gold coin,
weekly, to aid French economy.
The task of standing against smuggling was established when King
Ethelred taxed wines and it became the 'custom' for merchants to
make payment in order to trade. Those who levied the dues were
called Customs men.
Three Types of Force Aimed to Prevent
Smuggling
The Mounted Guard, The Preventative Guard, The Coast Blockade.
In 1822 overlapping groups were merged to become the Coast Guard,
under the Board of Customs.
Deal had close contact with the Coast Blockade, formed under
Admiralty control in 1817. In charge was Captain William McCulloch
R.N. His methods were harsh and his men – called 'warriors' – were
a formidable force, hated by the people of Deal. McCulloch
commanded operations from the frigate GANYMEDE stationed in the
Downs off Deal. It is thought that some of his men occupied the
Semaphore tower (now Deal's Timeball Tower Museum). McCulloch is
credited with greatly suppressing the Free Traders. His hard fight
ended in 1825, when he died, from illness, at Admiralty House,
Queen Street, Deal. He is buried in St Leonard's churchyard, Deal,
where there is a memorial stone.
Captain William McCulloch R.N. in uniform as a young
midshipman
Throughout the centuries the Government lost Revenue and those
involved in smuggling and its prevention, lost their lives.
A walk around Deal's Middle Street area provides many signs of
the old-time local smuggler, evading capture, imprisonment, or
death, via the maze of narrow streets.
In New Street, on the frontage of what is now a private
residence, part of a sign may still be seen which reads 'Licensed
to sell Beer…'. In 1877 a Landlord in New Street was found guilty
of selling smuggled spirit from the 'Friendly Port' – a name
reminiscent of the old Port without a harbour and smugglers of
Deal.