CHAPTER IV.
THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS.
The period on which the Post-Office now entered was, as far as its Foreign Mail Service was concerned, 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 command 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 consider 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. Remonstrances 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 employments into sinecures was constantly asserting itself 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 headquarters 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 receiving 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.
These penalties bore too small a proportion to the whole income of the Falmouth commanders to influence their conduct greatly, and matters, therefore, went on very much as before. “The Postmaster 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 11th, 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 following 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 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. Accordingly 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 exchanged. But a worse misfortune was at hand, for Captain Kempthorne had been no more than a few days in the hands of the French when he fell ill of a putrid fever, and died after a very short illness. 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 Privateers, of which the smallest was of greater force than his own ship.