The Flora with the Fisgard, Wasso, and Nymph.[ToList]
We must pass over the next two years and travel from one end of the English Channel to the other till we find ourselves again in Kentish waters. The year is 1804, and the 14th of June. On this summer's day at dawn the gun-brig Jackal, commanded by Captain Stewart, R.N., was cruising about to the Nor'ard of the Goodwins. As day broke he was informed that three smuggling vessels had just been espied in the vicinity. The latter certainly was not more than three miles from the land, and it was fairly certain what their intention was. When Captain Stewart came on deck and convinced himself of their identity he ordered out his boats, he himself going in one, while one of his officers took command of another, each boat having about half-a-dozen men on board.
We mentioned just now how important it was in such cases as this that the position should be defined as accurately as possible. Immediately the boats had left the Jackal the pilot of the latter and one of the crew on board took bearings from the North Foreland and found the Jackal was about 7-3/4 miles from this landmark. They also took bearings of the position of the three smuggling luggers, and found these were about three or four miles off and bore from the Jackal E. by S.
To return to Captain Stewart and the two boats: for the first twenty minutes these oared craft gained on the luggers owing to the absence of wind, and the smugglers could do nothing. The dawn had revealed the presence of the Jackal to the smugglers no less than the latter had been revealed to the gun-brig. And as soon as the illicit carriers realised what was about to happen they, too, began to make every effort to get moving. The early morning calm, however, was less favourable to them than to the comparatively light-oared craft which had put out from the Jackal, so the three luggers just rolled to the swell under the cliffs of the Foreland as their canvas and gear slatted idly from side to side.
But presently, as the sun rose up in the sky, a little breeze came forth which bellowed the lug-sails and enabled the three craft to stand off from the land and endeavour, if possible, to get out into the Channel. In order to accelerate their speed the crews laid on to the sweeps and pulled manfully. Every sailorman knows that the tides in that neighbourhood are exceedingly strong, but the addition of the breeze did not improve matters for the Jackal's two boats, although the luggers were getting along finely. However, the wind on a bright June morning is not unusually fitful and light, so the boats kept up a keen chase urged by their respective officers, and after three hours of strenuous rowing Captain Stewart's boat came up with the first of these named the I.O. But before he had come alongside her and was still 300 yards away, the master and pilot of this smuggler and six of her crew was seen to get into the lugger's small boat and row off to the second lugger named the Nancy, which they boarded. When the Jackal's commander, therefore, came up with the I.O. he found only one man aboard her. He stopped to make some inquiries, and the solitary man produced some Bills of Lading and other papers to show that the craft was bound from Emden to Guernsey, and that their cargo was destined for the latter place.
The reader may well smile at this barefaced and ingenuous lie. Not even a child could be possibly persuaded to imagine that a vessel found hovering about the North Foreland was really making for the Channel Isles from Germany. It was merely another instance of employing these papers if any awkward questions should be asked by suspecting Revenue vessels or men-of-war. What was truth, however, was that the I.O. was bound not to but from Guernsey, where she had loaded a goodly cargo of brandy and gin, all of which was found on board, and no doubt would shortly have been got ashore and placed in one of the caves not far from Longnose. Moreover, the men were as good as convicted when it was found that the spirits were in those small casks or tubs which were only employed by the smugglers; and indeed never had such a cargo of spirits to Guernsey been carried in such small-sized kegs, for Guernsey always received its spirits in casks of bold dimensions.
It was further pointed out at the trial that the luggers could not have been bound on the voyage alleged, for they had not enough provisions on board. The Solicitor-General also demonstrated the fact that when these luggers were approached in deep water—that is, of course after the three hours' chase—they could not possibly have been making for Guernsey. The farther they stood from the shore the greater would be their danger, for they would be likely at any hour to fall in with the enemy's privateers which were known to be cruising not far off.
But to return to the point in the narrative when we digressed. Captain Stewart, a quarter of an hour before finally coming up with the I.O., had fired several times to cause her to heave-to, but this they declined to do, and all her crew but one deserted her as stated. Leaving one of his own men on board her the naval officer, after marking her with a broad arrow to indicate she had been seized, went with his four remaining men in pursuit of the second lugger, which was rowing away with all haste, and alongside which the I.O.'s boat was lying. But, as soon as Stewart began to approach, the men now quitted the lugger and rowed back to the I.O. He opened fire at them, but they still persisted, and seeing this he continued to pursue the second lugger, boarded her and seized her, the time being now about 6.30 A.M.
Afterwards he waited until his other boat had come up, and left her crew in charge of this second lugger, and then rowed off to the first lugger again, but once more the I.O.'s people deserted her and rowed towards the shore. Undaunted he then went in pursuit of the third lugger, but as a breeze came up she managed to get away. Presently he was able to hail a neutral vessel who gave him a passage back, and at midday he rejoined the I.O., which was subsequently taken captive into Dover, and at a later date ordered to be condemned. She had belonged to Deal and was no doubt in the regular smuggling industry.