The wages of the following persons were to remain the same in all classes, viz.:
| Deputed Mariners | £2 8s. per lunar month |
| Seamen | 2 0 per lunar month |
| Boys | 10 0 per lunar month |
Muster books were ordered to be kept regularly, and the sum of 1s. 6d. was allowed to the commander a day for each man borne on the books and actually victualled, to provide for the following proportion of provisions:—1-1/2 lbs. of meat, 1-1/2 lbs. of bread, 1/2 gallon of beer. The commander was also allowed 3s. a day for his own victuals, and a like sum for each of his mates. Allowance was made for a medicine chest to the extent of £3 annually. All expenses of pilotage were to be paid by the Navy, "but the commanders and mates are to make themselves acquainted with the coasts, &c., and no general pilot will be allowed for more than two months after a cruiser's arrival on any new station."
And there is now a notable innovation, which marked the advent of a new age. Instead of the prevailing hempen cables with which these cruisers had been supplied and had been in use for centuries among our ships, these cutters were ordered to be furnished with chain cables "in order that the vessels may have the less occasion for going to a King's Port to refit or make purchases." If a man were injured or became sick whilst in the service so as to need surgical aid, the expense was to be allowed. And in order still further to make the cruisers independent of the shore and able to offer no excuse for running into harbour they were ordered never to proceed to sea without three weeks' provisions and water. As to the widows of mariners, they were to receive £10 per annum.
So much, then, for the new conditions of service in these Revenue craft as undertaken by the Admiralty. Let us now obtain some idea of the duties that were attached to these officers and vessels. The commanders were directed by the Admiralty to make themselves familiar with the Acts of Parliament for the prevention of smuggling, Orders in Council, Proclamations, &c., and to obey the instruction of whatever admiral they were placed under, as also the commanders of any of his Majesty's ships whom they might fall in with "diverting you from the cruise on which you are employed."
Each commander was assigned his own particular station for cruising, and he was never to lie in any harbour, bay, or creek unless by stress of weather or other unavoidable necessity. He was to keep a look-out for vessels of a suspicious appearance, which, in respect of size and build, appeared to be adapted for smuggling. Especially was he to look out for French craft of this description. Having arrested them he was to hand them over to the nearest man-of-war. He was also to keep a smart look-out for the smugglers' practice of sinking goods and afterwards creeping for them. The cruisers were to visit the various creeks and bays; and whenever weather permitted the commander was to send a boat and crew to examine such places at night. And, if necessary, the crew were to remain there until the cruiser came to fetch them back in the morning.
Care was to be taken that the smugglers themselves no less than their craft and goods were to be captured, and the commanders of these cruisers were to co-operate with the Land-guard and keep in close touch with the Riding officers ashore as well as the Sitters of Preventive boats, and to agree upon a code of signals between them, as, for example, by making false fires at night or the hoisting of proper colours in the different parts of the vessel by day, so that the shore officers might be informed of any suspicious vessels on the coast. These cruisers were also to speak with all the ships with which they fell in, and to direct any ships subject to quarantine to proceed to quarantine stations. And if they came across some merchantman or other vessel, which they suspected of smuggling, the cruiser was to accompany such craft into port. And they were enjoined to be particularly careful to guard East India ships to their moorings, or until, the next station having been reached, they could be handed over to the next cruiser.
The commanders of the cruisers were also to be on their guard against the practice in vogue among ships that had been to Holland and France with coals, for these craft were especially prone on their return to putting dutiable goods into light craft from London, or on the coast, but chiefly into cobbles or small fishing craft at sea. And even when it should happen that a cruiser had to be detained in port for repairs, the commander was to spare as many officers and seamen as possible and to employ these in keeping a regular watch on the high grounds near the sea, so as to watch what was passing, and, if necessary, despatch a boat and part of the cruiser's crew. The commanders were reminded that the cruisers were not to wear the colours used in the Royal Navy, but to wear the same ensigns and pendants as provided by the Revenue Board under 24 Geo. III. c. 47, sect. 23.
On a previous page we went into the matter of firing at the smuggling craft with shotted or with unshotted guns. Now among the instructions which were issued by the Admiralty on taking over these Revenue cruisers was the clear order that no officer of a cruiser or boat was justified in shooting at a suspected smuggling vessel until the former shall have first hoisted his pendant and ensign, nor unless a gun shall have been first fired as a signal. The date of this, of course, was 1816. But among the documents preserved at the Swansea Custom House there is an interesting letter dated July 1806, written by the Collector to Mr. Hobhouse, stating that a Mr. Barber, the sailing-master of the Cleveland, had been committed for trial on a charge of wilful murder, he having fired a shot to cause a boat to bring-to and thus killed a man. This, taken in conjunction with the testimony of the Sheerness Coastguard, to which I alluded by anticipation and shall mention again, seems to me fairly conclusive that in practice at least there was no fixed rule as to whether the first gun were shotted or unshotted. At the same time the above quoted instruction from the Admiralty, although loosely worded, would seem to have meant that the first gun was merely to be of the nature of a warning signal and no shot fired in this first instance.
And then, again, among these instructions cropped up the reminder that in times past commanders of cruisers had not been wont to keep the sea in bad weather—a period when the conditions were most favourable for smugglers—but now the Admiralty remarked that if the commander should be deficient in "this most essential part of your duty" he would be superseded. On the west coasts of England and Scotland especially some of the commanders had been accustomed in former years to pass the night in some harbour, bar, or creek instead of cruising on their station and counteracting the designs of the smugglers, "who will always prefer the night time for carrying on his operations." Consequently the Admiralty now strictly charged the commanders to cruise during the night, and no matter of private concern must serve as a pretext for any intermission.