History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 2 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

One gigantic system of plunder seems to have prevailed throughout. There were “scuffle-hunters,” who offered their services in long aprons, well adapted to wrap up and conceal whatever they could pilfer, and who were “longshore” thieves of the worst class. The lightermen committed the most nefarious robberies. The bumboatmen who were licensed to hawk goods among the shipping, and the “Peter-boatmen” employed in fishing, swelled the number of delinquents. There was also a numerous class denominated “mudlarks,” who stole whatever, above or below the water, they could lay hands upon. Whenever a “game-ship,” that is, a ship whose officers were corrupted for the purposes of plunder, was discharging her cargo close to the shore, these mudlarks were accustomed to prowl about, grubbing in the mud under her bow and quarters, for the purpose of receiving from the lumpers and others employed in the delivery, bags and handkerchiefs of sugar, coffee, and other articles, which they conveyed to the houses and shops of the receivers, according to the plan which had been preconcerted by the confederates in this general conspiracy. Rum, pillaged in large quantities, was obtained by means of a regular system applicable to the nature of the article. Skins and prepared bladders with wooden nozzles were secretly conveyed on board, a bribe being given, as in the case of sugar and coffee, to the mate and revenue officers for a licence to draw off a certain quantity from each cask, for which a pump called a jigger had been previously provided, and also tin tubes, adapted to render the booty accessible in every situation. By these and similar devices the skins and bladders were filled, and handed over to the mudlarks and other hangers-on who infested the neighbourhood of the ship.

Rat-catchers.

The ingenuity of men devoid of the principles of moral rectitude is ever fertile in devising the means of subsistence by criminal expedients. Among the various classes of delinquents who contributed to the removal of plunder from ships and vessels in the river were a set of rascals who pretended to follow the occupation of rat-catchers. These itinerants, who professed to know how to destroy the vermin, being permitted to go on board in the night to set their traps, and afterwards to visit them at such hours as they chose to prescribe for themselves, became dangerous auxiliaries to lumpers and others who had previously concealed plunder in the hold, until a convenient opportunity should occur to get it removed without exciting suspicion. In some instances these ingenious thieves not only committed the depredations described, but, for the purpose of obtaining access to different ships, and increasing the demand for their professional labours, had no scruple in conveying the rats alive from one vessel to another, as a means of receiving payment for catching the same animals three or four times over, and of thus extending the field for plunder.

River-pirates.

But the “river-pirates” were the most desperate and depraved of the fraternity of nautical vagabonds, as their exploits were invariably covered by receivers who kept old iron and junk shops in places adjacent to the Thames, and who were ever ready to receive and conceal the nocturnal plunder of these hostile marauders, many of whom were armed, and all provided with boats, perhaps stolen, for the particular object in view.

The practice of the “river-pirates” seems to have been to select the darkest nights for committing their depredations, having previously reconnoitred the river, during the day, for the purpose of marking the particular vessels and craft most likely to afford a rich booty, either from the nature of the merchandise, stores, or other materials which were accessible, or from the circumstances of their being without the protection of a nightly watch.

Their audacity.

In the port of London, where so many vessels were constantly lading and discharging valuable merchandise in the stream, and where from two hundred to five hundred open barges and other small craft in which this merchandise was deposited in its transit to and from the shore offered so many temptations for plunder, it is easy to conceive how audacious these marauders would become, unrestrained by police or any hazard of apprehension, and emboldened by the strength of their own desperate and organized gangs. Well-authenticated instances have been adduced of river-pirates cutting bags of cotton and other merchandise from the quarters of ships on their first arrival, and even of their weighing anchors, and getting clear off with these heavy articles, together with the cables and everything portable upon the deck. One instance in particular is recorded, where an American and a Guernsey ship were plundered in this manner by the actual removal both of anchors and cables, the robbery being, in fact, completed in the view of the masters of the vessels, who were only alarmed in time to reach the deck and ascertain the fact from the pirates themselves; who, as they rowed from the vessels with their cumbrous booty, wished the astonished masters a very “good morning.”

Light horsemen.

The night-plunderers were sometimes denominated “light horsemen;” and they generally carried on their depredations through the connivance of the revenue officers. For a licence to commit plunder, by opening packages of sugar, coffee, and other produce during several hours in the night, no less than from twenty to thirty guineas were usually paid to the mate and the revenue officers, who almost invariably went to bed while the robbery was perpetrated, affecting ignorance of the whole transaction.