Page:Volume 3 1840.pdf/14

New vessels launched - Storms and Floods - The Condemned Hole

Although ship-building operations were unmistakably on the decline, there were at least three vessels constructed during the year, the first of which was the "Torch" intended for the coal trade and was launched in the month of February. The launch of this collier reminds one of another Collier that was launched a few months later; the fair craft, as a sailor would term her, being a Miss Jane Collier, who, with a Mr. William Hugg, was launched on the sea of matrimony. The event gave inspiration to the following waggish rhyme :—

“The bridegroom surely can’t complain,
If thus through life he’s always paid ;
For she, one tender Hug to gain,
Him owner of a Collier made.”

The next launch was that of a schooner named Betsy. She was built by Messrs. Thwaites and Winter, and first took the water on the 23rd of July. Her skipper, Capt. Williams, gratified a large number ot the vessel’s admirers during the day with a pleasure trip on the water. Four months later, the same schooner encountered a terrific gale in the Bay of Biscay, when both her masts were carried away, and the vessel had a narrow escape from foundering. In the same month, namely November, a fine schooner of 100 tons named "Wanderer" was launched from the building yard at Messrs. Ransom and Ridley. She sailed away to the North, under the command of Capt. Minter, and it was surmised that she would outsail most of the coasters of that period.

Apropos of the November storm in the Bay of Biscay, the disturbance on the south of England was more of an electrical than of a cyclonic character, the centre of depression — as the term now is — having probably passed over our northern coasts and on to Norway. The thunder at East grinstead, Edenbridge and neighbourhood was most alarming, and some of the hail or conical ice which fell was said to measure over two inches trom end to end. The rain and hail fell heavily in our own immediate neighborhood, accompanied occasionally with lightning and thunder, for two or three days, and all the low grounds in the Priory Brooks, the Crowhurst Valley and Pevensey Levels were under water. This severe thunderstorm or series of electrical storms in the month of November may be regarded as being of a somewhat exceptional character, and equally so was the thermometric reading of 80 degrees on the 26th of April in the same year. The other atmospheric phenomena as pertaining to cyclonic gales, rough sea, high tides, damage to parade walls, and local shipping disasters, I believe I have already commented on; and now, as an associative subject with maritime affairs, it may be stated that on the 11th of March the Sylph, a Hastings pleasure-boat, was seized by the Rob Roy cutter, in consequence of being beyond her bounds. The suspicion was that she was on a expedition. Another seizure was made on Sunday, November 1st, the boat in this case being the smack Mary Ann, she having been beached with a cargo of cheeses from Holland, but having also on board a large quantity of tobbaco deemed to be contrahand. The crew were imprisoned, and on the following Wednesday were placed before the magistrates, Messrs. North and Mannington, to answer to the indictment. The charge against Skinner, Burfield and Peters (master, mate and boy of the vessel) was preferred by Daniel Gill, of Her Majesty’s Customs, and was to the effect that the accused, as subjects of her Majesty, were found on board a certain vessel liable to forfeiture, such vessel at the time being in the parish of St. Clement’s, not being driven there by stress of weather, and having on board 89 lbs. of tobacco in parcels of less weight than 300 lbs., whereby they had forfeited £100. Solomon Bevill (comptroller), and Richard (Gallop and George Picknell (Customs officers), deposed to finding a number of packages of tobacco and cigars in different parts of the vessel, and the captain and mate having pleaded guilty, but exonerating the boy from a guilty knowledge, the two men were each fined in the sum of £100.

After this decision of the magistrates, Mr. Bayley, of Hastings, and Mr. Stone, of Newhaven, to whom the cargo of cheeses belonged, pleaded for magisterial assistance in regaining possession of the vessel, as the cargo was perishing, Mr. North replied that of themselves they could do nothing but testify their belief, founded upon a thirty years’ acquaintance with Mr. Bayley’s character, that he was not cognisant of the attempted. Mr. Gill also said that both he and Mr. Bevill would bear the same testimony. The result was that the vessel and cargo were restored, and the £200 demanded. To many of the present generation it would be a matter for surprise that, against the chances of seizure, forfeiture and imprisonment men should continue such imminent risks, but the answer is found in the great profits that were likely to be made out of a successful "run." That such successes were frequent is beyond doubt, and because of their success the public knew but little of their frequency.

It was only when seizures were made or serious encounters took place that affairs got to be publicly known, Only a day before the seizure above detailed was made at Hastings, a far more valuable seizure was effected at the entrance of the Thames and Medway Canal. Mr. Renton, a Surveyor of Customs, there found a lug-boat with 937 gallons of spirits, the latter ready slung for landing on men’s shoulders. The value of the boat and contraband thus seized was estimated at £2,000. A week before that, namely, Oct. 24th, Lieut. Prowe, of the Southampton coastguard station, seized the smack Rose of that port, with a cargo of limestone, under which were concealed 272 casks of foreign spirits. There appears to haye been no conflict in this case, but on the preceding night, a desperate rencontre took place on the Southsea beach. Lieut. Scott and a party of five coastguards had seized a wherry, with 28 tubs, which had been swamped on the beach, and while in the act of clearing the boat, during the darkness of the night, were attacked by about 40 batsmen, In the conflict, Lieut. Scott recelved a contusion of the head, and two of his crew were much bruised. Their pistols and cutlasses, however, stood them in good stead against overwhelming numbers, and the smugglers dispersed, carrying off their wounded, as was ascertained next day by the traces of blood.

When treating of some of the cases and the seizure of boats, I have had occasion to mention the "Condemned Hole," the name by which a piece of enclosed ground was known in the rear of Beach Cottages, and wherein was placed the captured boats until a general clearance by public sale or otherwise was effected. As the declining days of, as well as of ship-building, were already dawning upon us, it may not be amiss to take a glance at the Condemned Hole to learn the future that was apparently in store for it. At a quarterly meeting of the Town Council on the 4th of August (the members then present having at this time of writing all passed away) it was resolved that the Condemned Hole be let on lease as a pleasure garden for the term of 14 years to Messrs. Kirby, Smith, Kay, Shadwell and Gill at a rent of £25 per annum. These gentlemen, it should be said, were owners of property at Beach cottages, Pelham place and Pelham crescent, and it may be well conceived that to have the place enclosed with a neat railing as a kind of lawn or garden would be more pleasant to the eyes of themselves and their visitors than the old tarred fence and a number of dismantled boats and half boats standing on end or piled one upon another. This improvement was effected, but the site has now for a long time formed part of an open parade, which, if not more sightly, is certainly more convenient to the public.

Yet, while doing away with one eyesore, the Councillors at the same meeting were near upon acceding to a proposition that would have been conducive to another. A letter, accompanied by a plan, was received from Mr. George Thwaites, offering to remove his unsightly plank-boiler at the end of the Marine parade (where the Russian gun now stands) if permission were given him to build a shop on the same site. A favourable view of the proposition was taken, and a decision was almost arrived at to grant the permission. Fortunately, however, the perpetuation of an obstruction was ultimately avoided by the Council taking time to consider it. The subsequent removal of the plank boiler and the still later demolition of the Old Warm Baths were among the greatest improvements effected in that part of the borough. The Baths, built for Mr. Barry, the librarian, had become antiquated, and had been superseded by the modern and more elegant Baths at Pelham place, which only required the removal of Mr. Thwaites’s boiler to make them still more eligible. The Marine Parade, too, which was mainly constructed through the exertions of Mr. Barry in getting subscriptions towards the cost of erection, became more convenient for promenading by such removals, The said parade, however, being not over strongly built, was sadly in need of repairs after 28 years’ existence, the cost of which repairs was estimated at £110. At a meeting of the Commissioners in the same year, a committee’s report recommended the outlay, and a motion was made by Mr. Brown that the report be acted upon. An amendment was moved by Mr. Ginner that the further consideration of the matter be indefinitely postponed, for the want of funds. The amendment being put by the chairman in his own latinity of "sigh and die," it was carried; and consequently, as the death warrant of the Parade was already signed, it had only to die peacefully and to be buried decently. Strange to say the old servant, with a good deal of subsequent doctoring has lingered on another forty years, albeit, just as I am writing, it has suffered a considerable dislocation ot its structure in a conflict with Old Davy.

At a Commissioners' meeting, it was proposed to put down a permanent footpath by the wall near Mrs. St. Quintin's [Torfield] house, the spot being out of the Commissioners' limits, and under the control of the Hastings and Flimwell Turnpike Trusts. Mr. Breeds said they were not justified in spending so much money on other people's property, and proposed an amendment that only a common raised footpath should be made. Both, however, were negatived. A report was then read, setting forth the pecuniary embarrassments of the Hastings and Flimwell Turnpike Trust caused b the reduction of traffic over the old road, whereby the Trustees had been unable to meet their engagements and the gates had been seized by the creditors. The debt was over £30,000, the interest on which would not be met, unless reduced from 5 to 4 per cent. The Trustees called upon the several parishes to render temporary assistance to keep the road in repair. The expense to the parishes of St. Clement's and All Saints would be £37 10. per ann. at 5/- per yard for 156 yards. The clerk explained that the Commissioners were expressly precluded by a clause in the Local Act from expending any of the town's money on the repair of the road in question until the expiration of the Trust, which would expire in 1844. Mr. Breeds contended that if the road was allowed to get out of repair, the upper part of the town would be greatly injured, but Mr. Langham thought the matter required very careful consideration and on his motion, a committee was formed to investigate and report at the next meeting. To any person endowed with ordinary intelligence, the matter did not appear to require much consideration, the limits of the Commissioners' jurisdiction being clearly defined in the Local Act of 1832, thus - "The limits for all purposes of this Act comprise the whole of St. Clement's and All Saints, and that part of St. Mary in the Castle within the liberties of the town, except such part of the turnpike road comprised in an Act [1822] entitled "An Act for more effectually repairing and improving the road from Flimwell, Kent to the town and port of Hastings!" The complained of decrease of traffic over the said turnpike (of which the Old London road formed a part) was due to the shorter route and greater facilities offered by the "Hastings and Hollington and St. Leonards and Sedlescomb new roads". This meeting of the Commissioners ended with a stormy discussion on the question of reducing the water-rate from 9d. to 6d., in which the supercilious manner of the chairman (Mr. Chas. Duke) was complained of, and an opinion expressed that it might be possible to get another so excellent a chairman as Mr. Rickman Forlee had -