HOVELLING. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



"HOVELLING" v. WRECKING. 



The Contrast The " Hovellers " defended Their Services The Case of the Albion Anchors and Cables wanted by a 

 disabled Vessel Lugger wrecked on the Beach Dangers of the Hoveller's Life Nearly swamped by the heavy Seas- 

 Loss of a baling Bowl, and what it means Saved on an American Ship The Lost Found A brilliant example of Life- 

 saving at Bideford The Small Rewards of the Hoveller's Life The case of La Marguerite Nearly wrecked in Port 

 Hovellers v. Wreckers" Let's all start fair !" Praying for Wrecks. 



THE wrecker was a land-ghoul, a monster in human form, who preyed on human life 

 and property. The "hovellers," a distinctive term on many parts of the coasts of this 

 sea-girt isle, is applied to the hardy men who, in all weathers and at all risks, go to 

 the assistance of ships in distress, and occasionally benefit by a wreck, but they are not 

 wreckers. The Rev. Mr. Gilmore, who has so well described the dangers, perils, and triumphs 

 of the life-boat service, very properly includes among the storm warriors the honest men who 

 perform these practical deeds of naval daring. Visitors to Ramsgate and other seaside resorts 

 of the southern coast will remember the luggers in which holiday excursions are made; 

 many of these same boats are, in winter more especially, engaged in very serious work. 

 " The more threatening and heavy the weather/' says our authority, " the greater the 

 probability of disaster occurring or having occurred, then the more ready are the crew to 

 work their way out to the Goodwin Sands, and to cruise round them on the look-out for 

 vessels in distress ; they dare not take the lugger into the broken water there a life-boat 

 alone can live : but still, she is a grand sea-boat, one that will stagger on, with a ship's 

 heavy anchor and chain on board, through weather bad enough for anything a boat that 

 is wejl suited for the hard and dangerous service which employs her during the winter 

 months." The hovelling lugger has generally a crew of ten men, and these receive no 

 regular pay. Any salvage or reward the vessel earns is commonly divided into fourteen 

 shares ; the boat takes three and a half for the owners, half a share goes for the provisions, 

 and each man of the crew receives one share. Mr. Gilmore says that " complaints are 

 sometimes made of the amounts charged by these men for services rendered; but the 

 cases of a good hovel are few and far between ; and often the luggers put out to sea 

 night after night throughout a stormy winter, hanging about the sands, in wind and 

 rain, and snow and mists, the men half-frozen with the cold and half-smothered with the 

 flying surf and spray, and often week after week they thus suffer and endure, and do 

 not make a penny-piece each man ; then at last, perhaps, comes a chance : a big ship is on 

 the tail of a sandbank ; they render assistance and get her off ; they have saved thousands 

 of pounds worth of property; and the captain, and the owners, and the underwriters 

 all look aghast, and cry out with indignation when they ask perhaps a sum that will 

 give them ten or fifteen pounds a man." 



Not uncommonly the lugger speaks a vessel, and finds that an anchor or anchors, 

 cables, &c., have been lost, and must be replaced. They must make in all haste for 

 shore, and obtain what is needed, and put out again to the distressed vessel. "What all 

 this may mean on occasions to the owners and men of the hovelling vessels is shown in 

 the following example the case of the Albion lugger. 



