MARITIME HISTORY 



The state of war which, with the exception of one interval of peace, 

 existed between 1739 and 1763 led again to local fears of attack from 

 privateers. Guns were supplied by the Ordnance Office on condition that 

 the towns built batteries and provided ammunition ; ten were sent to Poole, 

 seven to Studland Bay, seven to Swanage, and six to Lyme, where there were 

 already five in position/^* Taylor's map of Dorset of 1765 "' shows batteries 

 on Peverel and Handfast Points, at North and South Haven Points (each 

 four guns), and at Poole Head. At Weymouth only the Dock Fort under 

 the Nothe is shown ; neither Portland nor Sandsfoot is included in an official 

 survey of 1766. There was not so much fear of invasion in Dorset as in 

 some other counties during the Seven Years' War, but the vexations of war, 

 especially impressment, bore heavily on both owners and men. In 1759, 

 Captain Fortescue of H.M.S. Prince Edward was sued for taking so many 

 men out of a Poole Newfoundland ship that she was lost ; '^'^^ he was 

 cast in jri,ooo and costs, and no doubt got inscribed as well on the Admiralty 

 Black Book for Boards of all political parties were equally desirous of 

 preventing any case coming into court in which the question of legality of 

 impressment might be raised. 



Notices of wrecking, which must always have been common on the 

 Dorset coast, become more frequent in the era of journals and newspapers. 

 In January, 1762, a French man-of-war, the Zenobie, was lost on the Chesil ; 

 seventy-one of the crew saved themselves, but were robbed and stripped by 

 the natives. The survivors were clothed and sent back to France by order 

 of the king instead of being treated as prisoners of war. That the treatment 

 these men received locally was no exceptional incident is proved by the fact 

 that in 1754 the Rev. Thomas Francklyn of Fleet preached a sermon on the 

 subject, occasioned by what he had seen, in which he said that he had repeatedly 

 expostulated with his neighbours and 'tried to stir up principles of compassion 

 as well as honesty in their hearts.'^'' He then dwelt on the Wreck Act of 

 26 George II, cap. 19, just passed, which made plundering, destroying, and 

 wrecking generally, felony punishable with death. The worst instance, 

 within historic knowledge, both of wreck and wrecking on the Dorset coast 

 occurred in 1795. Rear-Admiral Christian with a squadron of men-of-war 

 and upwards of 200 transports with 16,000 troops on board left St. Helens 

 for the West Indies on 16 November ; on the 17th they were caught west 

 of Portland in a terrible gale, and on the i8th six transports went to pieces 

 on the Chesil beach where 234 dead bodies were immediately thrown up, a 

 number increased to 1,600 by the 26th. The worst part of the story was 

 the behaviour of the people ashore, mostly Portlanders, ' who are always 

 praying for wrecks on their coast and whose whole attention was devoted to 

 plunder ' instead of the rescue of the drowning. They were soon reinforced 

 by ' a considerable mob from different parts solely intent on plunder,' until 

 soldiers brought on the scene dispersed them with volleys of musketry. '''° On 

 6 February, 1805, the Abergavenny, an East Indiaman, struck on the 

 Shambles ; she slipped off and the captain headed for Weymouth Roads 

 where she sank in sight of the town, upwards of 300 of the passengers 



"' H.O. Ord. V, 29. '" King's Prints and M.ips (B.M.), 2 Tab. 12 (3). 



^^^ Ann. Register. '^^ Ft3nck\yn, Serious Jr^viee anJ Fair If'arning . . . 1 752. 



"° Jnn. Register, 'Account of an Eyewitness' ; Smith (Charlotte), Narrative of the Loss, &c. Lend. 1796. 



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