A HISTORY OF DORSET 



and crew being drowned. Operations with the diving bell to recover the 

 specie she carried were continued off and on until i8 12, when the wreck, was 

 partly blown up. 



A catalogue of wrecks is unnecessary, but the loss of a French ship off 

 Weymouth in October, 1839, may be mentioned because John Mantle, a 

 coastguardsman, saved the people by swimming off to her with a rope, for 

 which he received the Royal Humane Society's Gold Medal and other 

 rewards. There was, however, no improvement in the habits of the local 

 population. In the previous year three vessels were lost on the Chesil in 

 November ; the coastguard officers reported that the shore was ' completely 

 lined with men, women, and children whose only object was plunder , . . 

 the people from Portland, who completely covered the beach, committed the 

 most bare-faced plunder.' One officer describes them to his superior as ' the 

 lawless barn-door savages of the coast. '^-' As recently as 1872, when the 

 Royal Adelaide broke up on the Chesil, scores of people were seen lying about 

 the beach dead drunk as the barrels of spirits which formed part of her cargo 

 came ashore. In September, 1859, the Great Eastern, while on her first trip, 

 anchored in Portland Roads after an explosion on board; and in January, 1879, 

 the Constitution, the American frigate which took four British men-of-war 

 during the war of 18 12, was ashore in Swanage Bay but got off uninjured. 



During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars there was no great 

 apprehension in official circles of a descent on Dorset whatever fears may 

 have been felt in the county. Such a descent could only have been in the 

 nature of a diversion to assist a real attack on Portsmouth or Plymouth and 

 was only possible in the absence of the fleets, a contingency which was not 

 allowed to occur. In 1798 the Weymouth Corporation petitioned for a 

 guardship to lie in Portland Roads but the Admiralty did not think it 

 necessary to place one there. When the war commenced the supply of 

 seamen was altogether insufficient to man the royal and merchant navies, 

 although years of ever-widening commerce and of naval success had their 

 effect, eventually, in attracting thousands of men to the sea. Therefore, 

 besides the impress system, always working, and a suspension of certain 

 sections of the Navigation Acts, Parliament sanctioned in 1795 and 1796 an 

 experiment analogous to the ship-money project of Charles I by requiring 

 the counties each to obtain a certain number of men, not necessarily all 

 seamen, for the Navy, who were to be attracted by a bounty to be raised by 

 an assessment charged in every parish like other local rates.'" In 1795 the 

 county was called upon for 142, and in 1796 for 184 men, comparing with 

 393 and 509, respectively, for Devon and 236 and 306 for Hampshire. 

 The ports, also, were required to procure sailors by the same means, an 

 embargo being placed upon all British shipping until they were obtained ; 

 Lyme was rated for 23, Weymouth for 139, and Poole for 279 men. 

 Dartmouth and Poole, the two great Newfoundland ports, show the highest 

 numbers on the south coast, and Poole ranks twelfth in a list of 104 towns. 



In 1798 men were needed more than ever, and the French government 

 was known to be considering the possibility of raids, or a descent in force, in 

 gunboats, fishing boats, barges, and the like. Therefore, to afford local 



'■' Pari. Papers, 1839, ^"''' ^'■/<"* o" t^" Constabulary Force, 1 19. 

 '-' 35 Geo. Ill, cap. 5 ; 37 Geo. Ill, cap. 4. 



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