MARITIME HISTORY 



security and to get the services or more men a new defensive body, the Sea 

 Fencibles, was created by an Order in Council of 14 May, 1798, It was 

 raised with the intention of meeting an invading flotilla with another of the 

 same character, and for the purpose of manning the coast defences ; it was 

 to be composed of boatmen and fishermen, as well as the semi-seafaring 

 dwellers of the shore who were not liable to impressment. The men were 

 to be volunteers, and the principal inducement offered was that, while 

 enrolled, the sea-faring members were not subject to impressment ; they 

 were under the command of naval officers and were paid one shilling a day 

 while on service. In Dorset there was one complete district and parts of 

 two others ; the first extended from Calshot, in Hampshire, to St. Aldhelm's 

 Head, with one captain, four lieutenants, and 482 men; the second from 

 St. Aldhelm's to Puncknowle, with seven officers and 284 men, and the third 

 from Puncknowle to Teignmouth, with eight officers and 331 men.'*"* The Sea 

 Fencibles were disbanded in 1802, but reconstituted in 1803 to satisfy 

 popular feeling although no confidence was placed in them by experts. 

 The outer ring of fleets, with a great volunteer army at home, were relied 

 upon for security until Trafalgar extinguished any possibility of invasion. 



The establishment of signal stations round the coast was commenced 

 after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Those at Ballard Hill, Round 

 Down, St. Aldhelm's Head, Hamborough Hill, the Verne, Portland, Punc- 

 knowle, and Whitelands date from 1794, and Golden Cap from 1796.*^* In 

 1803 a return was made to the mediaeval system of fire beacons which were 

 prepared for use in suitable positions. ^^' In 1752 there were eight guns at 

 Portland Castle ; *'" during the Great War the number was reduced to five, 

 but there were two detached batteries erected mounting seven guns.'" At 

 Swanage there was a powder magazine and a temporary three-gun battery 

 dismantled at the peace. The Nothe Fort at Weymouth consisted of a central 

 circular building of brick for two traversing guns, with platforms on either 

 flank carrying two guns each ; '^* the artillery was removed in 1821 and the 

 battery used as a coastguard station.'^' Bridport possessed two batteries, of 

 two guns each, for which the emplacements had been built by the county. 

 A magazine was constructed at Dorchester in 1809. 



It will be noticed'"" that a man-of-war sloop of 270 tons was built at 

 Poole in 1746, the first war ship launched in the county for the Admiralty. 

 Her builder was Mr. Tito Durell, but she had no successor, for reasons which 

 can only be guessed at, for many years. An Act for the restoration of 

 Bridport Harbour had passed in 1722, but no steps were taken under it until 

 nearly the middle of the century. In 175 1 the new harbour was said to be 

 large enough to contain 40 sail,''' and thenceforward shipping trade came to 

 the town, and shipbuilding was commenced. The increase of the sloop class 

 and the introduction of gunbrigs, at the close of the eighteenth century, 

 brought government work to many small builders, and those of Bridport had 

 a share of the contracts which included some large sloops. In 1804 

 Messrs. Bools and Good were the Bridport builders, and they constructed all 



™ Pari. Papers, 1857-8, xxxix, 337. "* Acct. Gen. Misc. Var. no. 



''' See W. Jennings, map of Dorset, 1803. 



"^ Add. MSS. 22875. "' W. O. Ord. Engineers, cxlvii. 



'-" Ibid. "' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd ed), ii, 441. 



"" App. of Ships. "' Whatley, England's Gazetteer, Lond. 175 i. 



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