A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



when Edward Dummer, the Surveyor of the Navy, Captain Edward Wilshaw, a member of the 

 Navy Board, and two Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, visited and reported on all the harbours 

 of the south coast likely to be of use. 1 Of Fowey they wrote, ' We esteem it to serve upon urgent 

 necessities to shelter small ships if they lie fair for it ... but not advisable, in our opinions, to be 

 chosen for any services for the navy.' Falmouth was definitely condemned, being ' clogged with 

 many very inconvenient shoals and sudden soundings, and therefore not very much frequented by 

 shipping : it was surveyed by order in the year 93, and judged not to abound in those qualifications 

 which are proper for the improvement of the navy.' Helford was dismissed as ' small and incon- 

 siderable for ships of war.' There was a long-lived prejudice in the old navy against both Falmouth 

 and the Scillies, that against the latter being intensified by Shovel's disaster in 1707. Navy men 

 usually gave the islands a wide berth ; in 1810 it was estimated that not one officer in ten had ever 

 been within three miles of them, and that the navigation of the continental coast, from Toulon to 

 the Great Belt, was better known in the Service than that of these dreaded roadsteads. 2 It was pro- 

 posed in that year to build a breakwater in Broad Sound to shelter ten or twelve sail of the line 

 and 400 or 500 smaller ships, the particular advantage of the station being that vessels leaving it 

 could weather Ushant with the wind from the westward. The cost was calculated at nearly 

 2,000,000, but the close of the war did away with any possibility of its adoption, especially as the 

 want of supplies, water in particular, was one still confessed and unremedied. Falmouth was chosen 

 in 1794 as the base for a squadron of frigates cruising in the western Channel, but it was not liked 

 by admirals with heavy ships in their command, who found it difficult to get out with any wind 

 from E.S.E. to W. In March, 1806, Lord St. Vincent was there with eight of the line, and 

 found it hard to leave with the wind even at north-east by east ; he wrote afterwards to the 

 Admiralty that something would have to be done at any expense to make Plymouth a better road- 

 stead, 'for the difficulty of getting out of Falmouth harbour in winter time is so great it cannot be 

 depended upon.' 3 Earl Spencer, who was First Lord from 1794 to 1800, disliked Falmouth as 

 ' neither easy nor safe for large ships to go in or out of except in very favourable winds and weather' * 

 but, like most political First Lords, he was probably merely repeating the ideas of his professional 

 colleagues, and it is only evidence of naval opinion. There was a general feeling at this time that 

 more shelter to the westward was an immediate necessity ; Falmouth, Cawsand Bay, and Torbay 

 were all discussed ; ' we must lay out a million or two of money in making artificial shelter somewhere. 5 

 Cawsand Bay was a smaller anchorage than Torbay, and, in the winter months at least, a very 

 unsafe one, with heavy seas frequently running, so that transports and merchantmen dared not 

 anchor there. Eventually, we know, all these indefinite schemes of improvement materialized into 

 Plymouth Breakwater. As Falmouth was used during the French war as a cruiser and subsidiary 

 station a certain quantity of supplies and some hospital and depot ships were kept in the port. By an 

 order of 12 July, 1814, the naval establishment there was closed, everything being removed to 

 Plymouth. 6 



The maritime history of Cornwall in modern times ceases to be of interest from a military 

 point of view. Its situation was too remote to be of use to an invader in his principal object, and 

 the powerful fleets kept in commission had terminated the era of plunder raids. There were evanescent 

 alarms of Jacobite or other invasion, and the ports often saw privateers. In 1692 Padstow was 

 blockaded by them, five coasters being taken in one day in sight of the port ; 7 the navy was never 

 sufficiently large nor ubiquitous to keep the coasts quite clear. In 1756 a French privateer, 

 hampered by an adverse wind, tried for three days to land 200 men in Mount's Bay, but she 

 waited too long and was taken by H.M.S. Tartar. In 1760 Penzance had another alarm and the 

 volunteer company turned out, but the strange vessel proved to be an Algerine, and on inquiry it 

 was found that the captain thought himself to be in the Atlantic and making Cadiz. 8 However, 

 the local defences were never tested seriously. In 1716 there was a -survey of the coast fortifica- 

 tions generally ; when Star Castle was found to be in fair condition, the ancient castle at Tresco 

 was still capable of carrying six guns, and there were many other batteries, with, altogether, 

 1 2O guns, but mostly dismounted or on rotting carriages. Pendennis, in a bad state, had ninety- 

 seven guns, and St. Mawes, in good repair, eighteen. 9 It being held that the forts were all over- 

 gunned, from the standpoint of continental military science, sweeping reductions were ordered, 



1 Sloane MS. 3,233. 



1 Tucker, Report . . . concerning . . . the Islands of Sally, Lond. 1810. In a gale of 1786 'every 

 ship that lay there was driven to sea, and most of them dismasted ' (Gent. Mag.}. 



3 Correspondence of Admiral Markham, p. 43 ; Navy Records Soc. 1904. Again, 'Falmouth harbour 

 preferred (by the captains) because of its repose and difficulty of getting out of it ' (Tucker, Memoirs of the Earl 

 of St. Vincent, ii, 271, St. Vincent to Sec. of Admiralty). 



1 W. O. Sec. of State Entry Books, cxiii, fol. 237. 



b Memoir ofWm. Marsden (Secretary of the Admiralty), p. 1 1 1. Privately printed, 1838. 



6 Admir. Sec. Misc. dviii. ' Treas. Papers, xviii, 67. 



8 Gilbert, Par. Hist, of Cornwall, iii, 97. King's MS. 45. 



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