A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



and Medmery barn (washed away about 1890) are old leading marks on Selsey Bill ; Medmery and 

 several other marks were, and are, used in conjunction with the spire of Chichester Cathedral. 

 The only artificial beacon belonging to Sussex is the Mixon, on a reef south of Selsey Bill, put 

 up in 1793 and replaced by a new one in 1856. 



In 1804 the private shipbuilders in Sussex were Crookenden at Arundel ; Geere and Blaber, 

 and John Powell, at Newhaven ; Corney and Carver, and Iremonger, at Littlehampton ; Hamilton 

 and Breeds, and Kent and Ransom, at Hastings ; Harvey and Staffele, at Rye ; and Edwardes, Brown, 

 and Oliver, at Shoreham. 1 After the peace of Utrecht there were comparatively few warships 

 built in the county and, notwithstanding the exercise of parliamentary influence, Shoreham does not 

 seem to have obtained an undue proportion of such contracts as were given. Tonnage was steadily 

 increasing until, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, man-of-war sloops were nearly as big 

 as the fourth-rates of the Commonwealth ; this fatally handicapped the shallow Sussex ports. The 

 Chichester was constructed by a London firm, the Taylors, who intended to establish a yard at 

 Itchenor, but the difficulty attending her launch deterred them from continuing their scheme. In 

 the middle of the eighteenth century Chitty and Vernon of Chichester, and Stone and Bartlett of 

 Shoreham, were the Admiralty contractors ; of the Napoleonic war period the builders were 

 Carver & Co., Hamilton & Co., Edwardes, and also Greenwood of Itchenor, who is not mentioned 

 in the preceding list. 



Of the ships and their captains there is little to say. Cloudesley Shovel, Edward Whitaker, 

 John Berry, and George Byng, afterwards Lord Torrington, were captains of the Dover ; another 

 captain was David Lloyd, who, undistinguished as a naval officer, followed James II to France and 

 became very distinguished as the director of the secret correspondence and intrigues carried on from 

 St. Germains. The last captain of the Dover, Andrew Douglas, had been master of a merchantman 

 and had been given his commission by the direct order of William III as a reward for his conduct 

 in bringing up to Londonderry, under fire, his ship laden with supplies when the boom was at last 

 cut by a man-of-war boat. Andrew Leake, later a knight and captain, was commander of the Fox 

 fireship, and her next commander, Thomas Killingworth, was promoted to be captain of a 32-gun 

 ship for grappling a French line-of-battle ship at La Hogue. The Frenchman won clear ; but 

 fireships were so rarely successful, and the commanders so little inclined usually to risk the destruc- 

 tion of themselves and their crews, that Killingworth was handsomely rewarded. When the 

 Sorlings was taken she was in company with the Pendennis, 44, and the Black-wall, 44, both whose 

 captains were killed ; when Captain Coney was tried the court not only acquitted him but added 

 that it 'particularly approves and recommends' his conduct. In contrast to this Captain John 

 Aston, of the Penzance, was court-martialled in 1699 for selling the ship's provisions and over- 

 charging the men for clothes ; very likely Aston would have fought, on occasion, just as well as 

 Coney, but the ethical standard of the Navy at this date was far lower than its fighting level. The 

 Andrew Douglas previously mentioned was commander of the Arundel in 1711 ; in the interval 

 he had been captain of a fourth-rate, but was dismissed the Navy for embezzlements which the court- 

 martial characterized as mean. He was restored in 1709, and it may have been known that 

 professional prejudice existed against him on account of the manner of his entrance among the 

 circle of captains. Certainly the details of his offences do not seem worse than those of other 

 captains who escaped much more lightly, or altogether. The later ships and their captains do not 

 call for extended comment. 



APPENDIX 



LIST (CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED) OF MEN-OF-WAR BUILT IN SUSSEX, WITH THEIR SERVICES 



TO THE CLOSE OF THE NAPOLEONIC WAR. 2 



DOVER (4th rate), 533 tons, 48 guns; built at Shoreham 1654. Services: W.I. 1655 

 (c. Robt. Saunders) ; C. and C. 1656-60 (c. J. Blythe, Robt. Martin, John Hay ward) ; Med. 



1 Parl. Papers (1805), viii, 485. 



1 Abbreviations used : Ch. = Channel Fleet ; Med. = Mediterranean ; W.I. = West Indies ; E.I.= 

 East Indies ; N.S. = North Sea ; I.S. = Irish Station ; Nfd. = Newfoundland ; C. and C. = Convoy and 

 Cruising duties ; N.A. = North America ; G.S. = Guardship ; A.O. = Admiralty Order ; R.S. = Receiving 

 Ship. 



Names of captains or officers subsequently distinguished are within brackets (c. = captain). It should be 

 remembered that only the chief movements of vessels are given. A ship may have been for some years in the 

 Mediterranean, but have returned for short periods for repairs : such intervals are not noticed in the list of 

 services, nor, if occupied in more than one employment in a year, is any other than the principal one usually 

 named. 



164 



