540 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



during summer in the herring bounty trade, and at other 

 times in the coasting trade; in 1796, the number was 

 thirty. In 1811, it had risen to forty-four vessels of six- 

 teen to 127 tons burthen, aggregating 1,612 tons, and 

 giving employment to 156 men and boys. In 1827, the 

 number of trading vessels belonging to the port stood at 

 seven ; but the enterprise of Sir James Matheson, who added 

 a patent ship to his many improvements, gave a stimulus to 

 the shipping industry during the succeeding half century. 

 Until they were gradually eliminated by the victorious 

 inroads of steam, the sailing vessels of Stornoway were 

 a lucrative source of revenue to their owners, and to the 

 town. 



At the end of the eighteenth century, inroads of a more 

 dramatic nature were made upon the shipping of the port. 

 In 1799, a Stornoway vessel was captured by a French 

 privateer almost in sight of Stornoway Harbour ; and that 

 was only one of similar losses during the war with France. 

 The whole of the shipping in the harbour, and the town 

 itself, were on one occasion " held up " by two impudent 

 privateers, which took possession of the Minch for a whole 

 fortnight, none daring to make them afraid. Mr. Headrick, 

 writing in 1800 about these occurrences, thought it was 

 high time for a battery to be established in Stornoway for 

 the defence of the town. It is now, a century later, one 

 of the chief stations in the kingdom, of the Royal Naval 

 Reserve, and possesses one of the most efficient corps of 

 volunteers in the North of Scotland. Recruits for the 

 Navy, as well as for the Army, were readily obtainable in 

 the Long Island in the eighteenth, and during part of the 

 nineteenth, century ; but when the supply grew scarce, the 

 pressgang scoured the coast. Many a tale could be told 

 of the operations in those remote parts, both of the press- 

 gang and of smugglers. Both systems relieved the mon< 

 tony of life in the Outer Hebrides ; but while one add< 

 to the gaiety of the people, the other had a distinct!] 

 sobering effect. Illicit distilling was carried on openly ii 

 Lewis as late as 1827. It was no uncommon thing for 



