Part 18 (1/2)
The risk would be immense to commercial property; and pillage, in spite of the gates, and every precaution which could be taken, would probably be as extensive as it has been from the Warehouses, or from his Majesty's Dock Yards, where the want of an appropriate Police has been the cause of many abuses.
Police as recently exemplified, is quite a new science in political oeconomy, not yet perfectly understood; it operates as a restraint of the most powerful kind upon all delinquents who would be restrained by nothing else. To the system of vigilance which pervades the criminal actions of labourers upon the River, joined to the imminent danger of detection, is to be attributed the general success of the Marine Police, in preventing depredations.
Wherever a proper Police attaches, good order and security will prevail; where it does not, confusion, irregularity, outrages, and crimes must be expected; wherever great bodies of aquatic labourers are collected together, risk of danger from turbulent behaviour, will be greater in proportion to the number of depraved characters, who, from being collected in one spot, may hatch mischief, and carry it into effect much easier in Docks than on the River. A Police only can counteract this; and to the same preventive system will the commerce of the Port be indebted for securing both the Docks and the Pool against Conflagration. In fine, under every circ.u.mstance where Property is exposed, a preventive Police must be resorted to, in order to be secure.]
The fact is, that the system of River depredations grew, and ramified as the Commerce of the Port of London advanced, until at length it a.s.sumed the different forms, and was conducted by the various cla.s.ses of delinquents, whose nefarious practices are now to be explained under their respective heads.
1st. _River Pirates._--This cla.s.s was generally composed of the most desperate and depraved characters, who followed aquatic pursuits.
Their attention was princ.i.p.ally directed to s.h.i.+ps, vessels, and craft in the night, which appeared to be unprotected; and well authenticated instances of their audacity are recounted, which strongly prove the necessity of a vigorous and energetic Police. Among many other nefarious exploits performed by these miscreants, the following may suffice to shew to what extent their daring and impudent conduct carried them.
An American vessel lying at East-lane Tier, was boarded in the night, while the Captain and crew were asleep, by a gang of River Pirates, who actually weighed the s.h.i.+p's anchor, and hoisted it into their boat with a complete new cable, with which they got clear off.--The Captain hearing a noise, came upon deck at the moment the villains had secured their booty, with which they actually rowed away in his presence, impudently telling him, they had taken away his anchor and cable, and bidding him good morning. Their resources afforded them means of immediate concealment. No Police then existed upon the River, and his property was never recovered.
A similar instance of atrocity occurred about the same time, where the bower anchor of a vessel from Guernsey was weighed, and, with the cable, plundered and carried off in the same manner.
Although only these two instances of extraordinary audacity are specified, others equally bold and daring could be adduced if the limits of this Work would admit of it. When vessels first arrive in the river, particularly those from the West Indies, they are generally very much lumbered. s.h.i.+ps in this situation were considered as the harvest of the River Pirates, with whom it was a general practice to cut away bags of _Cotton_, _Cordage_, _Spars_, _Oars_, and other articles from the quarter of the vessels, and to get clear off, even in the day time as well as in the night. Before a Police existed upon the River all cla.s.ses of aquatic labourers having been themselves more or less implicated in the same species of criminality, generally connived at the delinquency of each other, and hence it followed, that few or none were detected while afloat and the evil became so extensive.
It was frequently the practice of these River Pirates to go armed, and in sufficient force to resist, and even to act offensively if they met with opposition.--Their depredations were extensive among craft wherever valuable goods were to be found; but they diminished in number after the commencement of the war; and now since the establishment of the Marine Police they have almost totally disappeared.
On the return of peace, however, if a system of watchful energy is not maintained, these miscreants must be expected (as on former occasions on the termination of wars) to renew their iniquitous depredations in great force, as numbers of depraved characters may then be expected to be discharged from the Army and Navy.
2d. _Night Plunderers._--These were composed chiefly of the most depraved cla.s.s of watermen, who a.s.sociated together in gangs of four or five in number, for the purpose of committing depredations on the cargoes of lighters and other craft employed in conveying goods to the quays and wharfs. Their practice was to a.s.sociate themselves with one or more of the watchmen who were employed to guard these lighters while cargoes were on board, and by the connivance of these faithless guardians of the night, to convey away in lug boats every portable article of merchandize, to which, through this medium, they often had too easy access.
These corrupt watchmen did not always permit the lighters under their own charge to be pillaged.--Their general practice was, to point out to the leader of the gang those lighters that were without any guard, and lay near their own, and which, on this account, might be easily plundered. An hour was fixed on for effecting the object in view. The Receiver (generally a man of some property) was applied to, to be in readiness at a certain hour before day-light to warehouse the goods. A lug boat was seized on for the purpose. The articles were removed into it out of the lighter, and conveyed to a landing-place nearest the warehouse of deposit. The watchmen in the streets leading to this warehouse were bribed to connive at the villainy, often under pretence that it was a smuggling transaction, and thus the object was effected.
In this precise manner was a quant.i.ty of ashes and hemp conveyed in 1798, to the house of an opulent Receiver. Several other cargoes of hemp, obtained in the same manner, were conveyed up the river, and afterwards carted in the day-time to the repositories of the purchaser, till by the vigilance of the Police Boats, a detection took place, and the whole scene of mischief was laid open.
This species of depredation went to a great extent, and when it was considered that the very men who Were appointed to guard property in this situation were themselves a.s.sociates in the criminality, and partic.i.p.ated in the profit arising from the booty; and that matters were so arranged as to secure the connivance of all those who were appointed to situations with a view to detect and apprehend delinquents; it ceases to be a matter of wonder, that the plunder in this particular line was excessive.
In many instances where goods could not be plundered through the connivance of watchmen, it was no uncommon thing to cut lighters adrift, and to follow them to a situation calculated to elude discovery where the pillage commenced. In this manner have whole lighter loads even of coals been discharged at obscure landing places upon the river, and carted away during the night.
Even the article of Tallow from Russia, which, from the unwieldiness of the packages, appears little liable to be an object of plunder, has not escaped the notice of these offenders: large quant.i.ties have been stolen, and an instance has been stated to the Author, where a lighter loaded with this article was cut from a s.h.i.+p in the Pool, and found next morning with six large casks of tallow stolen, and two more broken open, and the chief part plundered and carried away. In short, while the river remained unprotected nothing escaped these marauders.
3d. _Light-Hors.e.m.e.n_, or Nightly Plunderers of West India s.h.i.+ps.--This cla.s.s of depredators for a long period of time had carried on their nefarious practices with impunity, and to an extent in point of value, that almost exceeds credibility; by which the West India planters and merchants sustained very serious and extensive losses.
The practice seems to have originated in a connection which was formed between the Mates of West India s.h.i.+ps[55] and the criminal Receivers, residing near the river, who were accustomed to a.s.sail them under the pretence of purchasing what is called _sweepings_, or in other words, the spillings or drainings of sugars, which remained in the hold and between the decks after the cargo was discharged. These sweepings were claimed as a perquisite by a certain proportion of the Mates, contrary to the repeated and express rules established by the Committee of Merchants, who early saw the evils to which such indulgences would lead, and in vain attempted to prevent it. The connivance, however, of the Revenue officers became necessary to get these sweepings on sh.o.r.e, and the quant.i.ty of spillings were gradually increased year after year by fraudulent means, for the purpose of satisfying the rapacity of all whose a.s.sistance and collusion was found necessary to obtain the object in view.
[Footnote 55: It is not here meant to criminate all the Mates of s.h.i.+ps in this trade; for a large proportion are known to be men worthy of the trust reposed in them.]
The connection thus formed, and the necessary facilities obtained, from the sale of sweepings, recourse was at length had to the disposal of as much of the cargo as could be obtained by a licence to nightly plunderers, composed of Receivers, Coopers, Watermen, and Aquatic Labourers, who having made a previous agreement with the Mate and Revenue Officers, were permitted, on paying from thirty to fifty guineas, to come on board in the night,--to open as many hogsheads of sugar as were accessible,--and to plunder without controul. For this purpose, a certain number of bags dyed black, and which went under the appellation of _Black Strap_, were provided.--The Receivers, Coopers, Watermen, and Lumpers, went on board at the appointed time, for all these cla.s.ses were necessary. The hogsheads of sugar and packages of coffee, &c. were opened; the black bags were filled with the utmost expedition and carried to the Receivers, and again returned to be refilled until daylight, or the approach of it, stopped the pillage for a few hours. On the succeeding night the depredations were again renewed; and thus, on many occasions, from fifteen to twenty hogsheads of sugar and a large quant.i.ty of coffee, and also in some instances rum (which was removed by means of a small pump called a Jigger, and filled into bladders with nozzels,) were plundered in a single s.h.i.+p, in addition to the excessive depredations which were committed in the same s.h.i.+ps by the Lumpers or labourers who were employed during the day in the discharge of the cargo.--Instances have been adduced, and judicially proved, of various specific s.h.i.+ps having been plundered in an excessive degree in this manner; and it has been estimated upon credible authority, that previous to the establishment of the Marine Police, above one-fifth of the whole fleet suffered by nightly plunder.--The s.h.i.+ps subject to this species of depredation were generally known from the characters of the Mates or Revenue Officers who were on board, and were denominated _Game s.h.i.+ps_, where the aquatic labourers, called Lumpers, would on every occasion agree to work without wages, and even solicit their employers to be preferred on these terms, trusting to a general licence to plunder for their remuneration.
This nefarious traffic had long been reduced to a regular system. The mode of negociation necessary to obtain all the requisite advantages for carrying into execution these iniquitous designs, was not only perfectly understood, but in most cases, where new Officers were to be practised upon, a plan of seduction was resorted to which seldom failed to succeed, when one or more of the old pract.i.tioners in this species of criminality happened to be stationed in the s.h.i.+p.--In this particular line of aquatic depredations, (which certainly was the most mischievous,) scenes of iniquity have been developed, which, from their extent and magnitude, could not have been credited had they stood on any other foundation than that of regular judicial proofs.
4th.--_Heavy Hors.e.m.e.n_, otherwise denominated Lumpers of the most criminal cla.s.s, who generally selected s.h.i.+ps where plunder was most accessible, either from the criminal connivance of the Mates and Revenue Officers, in permitting nightly plunder, or from the carelessness or inattention of these Officers.
This cla.s.s, many of whom occasionally a.s.sisted in the depredations committed during the night, were exceedingly audacious and depraved.
They generally went on board of West India s.h.i.+ps, furnished with habiliments made on purpose to conceal sugar, coffee, cocoa, pimento, ginger, and other articles, which they conveyed on sh.o.r.e in great quant.i.ties, by means of an under waistcoat, containing pockets all round, denominated a _Jemie_; and also by providing long bags, pouches, and socks, which were tied to their legs and thighs under their trowsers.
It is a well-established fact, which does not admit even of the shadow of a doubt, that these miscreants, during the discharge of what they called a _Game s.h.i.+p_, have been accustomed to divide from three to four guineas a-piece every night from the produce of their plunder, independent of the hush-money paid to Officers and others, for conniving at their nefarious practices.
Long habituated to this species of depredation, they became at length so audacious, that it was found extremely difficult to controul them where a disposition existed to protect the cargo from pillage, and where no seduction had taken place.--And indeed, so adroit had this cla.s.s of Lumpers become, that no s.h.i.+p escaped plunder in a certain degree, wherever they were employed, in spite of the greatest vigilance and attention on the part of many of the s.h.i.+pmasters.
5th. _Game Watermen_, so denominated from the circ.u.mstance of their having been known to hang upon West India s.h.i.+ps under discharge for the whole of the day, in readiness to receive and instantly convey on sh.o.r.e _bags of sugar_, _coffee_ and _other articles_, pillaged by the Lumpers and others in the progress of the delivery of the cargo, by which they acquired a considerable booty; as they generally on such occasions were employed to dispose of the stolen articles, under pretence of their being a part of the private adventures of the crew, for which service they usually pocketed one moiety of the price obtained.--It was by such a.s.sistance that Mates, Boatswains, Carpenters, Seamen, and s.h.i.+p Boys, have been seduced, and even taught to become plunderers and thieves, who would otherwise have remained honest and faithful to the trust reposed in them. Many of the watermen of this cla.s.s were accustomed to live in a style of expence by no means warranted, from the fair earnings of honest industry in the line of their profession.--An instance has been known of an apprentice lad in this line having kept both a mistress and a riding horse out of the profits of his delinquency.