My acknowledgments are due to Mrs. Ball, of Roscarrach, Falmouth, for permission to make use, in illustrating this work, of four pictures in her possession, namely, two of the action of the “Duke of Marlborough” with the “Primrose” one of the “Windsor Castle,” and one of the “Hinchinbrooke” To Mr. Burton, of the Old Curiosity Shop, Falmouth, I am indebted for an illustration of Russell’s Wagons; and to many other friends, in Cornwall and elsewhere, for very kind assistance and advice....

No nation can afford to forget its past history; and England, of all others, whose power is so deeply rooted in sea-fights, should not be careless of her naval records. After many generations of almost ceaseless warfare, there has been a long breathing time of peace, an interval which could not be better spent than in collecting and recording the actions of those brave men whose struggles ensured our ease, and preserving them for our own benefit, as well as for that of posterity. This task has b

It may be that from the bird’s-eye view given in the previous chapter, the reader has gathered some impression of the magnitude of the Post-Office establishment at Falmouth, and of the strength and number of the ties which united it with the prosperity of that town. To describe in similar detail the life of other Packet Stations would be tedious and useless; for no one of them could vie with the great Cornish seaport in any circumstance of interest. The Dover Station, whence the Calais Packets s

At the beginning of the year 1793, then, while the relations of this country with France were quickly growing desperate, the two statesmen who, according to the custom of the time, jointly filled the office of Postmaster General, were engaged in endeavouring to set their Department in order, and to reduce the expenses of administration, as the House of Commons Committee had directed. The difficulty of any interference in a system which had grown up through a whole century was obviously very grea

The period on which the Post-Office now entered was, as far as its Foreign Mail Service was concerned, one of struggle and disaster. A long series of calamities was at hand, sufficient to shake the faith of those who trusted most firmly in the new system, and furnishing to those who from the first disliked and feared it, a well-nigh inexhaustible supply of arguments. Before entering on this category of misfortunes it is necessary to remark again that throughout the war terminated by the peace of

Disaster came treading close on the heels of success, and while the reports of Captain Skinner’s gallant defence were still being digested in Lombard Street, the news arrived that the “Duke of York,” outward bound for Barbados and Jamaica, had been captured by a Privateer carrying twenty “long double fortified four-pounders,” and no less than one hundred and seventy men. The remaining months of 1798, and the early ones of 1799 passed away without further misfortunes. If it had been otherwise, it

Thus far, for the sake of clearness, the narrative has concerned itself with the Falmouth Packets alone. The successive developments by which the root of the mischief existing on the Cornish station gradually revealed itself to all the world were too important to be complicated with the affairs of other stations, especially when those affairs, with very few exceptions, were neither interesting nor considerable. In fact, it is only on the stations whence the North Sea Packets sailed that one is t

With the outbreak of the second French War, the Falmouth service entered on a new and better period. It is in fact to the years now opening that Falmouth men look back with pride and satisfaction, years in which one gallant action followed another in quick succession, whilst the officers and crews of every Packet seemed to vie with each other in courage and devotion to their duties. A large portion of the credit of the better temper which manifested itself from this time forth must of course be

Relieved as they were by recent events from all apprehension about the conduct of the Falmouth Packets, my Lords the Postmaster General yet found themselves involved in anxieties and difficulties, which were daily growing more acute. It was the growth of the Continental System, the blockade of all intercourse with the ports of Europe which give rise to these difficulties; and to follow plainly the efforts made to cope with this new situation of affairs, it will be necessary to revert once more t

The loss of Denmark’s friendship may possibly have been balanced in the eyes of Mr. Canning by the possession of her fleet, but to the Postmaster General and the other officials at Lombard Street, who were responsible for the maintenance of Postal communications it was a very grievous disaster. The device of sending letters under cover to Altona, involving as it did much inconvenience and delay even if the letters were as safe as Mr. Nicholas believed, had been resorted to with much grumbling on

For some years My Lords the Postmaster General had found an ever growing source of satisfaction in the conduct of their Packets in face of the enemy. There was abundant credit to be had out of controlling a body of officers who went into action with the spirit of Captain Anthony, Captain Rogers, or Mr. James. The navy itself could have produced no better seamen or more gallant officers: yet, just as the navy was tainted here and there with mutiny, so the sailors of the Post-Office Service broke

The contrast between the events detailed in the last few chapters on the one hand, and on the other those which occurred in the nine years preceding the Peace of Amiens, must strike the most casual reader very forcibly. Where, in those earlier years, was that splendid daring with which Captain Rogers led his men to victory, that dogged obstinacy which brought Captain Anthony successfully out of three fights against a heavy superiority of force within two years, that self-sacrificing zeal which a

The number of Packets stationed at Falmouth was not as large as to enable My Lords, or their Secretary, Mr. Freeling, to contemplate the ravages of the American Privateers without dismay. The mere fact that so many Packets were either in the hands of the enemy or undergoing repairs which must necessarily be lengthy, was enough to create much embarrassment in the present, while the outlook for the immediate future was gloomy and depressing. The difficulties were exasperated by the total loss of t

It is now necessary to revert briefly to the state of the postal communications with northern Europe, which, when the subject was last mentioned in the ninth chapter of this work, were stated to depend on the chances of a system of smuggling organized from the newly acquired island of Heligoland. Within two years from that time (1807) the contraband trade had increased along the whole coast of the North Sea and the Baltic in an astonishing degree. Bourrienne, who was still at Hamburg, and who di