Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION THREE.
THE PASSAGE.
II. THE SHIPS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.

The size of the ships of the Passage before the Conquest
may be estimated by the fact that, when they went to sea
for warHke purposes, they were manned by twenty men
each. They appear to have been strong galleys propelled
by oars and sails, with the assistance from the currents of
the Straits, which the Dover mariners knew very well how
to utilise. The route of the Dover Passage, until the
Fourteenth Century, was from Dover directly across to the
French port of Wissant. The harbours available, at that
time, at both places were small, but sufficient.

Looking into the arrangements of the Passage in
Edwardian times, we find it well maintained. A Royal
Decree, " given by Edward II. on the 14th cf September,
13 1 2," makes the following points as to the Passage clear: —
(i) that the Dover Passage was then a concession to the
Corporation of Dover; (2) that it was farmed by a fellowship
of twenty-one master mariners ; (3) that the Passage fellow-
ship was controlled by the Mayor and Commonalty of the
Borough of Dover; (4) that the turns of the ships were
regulated by two Wardens of the Passage, who were
empowered to inflict fines on members of the fellowship
who did not obey the regulations of the Corporation.

This settled organisation existing in 1312 under the
sanction of the Crown suggests that this management of the
Passage by a fellowship of Dover shipowners, under the
control of the Dover local authority, had been continuous
since the Saxon Period.

There was an agreement made between the Corporation
and the Passage Fellowship on the 23rd October, 1323, and
ratified by the Lord Warden, providing that the Corporation's
share of the profits should be 2/- for each ship laden with
horse travellers; and i/- for each ship laden with foot
passengers. In 1343 this agreement was submitted to
Edward III. for confirmation, but before assenting to it the
King added a stipulation that the monopoly of the Passage
should not be handed over to the " ring " of twenty-one
shipowners forming the Fellowship, but that " all and



THE PASSAGE I47

singular, of the Port of Dover, who were able, and wished
to possess Passage ships should have their turns of the
Passage, provided that they, like the others, made contri-
butions from the profits to assist the Corporation in per-
forming the services due to the King and to meet the
necessities of the Port."

The working of the Passage by the Fellowship under
Municipal control may be said to have reached the zenith
in the latter part of the Fourteenth Century. That prosperity,
under normal conditions, ought to have increased; but the
wars of this country with France, and the subsequent civil
strife, called the Wars of the Roses, introduced disorganisa-
tion, which finally broke up the Passage Fellowship, leaving
an opening for Sandwich on the one side, and Hythe on the
other, to use their ships for the same purpose as Dover had
done for centuries. When Henry VII. came to the Throne
in 1485, affairs of State remained in an unsettled condition,
and it was not until eleven years after, when Henry, Duke
of York, had been made Lord Warden, and Sir Edward
Poynings, who showed special interest in Dover, had become
the Lieutenant of the Castle, that an effort was made to
re-construct the Passage Fellowship. In the records of the
Cinque Ports Court of Admiralty it is stated that " On the
20th day of August, in the eleventh year of the reign of
Henry VII., in the Common Hall at Dover, in the presence
of the reverend and right worshipful Sir Edward Poynings,
Knight, Lieutenant of Dover Castle, under Prince Henry,
Duke of York, and Admiral of the Cinque Ports, all the
possessioners and owners of the vessels belonging to the
Passage of Dover, for the settlement of grievances between
the said owners about the ' turns ' of the Passage, agreed
that the owners of vessels should be formed into a general
fellowship. From that date there should again be Wardens
of the Passage chosen to see that the ships and crayers used
on the Passage .should be sufficiently garnished and apparelled
to safeguard the King's people; and that these ships, after
departing out of the Wyke at Dover for a voyage, should
be at the adventure of the Fellowship."

This well-meant effort to revive the Fellowship does
not appear to have succeeded. Soon after Prince Henry,
becoming heir to the throne, ceased to be Lord Warden, and
owing to the decayed condition of the Harbour the Passage
business went from bad to worse. In spite of the tentative



148 ANNALS OF DOVER

efforts of Henry VII. to encourage the building of a new
harbour at Archcliff Point, and the great expenditure of
Henry VIII., in the same direction, there was no real
improvement in the Passage until the reign of Elizabeth,
whose evident desire to favour the Port caused hope to revive
in the breasts of the mariners. Those who had money spent
it in shipbuilding and the shipwrights' craft became once
more brisk on the Dover beach. Again the Port had twenty
sea-going ships and 400 mariners all of whom were in turn
engaged on the Passage. Later in the same reign the harbour
was enormously improved, and Dover, on its merits as a port,
without any legally enforced monopoly, gained the renown
of being the principal port for landing and embarking
Continental travellers.

The ships of the Passage were practically of the same
class from the end of the Tudor period until the beginning
of the Georgian era — small sloop rigged craft, of about
forty tons burden. In the beginning of the Stuart period
it appears from the records of the Court of Lodenaanage, that
the port had 49 vessels registered to cross the Channel. They
were plying between Dover and Calais, Dover and Nieuport,
with occasional voyages to Boulogne and Dieppe. The
Passage was continued with fair regularity during the reign
of Charles I., the Civil War and the Commonwealth, the
chief danger in those days being from pirates. John Evelyn,
in his diary, under date 12th July, 1649, says: — " At Dover
we at II p.m. went on board a barque guarded by a pinnace
of 8 guns, the first time the Packet-boat obtained a convoy,
it having several times been pillaged. We had a good
passage, though chased some hours by a pirate, but he durst
not attack our frigate, and we then chased him until he got
under the protection of Calais Castle. It was a small
privateer belonging to the Prince of Wales." Under the
date 30th June, 1650, Evelyn records the return voyage thus:
" About three in the afternoon we embarked in the Packet
boat, hearing that there was a pirate then setting sail. We
had security from molestation, and so, with a fair S.W. wind,
in seven hours, we landed at Dover. The busy watchmen
would have us to the Mayor, but that gentleman (Mr. Edward
Prescott) being in bed, we were dismissed." On the 13th
July, in the same year, Evelyn made use of the Dover Passage
again. He says: — " At six in the evening set sail for Calais;
the wind not favourable. I was very sick. Came to an



THE PASSAGE I49

anchor at one o'clock. About 5 a.m., we had a long boat
to carry us to land though at a good distance ; this we willingly
entered because two vessels were chasing us. . . . God
be thanked we got safely to Calais, though wet." In February
1652, Evelyn crosed from Calais to Dover — his last crossing
during the Commonwealth. At Calais owing to the Straits
being infested with pirates he had to wait until two or three
" lusty vessels," which they could not attack, set sail.
Evelyn does not give the time of the voyage, but says, " I
embarked early in the Packet-boat. 'Twas calm so that we
got not to Dover until 8 at night." It seems as though the
crossing, on that occassion, occupied ten or eleven hours.
Neither does Evelyn mention what the fare amounted to,
but his experience was to the effect that money was needed
to make things pleasant at Dover with the searchers of the
baggage. He says, " At Dover money to the searchers and
officers was as authentic as the hand and seal of Bradshaw
himself."

A proportion of the profits of the Passage, as arranged
by the agreement of 131 2, continued to be paid to the Cor-
poration until 1688. When the control of the Harbour
passed by Charter from the Corporation to the Lord Warden
and Assistants in 1606 the Corporation in consideration of
these profits still had to call the inhabitants together with their
shovels to keep the Harbour clear for the Passage ships, but
in 1688 the accumulation of shingle was so great that the
Corporation surrendered all their interest in the Passage to
the Harbour Commissioners rather than attempt to remove
the Bar. After that date the Passage Boats were
mainly carried on by the private enterprise of the mariners
of Dover, with the exception of the Mail Packet Boats which
were under contract with the farmers of the Post Office, the
navigation being supervised by the Dover Court of Lode-
manage, of which the Lord Warden, or his Deputy, the
Lieutenant of Dover Castle was the President.



150 ANNALS OF DOVER