Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION THREE.
THE PASSAGE.
IV. THE LAST SAILING AND FIRST STEAM PACKETS.

The last century of the Sailing Packets extended from
1720 until 1820. Before the first mentioned date the
general conditions of the Passage Service had improved.
There was more security, which stimulated the Dover
mariners to improve their ships, and their well directed
enterprise made the sailing fleet of the Passage the pride of
Europe. During that period the swiftest cutters on the sea
were built in those Dover ship-yards, or on the Archcliff
Beach. For speed nothing could beat them, and their
fame brought the Dover ship builders orders from all quarters.
Those Dover built vessels, in fair weather, usually sailed from
Dover to Calais in one tide, leaving Dover on the flood, and
that tide if favourable weather prevailed, carried them into
Calais Harbour. If they missed the tide the landing was
effected in small boats which was inconvenient and expensive.
At Dover the landing charges were regulated by the Com-
missioners of Salvage, the fee being 4s. for landing or
embarking a grown person, and 2s. for a child.

Before parting from the Passage Sailing Packets some
particulars may be given of them and their skippers as
recorded in the Port-List pf 18 19. The day of farming the
mails was then long past, and at that time the Post Office had
their own Packets, namely: —

The Lord Duncan Master .. J. Hamilton

The Chichester „ ... J. W. Rutter

The King George ,, M. King

These were very smart sloops of about 70-tons register.
A model of the King George is in the Dover Museum. They
commenced to carry the mails immediately after the Peace of
1814. The other passage Sailing Packets plying between
Dover and Calais were: —



The Ant

The Cumberland...

The Dart

The Defence
The Elizabeth ...



Master



T. Barrett
J. Hammond
M. Bushell
J. Adams
W. Bushell



A.


Watson


T.


Archer


T.


Mercer


W.


Mowll


J-
T.
A


Hayward
Noyce
Peake


W.


Strains


W.


Rogers
J. Moon


T.


Middleton


S


. Bushell



154 ANNALS OF DOVER

The Flora Master

The Industry ,,

The King George (2nd) ... ,,
The Lady Castlereagh ... ,,

The Lady Jane James ... ,,

The Lark ,,

The Lord Sidmouth ,,

The Poll

The Prince Leopold ,,

The Susanna ,,

The Sybil ,,

The Vigilant

The " Prince Leopold " was the vessel which brought
over Her Majesty Queen Caroline in 1820. Messrs. Minet
and Fector, and Messrs. Latham, Rice and Co. had many
extra vessels employed on the Passage.

The first steam-packet on the Dover Passage was the
" Rob Roy," in 1820, the hull of which was built by Mr.
Denny, and the engines by Mr. Daniel Napier, her register
being 90 tons, and her engines thirty horse power. This
novelty on the Passage was due to private enterprise, for
the Post Office still continued to use sailing ships for the
mails, and the great personages who crossed in 1820 put
more trust in sails than steam. In 1822 Messrs. John and
William Hayward, two enterprising Dover men, put two
steam-packets on the Passage, which they had built specially
for the service. The vessels were named the "Sovereign"
and the " Monarch," each a hundred tons burden, with
thirty-two horse power engines. Still the mails were carried
in sailing packets; but in 1823 the "Spitfire," a boat 83 feet
long and 30 feet beam, with forty horse power engines,
which had also been put on the Passage by private enterprise,
was adopted by the Post Ofliice for carrying the mails, and
she continued to do so for the next five years, in conjunction
with H.M. steamships " Fury," " King George," and
" Eclipse." In addition to those steamers, employed by
the Post Office, there were four steamers, named the
" Monarch," the " Sovereign," the " Britannia," and the
" Medusa," run by private firms. The Post Office steamers,
once or twice a week, went to Ostend and Boulogne as well
as to Calais. Alongside these steamers, sailing ships were
still used, more especially by bankers and mercantile houses,
to convey dispatches and specie. These sailing sloops, which



THE PASSAGE 1 55

usually made the passage in three and a half hours, sometimes
carried as much as 200,000 sovereigns in specie cases, and
frequently they rendered the service which the telegraph did
later, and carried news dispatches which enabled big opera-
tions to be successfully performed on the Money Market.
The time of the steam-packets in crossing was, for some
years, irregular, and is not reliably recorded. In 1830, the
" Firefly," a steam vessel then considered to be the wonder
of the age, usually crossed from Dover to Calais in three
hours. The competition between steam and sail helped to
popularise the Dover Passage, and the number of travellers
to and from the Continent steadily increased.



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156 ANNALS OF DOVER