Chapter VI: The North Sea Packets

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 tempted to linger at all after leaving Falmouth. The record of the Irish Packets is incomparably dull. Squabbles between the Post-Office of Great Britain and the Post-Office of Ireland about the precise amount of influence which each should exercise over the Holyhead or the Milford boats, interminable arguments concerning the regulations under which noblemen’s carriages might be stowed on deck during the voyage, lengthy surveys of the coast, complaints from the agent that the captains were disrespectful and from the captains that the agent interfered unwarrantably in their private affairs—such were the subjects of the bulky reports which filled the pigeon-holes devoted at the General Post-Office to the affairs of the two lines of communication with the opposite side of St. George’s Channel.

The Irish Packets, so far as we know, were never in action during the years of which this volume treats. Almost the same remark indeed might be made of the North Sea Packets; but here an interest of another kind arises. The Harwich and Dover boats played manfully a part in a drama of the greatest moment to this country. It was a game in which shot and powder had scarcely any part; yet it called for courage of the highest order, and for resource and seamanship such as British sailors have always shown themselves possessed of in time of need.

The Continental system which called out these faculties was as yet only a dream in Napoleon’s heart; and the story of the North Sea Packets might have been left untouched until that system began to develop itself, had it not happened by a curious chance of fortune that in the year 1798 a sort of rehearsal occurred of the dangers of that troublous time which was yet to come. The winter proved to be of extraordinary severity. The shores of Holland and Northern Germany were beset with ice; the rivers were all closed, and by a sudden turn of temperature the Post-Office was confronted with the identical situation which the masterful hostility of Napoleon created a few years afterwards.

Before proceeding to speak of the difficulties thus created, it will be necessary to explain that the North Sea Packets by no means corresponded to the Falmouth model. Small as the Cornish Packets must appear in the eyes of our generation, accustomed to the vast dimensions of the floating palaces in which travellers of to-day make the Atlantic voyage, the Harwich and Dover boats were smaller still. Many of them indeed were of only fifty tons, while none exceeded eighty tons. The Harwich boats, which plied to Helvoetsluis as their normal port of call, were a trifle larger than the Dover Packets which undertook the shorter voyage to Calais, and they carried somewhat heavier guns. Three-pounders were found to be too heavy for the Dover boats, and had to be exchanged for two-pounders; but the Harwich Packets always carried four four-pounders, and at a later period some of them were allowed a couple of extra guns of the same calibre.

In 1793, when the war broke out, the port of Calais was of course closed to English ships, and the mails for Italy and the Mediterranean could no longer cross France. The situation thus created was too familiar in the last century to occasion any embarrassment at the General Post-Office. In fact, the relations between the Postal authorities in London and Paris were in those days so much the reverse of cordial, even when the two countries were at peace, that the outbreak of hostilities seems to have been not altogether unwelcome at Lombard Street, as closing a channel of communication which had never been used without friction and dispute.

The Dover station was at once closed, and the Packets transferred to Harwich, whence, after a short interval, the whole fleet of both stations was removed to Yarmouth, a port which was supposed to be more conveniently situated for the duties which lay before them. All the mails were forwarded to Helvoetsluis. The relations between the Post-Offices of England and Holland had always been good; and the Service worked well and smoothly until the French power menaced the integrity of Holland.

Throughout the year 1794 the rupture of relations with Holland loomed through the troubled atmosphere, and early in 1795 it became an accomplished fact. Town after town declared for the French. Pichegru’s cavalry, careering over the frozen waters of the Texel, captured the Dutch fleet; the English troops retreated; the Batavian Republic was proclaimed; the resources of Holland were added to those of France, and another outlet for the Continental mails must be found, Helvoetsluis being henceforth closed against us as rigidly as any port in France itself.

In this emergency the British Post-Office naturally looked to Hamburg, with which ancient city it had been in alliance for many generations. The mails were despatched to Cuxhaven, and were there landed and despatched _via_ Hamburg into the interior without obstruction for more than three years. A great frost set in, however, during December, 1798, and before Christmas the severity of the weather had already produced serious difficulties for the Post-Office. The mails began to arrive at very irregular intervals; and each Packet as she reached Yarmouth brought fresh reports of the alarming speed with which ice was forming not only in the Elbe, but even beyond the estuary of the river, so as in a great degree to threaten interruption of all access to the coast. Meantime the frost grew daily more severe. On the 28th December four Hamburg mails were due, and London had been without trustworthy news from the Continent for the best part of a fortnight.

Such an interruption of the regular course of post would have been serious enough at any time; and if commerce only had been injured by it, would have called for the promptest remedy possible. But far greater interests were at stake than those of Threadneedle Street and Mincing Lane. Political events were occurring on the Continent of which intelligence reached London all too slowly at the best of times; and it was quite possible that in the bags lying idle in the Hamburg Post-Office there might be despatches containing news which, whether for good or evil, touched the very existence of the country.

The forethought of the directors of the Hamburg Office had provided to some extent for such a contingency as had now occurred. They had established an agent on the island of Heligoland, whose instructions were to receive the mails whenever the Packets were unable to reach Cuxhaven, and to use any means suggested by his experience for forwarding them to their destination. It was scarcely likely that officials in London could quicken this agent’s apprehension of the urgency of the situation, or suggest any expedient which he had left untried; and yet the uneasiness both in Downing Street and the City was rising to such a pitch that it was resolved to send an energetic officer to attempt both these tasks.

This resolution was hardly taken when the “Champion” frigate, having on board Mr. Grenville, a diplomatist charged with a mission of some importance, put back to Yarmouth, from which port she had sailed for Cuxhaven about a week before. The officers reported having encountered head winds against which they had vainly struggled to make their port, or even to reach the Holstein coast, where the envoy might have landed with some prospect of reaching his destination. They had sighted three Post-Office Packets beating about in the neighbourhood of Heligoland, apparently unable to proceed, while the master of a Bremen galliot had informed them that both the Elbe and the Weser had been frozen up for three weeks.

The prospect appeared hopeless. Where the “Champion” had failed, it seemed useless to expect that a Post-Office clerk would succeed. For a few days, therefore, the matter drifted; but on the 4th January Mr. Freeling was summoned to Downing Street, and in the course of the interview which he had with Ministers so much stress was laid on the necessity of making a great immediate effort to obtain the mails and despatches which were lying at Cuxhaven, that on his return to the city he at once selected Mr. Henry Chamberlayne for the duty, and instructed him to make ready for an immediate departure.

At Downing Street the opinion was held that the conditions of weather which rendered it impracticable to reach the mouth of the Elbe might admit of a landing at Norden in Friesland, from which place a journey overland to Hamburg ought to offer no insuperable difficulties.

A sloop of war was sent round to Yarmouth, where it took up Mr. Chamberlayne, with two King’s messengers, and at once set sail in company with a Post-Office Packet and a lugger. The latter craft was to be detached to obtain the mails at Heligoland, and bring them on to Norden, whither the sloop and the Packet were to proceed direct. The scheme failed hopelessly however. It proved absolutely impossible to land either at Norden or elsewhere within striking distance of Hamburg; and after beating about the North Sea for ten days, wearing themselves out in ineffectual efforts to accomplish their mission, Mr. Chamberlayne and the King’s messengers returned with the report that the thing was impracticable, and that no mails must be looked for until the weather moderated.

Their report, though in the main true enough, and made only after very great efforts to succeed, was already partially disproved in advance. A daring officer of the Yarmouth station had demonstrated that the ice blockade was not impenetrable, and had shown that on a service of this nature the proper person to despatch was a seaman, and one moreover to whom the navigation of the stormy North Sea was thoroughly familiar.

Captain Bridge, commander of the “Prince of Orange,” had received two mails for Cuxhaven on board his Packet on the 9th of December; and it may be interesting to readers of our own day who by long experience have gained confidence in the speed and certainty of mails, to observe how long these mails remained in Captain Bridge’s possession, and how he fared in his efforts to dispose of them.

It was by no means in the power of a Packet captain a hundred years ago to proceed to sea whenever he pleased. He was under the necessity of waiting on the winds; and for a full week after Captain Bridge had received his mails, those winds blew so fiercely from the east that it was quite impossible for the “Prince of Orange” to set out on her voyage.

Nothing short of absolute necessity kept the Packets lying idle. If any craft afloat got out to sea they were expected to do so; but not the best will or the finest seamanship around the coast could take a Packet from Yarmouth upon her course for Hamburg in the teeth of an easterly gale. And so the “Prince of Orange” lay at anchor, while more mails continually collected in the agent’s office, until, when at last the wind veered round, and blew from the south, there were three other Packets also ready to put out to sea.

All four set sail in company; but almost before they had weighed anchor they were suddenly enveloped in a dense fog, in which they separated. At the same time the wind shifted again into the north-east, and rose quickly to a strong gale, with showers of snow and sleet, against which the four Packets beat vainly throughout two nights and a day, when, finding it absolutely impossible to make progress, they returned once more to Yarmouth. Two days afterwards the wind again became favourable, and the Packets, once more hoisting their anchors, went out of Yarmouth Roads with a strong breeze from west-south-west. The fair weather lasted long enough to bring the “Prince of Orange” in sight of Heligoland, where she remained throughout the night, making signals for a pilot, which were not responded to.

Now Captain Bridge was well aware of the critical importance of the service he was engaged on, and by no means intended to be prevented from executing it by the cowardice or sloth of the Heligoland pilots. He knew the coast well, and resolved to attempt a landing. Possibly he might succeed as well without a pilot as with one, since the case was one demanding resolution and daring rather than an exhaustive knowledge of the coast. He was venturing a good deal; for the risks of the sea were his, the Government accepting only those of capture or damage by the enemy.

At daybreak Captain Bridge took in his signals, and made all sail for the mouth of the Elbe. The voyage proved unexpectedly easy. The “Prince of Orange” met with no obstacles. The ice, possibly, had shifted by the action of the tide; but however that may be, the “Prince of Orange” succeeded where others had failed, and at 2 P.M. shot the ice close to Cuxhaven Pier.

This was well enough; but the dangers of the voyage were by no means over. With great difficulty and no small danger a line was got ashore across the pack ice; but this occupied some time. The tide was ebbing like a chain; the Packet had already begun to drift down stream; and before the line could be made fast by the helpers on the quay, it parted, and the “Prince of Orange” lay at the mercy of the stream.

Her position was now highly dangerous. The ice floes closed around her, and navigation was impossible. There was nothing for it but to wait until she grounded, which she did at last upon a sandbank some considerable distance below the town, and not far from the village of Doos.

The “Prince of Orange” lay upon her side at some distance from the shore. Night was falling; the winter darkness was thick, and nothing could be done until daybreak. During the night the ice bore down on the Packet so heavily as to threaten momentarily to capsize her; but though at times it seemed impossible that she could stand the strain of the floes grinding against her timbers, she was still in much the same position when morning came. Moreover, the tide had fallen so far during the night that it was possible to reach the land; and Captain Bridge at once put the mails in safety, and ordering his crew to get ashore whatever they could of value from the ship, which still seemed only too likely to go to pieces, he hired a wagon in the village, and himself delivered the mails and despatches at the agent’s office in Cuxhaven.

He made no long delay in Cuxhaven, being in great anxiety about his ship, but taking over all the bags which the agent had in charge, drove back in his wagon to Doos. The position there had changed for the better during his absence. The Packet had floated off the sandbank, and appeared on examination to be uninjured. The mails were put on board without delay, and Captain Bridge set sail for Yarmouth, where he received great credit for his plucky exploit.

The Yarmouth commanders were all bold seamen, but few of them were willing to take the risks which Captain Bridge had run. The frost continued week after week, and with one exception, when Captain Hammond in the “Carteret” repeated Captain Bridge’s feat, bringing home three mails in triumph, all intercourse with Northern Europe was cut off until the end of January.

It must appear to our modern ideas scarcely possible to exaggerate the inconvenience and distress proceeding from this long stoppage of political and commercial intercourse with the Continent. Such an event occurring at the present day would assuredly bring down to the ground many an old business house, and even shake the foundations of public credit. But our ancestors traded before the days of speedy answers and quick transactions. They were well used to the loss or long delay of letters, and had adjusted their affairs to the conditions of their time. The loss to them, therefore, cannot be measured by what it would impose on us; yet, after making all allowances, it remained very severe, and caused great anxiety to the Government.

As January sped away, bringing with it no change for the better, various suggestions were laid before the Postmaster General by persons who conceived themselves qualified to advise. Among these the most curious was considered to be one for the use of balloons. Great merriment was made in Lombard Street over this idea. It was brought before Lord Auckland in a jocular report, and he, minuting the case in the same spirit, professed his readiness to appoint the inventor of the notion to the post of “Controller of Balloons,” on the usual conditions of personal service, and of being paid after the return voyage. The project seems to us less mad than Lord Auckland thought it; but few men would have been found a century ago to whom the possibilities of ballooning had revealed themselves.

However, whilst one suggestion was being rejected after another, it was certainly desirable to do something, if only to avoid the reproach of inertness; and the receipt of letters of advice from several Greenland merchants in the city seemed to offer ideas which were worth pursuing. These merchants pointed out that it would be easy to collect a number of sailors who were accustomed to find themselves entangled in the ice, and whom experience had taught how to make the best of such a situation. A few such men were hastily brought together, and added to the crews of two of the Packets, each of which was also provided with an ice-boat. At Heligoland preparations were made for more carefully organized attempts to reach the mainland. All these designs were, however, formed too late, for while they were still being perfected, the thaw came, the ice broke up, and the postal communication fell back into its normal course.

So great a difficulty does not seem to have been caused by frost on any other occasion. But the time was drawing near when the will of one man was to erect and hold against English ships a barrier more impenetrable than that of winter, and during those years of doubt and of anxiety, the experience gained by the Post-Office in 1798 and 1799 was turned to good account.