Smuggling in Appledore – the truth, was the promise of Appledore historian, David
Carter, at the outset of his talk, ‘Appledore Smuggling and Shipwrecks’, at the July
Monthly Meeting of Bude & District U3A.
The meeting, at the Parkhouse Centre, Bude, began in the usual way of monthly
meetings with a welcome and a few notices from U3A Chairman Jim Buck. He then
handed over to Vice Chairman, Nick Faulks who introduced the speaker, David Carter,
the author of three books on the history of Appledore. The speaker began by asking if
smuggling was really as exciting and romantic as we tend to think? What was the truth?
What really went on? Why and When?
U3A members learnt that the ‘golden age of smuggling’ was from around 1700 to about
1850, although of course it also happened before and after those dates. The English
Channel was the most popular area around the English coastline for smugglers. There
are of course no official records, but David, who does all his own research, said that
evidence can be found in such places as parish registers, letters and ledgers of the
time, and customs house information.
The most popular goods smuggled were rum, brandy and wine, tobacco, wool, and tea.
Around the coast of North Devon, the contraband was mostly smuggled via trading
vessels legitimately en route from Ireland to Bideford or Appledore, and was transferred
to them while still out at sea. A vessel with a cargo of limestone might therefore be
concealing a load of tea and brandy when it arrived in port! It is thought that two thirds
of the tea drunk in England at one time was smuggled into the country.
Later in the 18th Century things became more difficult for the smugglers as customs boards were established locally and sea going patrols began. There was also still some local collusion. For instance, the fast and manoeuvrable pilot cutters would race and
compete with one another for the job of guiding a vessel into port. The winner would also likely receive a share of any loot on board. Gig racing has its origin in these competing pilot cutters vying for business.
Turning to the history of shipwrecks over 500 years off the North Devon coast close to
Appledore, David, who illustrated his talk with a succession of informative images, said
that the worst time for shipwrecks was from about 1750 to 1910. After that there were
fewer shipwrecks and more people survived as the construction of ships improved, the
age of sail came to an end, and the RLNI was founded.
Prior to that, wrecks and numbers of casualties were under-recorded. A vessel could have been dashed to pieces on the rocks with no survivors, without anyone knowing.
Even with knowledge of a wreck, if there were no survivors, it would be almost
impossible to tell how many lives were lost.
The speaker’s own research has indicated that there were about 400 wrecks and about
2,000 deaths in total in the Appledore area, many more than records suggest. His
calculations also show that 786 lives were saved by the RLNI during Victorian times.
He went on to describe some of the worst shipwrecks around Appledore, including that
of the HMS Weazle in 1799 off Baggy Point, ‘the worst ever’ with the loss of more than
100 crew. The remains of the Phyllis Gray, wrecked in1908, and the HMS Thistlemor,
wrecked in 1909, can be seen on the beach at low tide.
In more recent times, there have been just three notable wrecks around the
treacherous, rocky South West coast – the Green Ranger off Hartland Point in 1962, the
Torrey Canyon in 1967 off Land’s End, and in 2007 the M.V. Napoli came to grief off
Branscombe Beach, Devon.
After thanking the speaker for the interesting talk, U3A members adjourned for
refreshments, before leaving for their summer break for there is no Monthly Meeting in
August. The subject for the September meeting talk is the Bletchley Park Radio
Outstation in West Cornwall.