Page images
PDF
EPUB

they were no such dare-devil, reckless rascals, but merely cowardly smugglers, petty sneakthieves of the sea, secreting their contraband until such time as they could dispose of it safely and advantageously.

And no doubt, many times such opportunities never arrived. The smugglers would be captured and sentenced; they would be cooling their heels in prison while the boxes and bales lay rotting in their hiding places, or, finding themselves hard pressed, would betake themselves to far distant spots, abandoning their cached goods to fate. Then years later, some one by chance would find the decaying remnants of barrels, cases and casks, mildewed and worthless silks and cloth, perhaps a few trinkets and jewels, a rusty flintlock pistol or two, and at once the wild tale of Captain Kidd's treasure would be spread.

CHAPTER IV

THE BRITISH SMUGGLERS

HE history of the smugglers of the British

TH

Isles goes back to the dim and distant past, and no man can say when or where they had their origin. But it is known that there were import duties imposed on various articles when Britain. was a colony of Rome, and in the reign of Ethelred, every small boat arriving at Billingsgate was taxed a half-penny and every larger craft one penny. It was not until long after this that smuggling in England became of any great importance, however, and then it was the smuggling of goods out of the country instead of into it, that was carried on by the wholesale and by organized bands of smugglers. These men, who were known as "Owlers" on account of their nocturnal proclivities, were interested in running but one commodity,-wool. Why men should have risked life and liberty to run cargoes of wool out of England may appear a bit strange, until we delve into history and learn something of the

conditions and causes that were the primary reasons of making England the headquarters of the most desperate and ruffianly smugglers in the world.

In order to encourage the manufacture of woolen cloth, the government prohibited the exportation of raw wool, which was a most excellent thing for the weavers but most unfortunate and unfair to the wool growers. As the latter could not find a foreign market for their fleeces, they were completely at the mercy of the manufacturers who could fix the price of wool to suit themselves. As a result, the growers could only manage to make a livelihood by selling a small portion of their product, and, in consequence, vast accumulations of wool were stored, many of the sheep raisers being overburdened with the shearings of three to five years. And just across the channel, in France and Holland, the people were literally crying for raw wool and were willing to pay high prices for it. Here then, was a tremendous temptation, and despite the penalty of death, made and provided for anyone exporting wool from England, the "Owlers" or "Caterpillars" came into existence, and smuggled vast quantities of the contraband wool out of Britain. The principal headquarters of these men was Romney Marsh, in the vicinity of Rye, where the tortuous creeks and tidal streams, the dykes and desolate country, afforded the best of opportunities for the smugglers, while the channel at that point was at its nar

rowest and hence could be the most readily and quickly crossed.

Every effort was made by the government to put a stop to this "stealing wool out of England" as it was called, but with little result, and the authorities in their extremity jumped wildly from one law to another. In 1276 the prohibition as to the exportation of wool was altered and an export duty of three pence a pound imposed, which was practically prohibitive. In 1298 the export tax was raised to six pence the pound, or one-third the value of the wool. In 1331 Winchelsea, Chichester and thirteen other ports, were named by law as ports whence wool could be legally shipped abroad, but, with a joker in the law, to the effect that such exports must pay a tax of fifty shillings on a sack of three hundred and sixty-four pounds weight. In 1337 the exportation was again prohibited and the most stringent laws passed, among others one providing heavy fines and imprisonment for any person using or wearing clothing not made from English woven cloth. But the more stringent the laws and the greater the government's efforts to prevent the sale of wool abroad, the greater were the inducements to smuggle it out of England, and rapidly the Owlers increased and prospered and grew bolder. And as at this period Calais was a British port, and hence it was permissible to export wool to that city, the Owlers found it very

simple to clear openly for Calais and then land their cargoes where they saw fit. Then Calais was lost to England, and with an annual consumption of forty thousand sacks of wool, that port offered a most alluring market for the Owlers. For nearly three centuries these wool smugglers defied the government, had the sympathy of the people and became a recognized organization conducting a most profitable if hazardous business upon which the utmost efforts of the authorities had little if any effect. By 1662 the losses to the government were so great that the penalty for anyone caught smuggling wool was made death, and yet the Owlers continued to ply their trade, the rank and file gladly working for the pittance of twelve pence a day, which proves quite clearly that they considered the risk of capture very small indeed. And as a matter of fact it was. Every wool grower was heartily in sympathy with the smugglers; nearly every inhabitant of the district where the Owlers carried on their business had a hand in the game, and even the officials, who were supposed to aid the government and destroy the smugglers, were financially interested in stealing wool out of the country. And the honest officers, whose duty it was to apprehend the Owlers, soon found that their task was a hopeless one, to say nothing of the perils to themselves. In the year 1688 William Carter, the excise officer in charge of the Romney

« PreviousContinue »