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 Commissioners 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 ... ... Master ... ... J. W. Rutter
The King George ... ... Master ... ... 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 ... ... Master ... ... T. Barrett
The Cumberland ... ... Master ... ... J. Hammond
The Dart ... ... Master ... ... M. Bushell
The Defence ... ... Master ... ... J. Adams
The Elizabeth ... ... Master ... ... W. Bushell
The Flora ... ... Master ... ... A. Watson
The Industry ... ... Master ... ... T. Archer
The King George (2nd) ... ... Master ... ... T. Mercer
The Lady Castlereagh ... ... Master ... ... W. Mowll
The Lady Jane James ... ... Master ... ... J. Hayward
The Lark ... ... Master ... ... T. Noyce
The Lord Sidmouth ... ... Master ... ... A. Peake
The Poll ... ... Master ... ... W. Strains
The Prince Leopold ... ... Master ... ... W. Rogers
The Susanna ... ... Master ... ... J. Moon
The Sybil ... ... Master ... ... T. Middleton
The Vigilant ... ... Master ... ... S. Bushell
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 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 operations 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.