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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
82
It
has
already
been
mentioned
that
at
the
close
of
the
seventeenth
century
a
mail-packet
was
a
vessel
of
some
85
tons--a
proud
thing,
no
doubt,
in
the
eyes
of
him
who
commanded
her.
The
class
of
ship
would
seem
to
have
remained
very
much
the
same
during
the
next
hundred
years;
for,
in
the
last
years
of
the
eighteenth
century,
a
mail-packet
on
the
Falmouth
Station,
reckoned
fit
to
proceed
to
any
part
of
the
world,
was
of
only
about
179
tons
burthen.
Her
crew,
from
commander
to
cook,
comprised
only
twenty-eight
persons
when
she
was
on
a
war
footing,
and
twenty-one
on
a
peace
footing;
and
her
armament
was
six
4-pounder
guns.
The
victualling
was
at
the
rate
of
tenpence
per
man
per
day;
the
whole
annual
charge
for
the
packet
when
on
the
war
establishment,
including
interest
on
cost
of
ship,
wages,
wear
and
tear
of
fittings,
medicine,
&c.,
being
L2112,
6s.
8d.;
while
on
the
peace
establishment,
with
diminished
wear
and
tear,
and
reduced
crew,
the
charge
was
estimated
at
L1681,
11s.
9d.
The
packets
on
the
Harwich
station,
performing
the
service
to
and
from
the
Continent,
were
much
less
in
size,
being
of
about
70
tons
burthen.
During
the
wars
with
the
French
at
this
period
the
mail-packets
were
not
infrequently
captured
by
the
enemy.
From
1793
to
1795
alone
four
of
these
ships
were
thus
lost--namely,
the
'King
George,'
the
'Tankerville,'
the
'Prince
William
Henry,'
and
the
'Queen
Charlotte.'
The
'King
George,'
a
Lisbon
packet,
homeward
bound
with
the
mails
and
a
considerable
quantity
of
money,
was
taken
and
carried
into
Brest.
The
'Tankerville,'
on
her
passage
from
Falmouth
to
Halifax,
with
the
mails
of
November
and
December
1794,
was
captured
by
the
privateer
'Lovely
Lass,'
a
ship
fitted
out
in
an
American
port,
and
probably
itself
a
prize,
there
having
been
some
diplomatic
correspondence
with
the
United
States
shortly
before
on
the
subject
of
a
captured
vessel
bearing
that
name.
Before
the
'Tankerville'
fell
into
the
hands
of
the
enemy,
the
mails
were
thrown
overboard,
in
accordance
with
the
standing
orders
which
have
already
been
referred
to.
The
officers
and
crew
were
carried
on
board
the
'Lovely
Lass,'
and
then
the
'Tankerville'
was
sunk.
Soon
afterwards
the
captive
crew
were
released
by
the
commander
of
the
privateer,
and
sent
in
a
Spanish
prize
to
Barbadoes.
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