|
|
Coastguard Watch Vessels Bradwell Waterside in 1857 showing customs/coastguard gunboat In 1830 the Coastguard was formed by a merger of the Water Guard with the Customs . The new body was to be controlled by the Royal Navy with the remit of preventing smuggling and dealing with shipwrecks by lifesaving and then protection from looters. This continued until 1923 when the duties were once again separated and the Coastguard was solely responsible for life saving at sea, salvage of wrecks and the administration of the rules of the sea. On its formation the Coastguard found the need for men in the many places that smugglers operated and in the coast of Essex, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire the many inlets proved especially difficult. This was solved by the use of watch vessels as stationary observation points and bases at key locations and the use of cutters and patrol ships to back up their use. The Watch Vessels were normally ex Naval vessels that were in poor condition and not considered safe to sail although suitable for dismasting and locating in a mud berth in estuaries. An example of the disposal of Watch Vessels was the London Gazette of 2 January 1866. The Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland do hereby give notice that on Tuesday the 9th January next at two o'clock they will be ready to receive sealed tenders for the purchase of Her Majesty's Coast Guard Watch Vessel " RICHMOND" ( Brigantine), 240 tons ; lying at Stansgate Detachment (Blackwater Division); as she now lies with the stores mentioned in the inventory annexed to this catalogue available from the Inspecting Commander of the Coast Guard at Bradwell. Eastern Essex was especially crucial as it was one of the favourite landing places to provide goods for the London market. These were landed in the many secluded quays and taken by horseback to urban Essex and London. The list below shows the Watch Vessel Number, Location and names of ships used as Watch Vessels. Watch Vessel No Name of ships at station Location Victorine 2 3 Blossom/Dolphin Walton Gap 4 Frolic Stansgate ( also refered to as watch vessel 21) 5 Chanticleer River Crouch 6 River Crouch 7 Beagle Paglesham, River Roach 8 Dove Wakering Haven 9 Harpy Gravesend- Egypt Bay 10 Swallow Cliff Creek 11 Star Gravesend 12 Clinker Yantlett Creek 13 Elk/Raven/Emulous Canvey - Haven Hole 14 15 Mucking Creek 16 17 Royal George Barking Creek 18 Arab/Shamrock Queensborough/Sheppey 19 - - 20 Kangaroo Burnham on Crouch 21 Eclipse West Mersea 22 Kent -Isle of Grain Colemouth Creek 23 Philomel Colemouth Creek 24 Cadmus East Swale/ Faversham 25 Britomart Beresford 26 Dart Beresford 27 Havock Castle Coote 28 Elk Greenhithe 29 Pelican/Drake Rye 30 Cygnet/Frolic Chichester Harbour 31 Penguin Cowes, IOW 32 Partridge Hamble River 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 Linnet 37 Mastiff Tilbury 38 Branksea 39 Moville 40 East Cowes 41 Frolic/Lucifer River Roach This list has been drawn from several sources that have revealed some confusion in the records of the time given that the methods of recording locations in civil records differ from Naval that in turn differ from electoral records This is further complicated by the use of the same ship in several locations and the process of renaming some of the ships when they have been transferred in from the Navy or in one case the Post Office. In view of these facts historians would be advised to use the table as a guide and research individual records in the Coastguard's records to be found at the National Archive at Kew. Essex Family History has a number of other pages about the of the Coastguard's relating to their history as well as their genealogy. Click on the following link to see the available pages
ch
HMS Beagle destined to become Watch Vessel 7
