II. THE SHIPS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.
The size of the ships of the Passage before the Conquest may be estimated by the fact that, when they went to sea for warHke purposes, they were manned by twenty men each. They appear to have been strong galleys propelled by oars and sails, with the assistance from the currents of the Straits, which the Dover mariners knew very well how to utilise. The route of the Dover Passage, until the Fourteenth Century, was from Dover directly across to the French port of Wissant. The harbours available, at that time, at both places were small, but sufficient.
Looking into the arrangements of the Passage in Edwardian times, we find it well maintained. A Royal Decree, " given by Edward II. on the 14th cf September, 13 1 2," makes the following points as to the Passage clear: — (i) that the Dover Passage was then a concession to the Corporation of Dover; (2) that it was farmed by a fellowship of twenty-one master mariners ; (3) that the Passage fellowship was controlled by the Mayor and Commonalty of the Borough of Dover; (4) that the turns of the ships were regulated by two Wardens of the Passage, who were empowered to inflict fines on members of the fellowship who did not obey the regulations of the Corporation.
This settled organisation existing in 1312 under the sanction of the Crown suggests that this management of the Passage by a fellowship of Dover shipowners, under the control of the Dover local authority, had been continuous since the Saxon Period.
There was an agreement made between the Corporation and the Passage Fellowship on the 23rd October, 1323, and ratified by the Lord Warden, providing that the Corporation's share of the profits should be 2/- for each ship laden with horse travellers; and i/- for each ship laden with foot passengers. In 1343 this agreement was submitted to Edward III. for confirmation, but before assenting to it the King added a stipulation that the monopoly of the Passage should not be handed over to the " ring " of twenty-one shipowners forming the Fellowship, but that " all and singular, of the Port of Dover, who were able, and wished to possess Passage ships should have their turns of the Passage, provided that they, like the others, made contributions from the profits to assist the Corporation in performing the services due to the King and to meet the necessities of the Port."
The working of the Passage by the Fellowship under Municipal control may be said to have reached the zenith in the latter part of the Fourteenth Century. That prosperity, under normal conditions, ought to have increased; but the wars of this country with France, and the subsequent civil strife, called the Wars of the Roses, introduced disorganisation, which finally broke up the Passage Fellowship, leaving an opening for Sandwich on the one side, and Hythe on the other, to use their ships for the same purpose as Dover had done for centuries. When Henry VII. came to the Throne in 1485, affairs of State remained in an unsettled condition, and it was not until eleven years after, when Henry, Duke of York, had been made Lord Warden, and Sir Edward Poynings, who showed special interest in Dover, had become the Lieutenant of the Castle, that an effort was made to re-construct the Passage Fellowship. In the records of the Cinque Ports Court of Admiralty it is stated that " On the 20th day of August, in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry VII., in the Common Hall at Dover, in the presence of the reverend and right worshipful Sir Edward Poynings, Knight, Lieutenant of Dover Castle, under Prince Henry, Duke of York, and Admiral of the Cinque Ports, all the possessioners and owners of the vessels belonging to the Passage of Dover, for the settlement of grievances between the said owners about the ' turns ' of the Passage, agreed that the owners of vessels should be formed into a general fellowship. From that date there should again be Wardens of the Passage chosen to see that the ships and crayers used on the Passage .should be sufficiently garnished and apparelled to safeguard the King's people; and that these ships, after departing out of the Wyke at Dover for a voyage, should be at the adventure of the Fellowship."
This well-meant effort to revive the Fellowship does not appear to have succeeded. Soon after Prince Henry, becoming heir to the throne, ceased to be Lord Warden, and owing to the decayed condition of the Harbour the Passage business went from bad to worse. In spite of the tentative efforts of Henry VII. to encourage the building of a new harbour at Archcliff Point, and the great expenditure of Henry VIII., in the same direction, there was no real improvement in the Passage until the reign of Elizabeth, whose evident desire to favour the Port caused hope to revive in the breasts of the mariners. Those who had money spent it in shipbuilding and the shipwrights' craft became once more brisk on the Dover beach. Again the Port had twenty sea-going ships and 400 mariners all of whom were in turn engaged on the Passage. Later in the same reign the harbour was enormously improved, and Dover, on its merits as a port, without any legally enforced monopoly, gained the renown of being the principal port for landing and embarking Continental travellers.
The ships of the Passage were practically of the same class from the end of the Tudor period until the beginning of the Georgian era — small sloop rigged craft, of about forty tons burden. In the beginning of the Stuart period it appears from the records of the Court of Lodenaanage, that the port had 49 vessels registered to cross the Channel. They were plying between Dover and Calais, Dover and Nieuport, with occasional voyages to Boulogne and Dieppe. The Passage was continued with fair regularity during the reign of Charles I., the Civil War and the Commonwealth, the chief danger in those days being from pirates. John Evelyn, in his diary, under date 12th July, 1649, says: — " At Dover we at II p.m. went on board a barque guarded by a pinnace of 8 guns, the first time the Packet-boat obtained a convoy, it having several times been pillaged. We had a good passage, though chased some hours by a pirate, but he durst not attack our frigate, and we then chased him until he got under the protection of Calais Castle. It was a small privateer belonging to the Prince of Wales." Under the date 30th June, 1650, Evelyn records the return voyage thus: " About three in the afternoon we embarked in the Packet boat, hearing that there was a pirate then setting sail. We had security from molestation, and so, with a fair S.W. wind, in seven hours, we landed at Dover. The busy watchmen would have us to the Mayor, but that gentleman (Mr. Edward Prescott) being in bed, we were dismissed." On the 13th July, in the same year, Evelyn made use of the Dover Passage again. He says: — " At six in the evening set sail for Calais; the wind not favourable. I was very sick. Came to an anchor at one o'clock. About 5 a.m., we had a long boat to carry us to land though at a good distance ; this we willingly entered because two vessels were chasing us. . . . God be thanked we got safely to Calais, though wet." In February 1652, Evelyn crosed from Calais to Dover — his last crossing during the Commonwealth. At Calais owing to the Straits being infested with pirates he had to wait until two or three " lusty vessels," which they could not attack, set sail. Evelyn does not give the time of the voyage, but says, " I embarked early in the Packet-boat. 'Twas calm so that we got not to Dover until 8 at night." It seems as though the crossing, on that occassion, occupied ten or eleven hours. Neither does Evelyn mention what the fare amounted to, but his experience was to the effect that money was needed to make things pleasant at Dover with the searchers of the baggage. He says, " At Dover money to the searchers and officers was as authentic as the hand and seal of Bradshaw himself."
A proportion of the profits of the Passage, as arranged by the agreement of 131 2, continued to be paid to the Corporation until 1688. When the control of the Harbour passed by Charter from the Corporation to the Lord Warden and Assistants in 1606 the Corporation in consideration of these profits still had to call the inhabitants together with their shovels to keep the Harbour clear for the Passage ships, but in 1688 the accumulation of shingle was so great that the Corporation surrendered all their interest in the Passage to the Harbour Commissioners rather than attempt to remove the Bar. After that date the Passage Boats were mainly carried on by the private enterprise of the mariners of Dover, with the exception of the Mail Packet Boats which were under contract with the farmers of the Post Office, the navigation being supervised by the Dover Court of Lodemanage, of which the Lord Warden, or his Deputy, the Lieutenant of Dover Castle was the President.