The waters around the Isle of Wight in the 18th and 19th centuries were full of boats, some lawfully plying their trade but many owned by 'Free Traders' intent on landing their smuggled goods ashore.
This book tells the intriguing story of the Island's Coastguard Stations from the formation of the service in 1822 to its run down in the early 1900s. Many of the former stations can still be seen to this day and Tony Gale gives us a fascinating insight into the daily life of those heroic Coastguard officers.
Tony Gale is an inspiring writer and his fascination with local history is eloquently expressed in this, his latest work, Coastguards of the Isle of Wight. Not usually shown in such a romantic light as their adversaries, the notorious ‘Free Traders’, coastguards are often forgotten for their brave rescues and general water-based heroism during the height of smuggling in the nineteenth century.
Coastguards of the Isle of Wight explores the events that easily qualify its subject matter for the status of heroes.
As well as giving a concise history of the coastguard service and its formation, Tony Gale shows how, in a short space of time, its members became highly valued in the fight against smuggling: “The punishment inflicted by the Courts on a smuggler if of an age to serve in the Royal Navy was to be impressed for five years; this was of course continuous service without leave, although there would be remission for good conduct…..if violence was used or a weapon injured a coastguard, then a far severer penalty was imposed, including transportation”.
In this book Tony features the individuals involved with the prevention of smuggling, such as Inspection Commander Deare, whose 1836 report to the Admiralty complaining that the Island was lacking in coastal support, was pivotal in ensuring that the coastline between Bembridge and The Needles was as well-protected against Free Traders as Kent and Sussex.
