More deserters, January 1810
From the Gazette de Guernsey, January 13th 1810.
Maritime
Mr Trengrouse's Rocket Apparatus, June 1836
As reported in the Comet of July 4th, 1836. Henry Trengrouse (1772-1854), from Cornwall, was the inventor in 1808 of an early form of the Breeches buoy. As he first presented his invention, however, in 1818, versions of it had long been in use by the time he demonstrated it in Guernsey, despite the Comet's misgivings.
A diplomatic incident, July 1836
Necessity demanded that a gang of Alderney smugglers kidnap a French customs officer on the French coast and take him back to Alderney, then leave him to make his own way home. The authorities in Alderney smiled indulgently on the miscreants, but French Ambassador Count Sebastiani made angry representations to the UK Government for action. The Comet is indignant, pointing out that the French are quite happy for their nationals to smuggle gin to England.
John Banister to Elisha Tupper, July 11, 1775
John Banister of Virginia describes the Boston Tea Party and the growing disaffection between Britain and New England, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord, to update his business associate, shipping magnate Elisha Tupper. The illustration, from the Priaulx Library collection, is of a miniature of Elisha (1720-1802), in the background of which a date, possibly 1785, is just discernible. The photograph was taken by or on behalf of Edith Carey, c. 1920.
Capture of L'Epervier, Alderney, December 1797
Extract of a letter from Peter Le Mesurier, Governor of the Island of Alderney, to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, dated Alderney, the 25th of December 1797. From The European Magazine and London Review, Vol. 33.
The loss of the Hibernia, April 1833
From a letter in the Star, May 2, 1833. The Hibernia, Captain Brend, left Liverpool 6 December 1832, and sank on February 4, NW of Acension island, 1100 miles from Brazil. There were 79 males, 80 females, and 50 children as passengers; 4 of the crew were boy apprentices. 150 died. There were insufficient lifeboats, and they were very poorly maintained. The survivors were rescued by the Guernsey vessel, Isabella.
A Guernsey decision abrogated: April 29, 1783
The case of a Russian ship, the Graf Nikita, from The Political Magazine and Parliamentary, Naval, Military, and Literary Journal, Volume 6, 1783; in which an independent judgment of Guernsey's Royal Court was overturned for British political expediency.
Not dead yet: the curious case of the Speedwell, on the hunt for Americans, March 1812
A report from New York, March 31, 1812, published in Niles' Weekly Register, March-September 1812, Vol. II.
L'Inconnu, 1814
Admiralty-office, Feb. 5. A Letter from Captain Shepheard, of the Fylla, announces his having captured the French lugger privateer L'Inconnu, of St. Maloes, of 180 tons; pierced for 20 guns, mounted 15, and had 109 men. Her second Captain and four men were killed, and four wounded. Lieut. W. H. Pearson, and W. Read, corporal of marines,were wounded on board the Fylla. [Gentleman's Magazine, No. 84.]
Captain Knapp and the Mayflower, February 1762
From The London Chronicle.