Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea by Cressy David;

Author:Cressy, David; [Cressy, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2022-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

Cakeham, 1676

Among records of wreck inquiry from the later seventeenth century, one set stands out concerning an unnamed French vessel that came to grief on the Sussex coast near Cakeham, West Wittering, in November 1676. The grounding led to the usual scramble for the fittings and lading, in this case commercial quantities of fish. Salvagers came from the villages adjoining Chichester haven, on both sides of the boundary with Hampshire, some with boats, others with horses and carts. Cakeham, the wreck site, was a manor of the Bishop of Chichester, who had wreccum maris within his jurisdiction, and the depositions of the vice admiralty court that examined this incident are filed with episcopal records. Fourteen men and one woman gave testimony, naming thirty-seven individuals.45

It is evident that some of the Frenchmen survived the mishap (though deponents used the word ‘wreck’), for they were able to sell some of their belongings to the salvagers. The records reveal no barbarity or violence, only the usual waterside opportunism of gathering and dealing. Several of the deponents insisted that they had made ‘full discharge and satisfaction’ of their findings, by making payments to Edward Stanley, esquire, the droit collector for the bishop.

John Clark, gentleman of Westbourne, the salvager with the highest social status, ‘went down with his boat to the wreck near Cakeham in Sussex several times, and brought away several parcels of fish for himself and others … and also brought away in his boat three sails, whereof one cost him five shillings and another cost him three shillings’. He also acquired some pins of oil, and ‘one little gun’, for which he paid 2s. 6d. Other light armaments retrieved from the wreck included a ‘murdering’ piece and three small muskets.

William Hale, mercer, and George Sherlock, yeoman, worked together to unload fish and also acquired a little boat belonging to the ship, for which they paid 20s. The yeoman James Farr went down to the wreck ‘four or five times’ and used some of the fish to pay a neighbour ‘for the loan of his horse’. Richard Bolton, husbandman, ‘was down twice with his boats at the wreck where the French vessels were run on shore’, and took loads of fish, a hogshead of oil, and ‘a little French book’. The oil, he told commissioners, was ‘for my Lord Bartlett’s use’, which he was ‘willing to deliver to the proprietor [of] the French vessel, so that he may have a lawful discharge for the same’. Theodore Styler, yeoman of West Thorney, swore he had never been at the wreck, or anywhere near Cakeham, but he nevertheless had oil and boards from the French ship, which he was willing to deliver on demand. The victualler William Sparks of West Wittering allegedly tried to bribe or intimidate the watchmen assigned to guard the wreck, saying that ‘if they were gone he would give forty shillings’, that ‘he could make a great advantage to himself in getting and carrying away the fish and goods belonging to

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