Deal, Kent

Deal is a coastal town in Kent, England, which lies where the North Sea and the English Channel meet, north-east of Dover and south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town whose history is closely linked to the anchorage in the Downs. Close to Deal is Walmer, a possible location for Julius Caesar's first arrival in Britain.
Deal became a 'limb port' of the Cinque Ports in 1278 and grew into the busiest port in England; today it is a seaside resort, its streets and houses a reminder of its history along with many ancient buildings and monuments. In 1968, Middle Street was the first conservation area in Kent. The coast of France is approximately from the town and is visible on clear days. Deal Castle is a device fort commissioned by then-King, Henry VIII.

History

Deal is first mentioned as a village in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Addelam. It is referred to as Dela in 1158, and Dale in 1275. The name is the Old English dael meaning 'valley', cognate with the modern English 'dale'. Deal developed into a port by the end of the 13th century. In 1495, the town was the site of an attempted landing by the pretender to the English throne Perkin Warbeck. His supporters were driven off by locals loyal to Henry VII at the Battle of Deal, fought on the beach. Sandown, Deal and Walmer castles were constructed around the town by Henry VIII to protect against foreign naval attack.
In 1699 the inhabitants petitioned for incorporation, since previously the town had been under the jurisdiction of Sandwich and governed by a deputy appointed by the mayor of that town; William III by his charter incorporated the town under the title of mayor, jurats and commonalty of Deal. Deal Town Hall, the former meeting place of Deal Borough Council, was completed in 1803.
In the Second World War, 12 people were killed by shelling, from 120 shells.
In 1861, the Royal Marine Depot was established in the town. In 1989, it was bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, killing 11 bandsmen.

Maritime history

The proximity of Deal's shoreline to the Goodwin Sands has made its coastal waters a source of both shelter and danger through the history of sea travel in British waters. The Downs, the water between the town and the sands, provides a naturally sheltered anchorage. Positioned at the eastern end of the English Channel, this is where sailing vessels would wait for a favourable wind, either to proceed into the North Sea, or, heading to the west, down the Channel. Ships going from London to the Channel would leave under a fair wind, would turn south past the North Foreland and then find the same wind to be against them to go any further. It was common to find one or two hundred ships waiting for a slight change in wind direction that would allow them to proceed; at times, three hundred or more ships could be windbound in the Downs. When a useful wind shift occurred, those in the anchorage would be hastily weighing anchor and setting sail, whilst some ships heading in the opposite direction might now be entering the Downs to anchor, as the wind had turned against them.
When the port of Sandwich silted up, the only way to provide ships in the Downs with fresh provisions, stores and equipment was in boats launched directly from the beach. This was an extensive trade for Deal, and lasted until steam ships took over from sail. Deal also provided a convenient landing place for passengers for London, potentially saving a long wait for a fair wind to finish a voyage; it also allowed outward bound ships to be caught up with and joined.
One problem with the Downs was the quality of the holding ground of the anchorage. It consists of chalk, which is not the best material. Hence it was common for ships in the roadstead to drag their anchors in strong winds, especially those from north round to east northeast or from the southeast, as these directions were less sheltered. This provided salvage work as an additional source of income for the town, with many ships being saved by help from the boatmen.
The importance of the Downs started to reduce from the late 1860s, as competition from steamships made speed an important commercial consideration. Sailing ships began to employ tugs to overcome adverse winds. By the 1880s, the only common usage of the anchorage was by small sailing vessels.
Deal was, for example, visited by Lord Nelson and was the first English soil on which James Cook set foot in 1771 on returning from his first voyage to Australia. The anchorage is still used today by international and regional shipping, though on a scale far smaller than in former times.
In 1672, a small Naval Yard was established at Deal, providing stores and minor repair facilities. Just outside the gates of the yard there is now a building originally used as a semaphore tower planned to be used as a communication link to the Admiralty in London but converted to a timeball tower, in 1855 and which remains today as a museum.
The Deal Maritime and Local History Museum is housed in an historic complex of light-industrial buildings in St George's Road, dating from 1803. It contains a series of displays and artefacts, narrating the town's maritime, industrial, domestic and leisure history.

Boatmen

The Deal boatmen were internationally famous for their skilled seamanship and bravery in operating their locally-built craft, launching and recovering from the open beach. Only the severest weather prevented the larger of the working boats from being able to launch. A range of work was done, with provisions and supplies being taken out to ships anchored in the Downs, and the Post Office paying for mail to be taken out or landed. Ballast would be sold. Passengers were taken to and from moored ships. It was not unusual for a ship in the Downs to lose her anchor – either slipping the cable in an emergency or if a cable or anchor chain parted, thereby providing two sources of work for the boatmen.
First, the Downs had to be kept as clear as possible of the obstruction that lost gear presented, otherwise the anchors of other ships could become entangled in them and prevent weighing. In 1607, two boatmen were awarded £30 a year for sweeping for and recovering lost anchors, with substantial numbers being salvaged. In the three years from 1866, over 600 anchors were swept up from the Downs – at that time the Board of Trade paid for this to be done.
Secondly, a ship that had lost her anchor would need to replace it. A large store of ground tackle of every size was kept by the boatmen, from which a suitable example could be loaded into one of the larger luggers and taken out and sold to the ship which needed it. In ordinary weather, this charge would be the fair cost of the gear sold. In severe weather, provision of an anchor would be classed as salvage, since it often prevented the loss of the ship. After the Merchant Shipping Act 1854, the salvage claims became more fairly assessed than in prior years and substantial payments could be made to boatmen who launched into strong winds to provide this service. In November 1859, in 12 days 30 anchors and chains were supplied to ships in the Downs, 17 of them in one day. The lugger Albion earnt the most from this: £2,022 8s 6d, with other boats earning several hundred pounds each.
Other salvage work was also done by the boatmen —anything from supplying fresh men to man the pumps of a leaking vessel, to taking cargo off the wrecks of vessels that could not be saved—though with some instances when abandoned vessels aground on the Goodwins were saved, yielding significant awards by the Admiralty court.
An extensive smuggling trade existed from Deal, with a peak of activity in 1737. Special fast galleys were built and used in calm misty weather, when the Revenue vessels had little chance of catching them. In response to this, in 1784 the government sent a punitive expedition of soldiers to Deal, supported by naval cutters stationed offshore. The boats were all smashed or burnt - so depriving the boatmen of a means to make a living. The resentment at this community punishment was set aside when the Napoleonic wars started, and the many naval vessels anchored in the Downs needed their services.

Boats used by boatmen

In the 19th century there were several types of boat used by the boatmen. The two largest were the Deal luggers. In the early part of the century, these were three-masted vessels, with a dipping lug on the fore and main masts and a standing lug mizzen. A jib was set on a bowsprit and the mizzen sheeted to a long outrigger. The mainmast could be dispensed with to give more working room in the boat or in the winter, so it was common for just two masts to be used. The mainmast ceased to be used altogether in the 1840s. The "first class" luggers would be up to long, with a beam of, carrying six tons of ballast in a hull that weighed three-and-a-half tons. They were clinker built and had an enclosed forepeak in which the crew could shelter or sleep – but otherwise these were undecked, open boats. It was these larger luggers that would carry a replacement anchor out to a ship in the Downs. The smaller luggers were called "cats", able to do most of the work of the larger boats, but instead of the enclosed forepeak they had a removable cabin that could be set up between the thwarts. There were 21 first class luggers operating from Deal in 1833 and 15 cats. In the same year, 54 four or six oared galleys worked from Deal. These were lighter boats of between in length. They could be sailed as well as rowed, setting a dipping lug on a single mast. They were used for taking passengers out to ships in the Downs and for boarding and landing pilots.
Luggers were launched bows first down the beach by slipping the chain that ran through the "ruffles" and travelled at gathering speed down greased wooden skids laid on the shingle. The intent was to gather enough momentum to get through the first waves encountered as the foresail was hoisted. A haul-off rope, led to an anchor set off-shore, could hold the boat up to the waves as the sail was hoisted and help the boat sheer off on the correct tack. If not enough speed was gained, unless the weather was calm, the boat would probably turn parallel to the beach and be smashed by the waves. At high water, the shorter run to the sea increased the difficulty of getting a good launch, as there was less space in which to pick up speed. When the boat's work was complete, beaching was done by sailing on to the beach in front of the capstan, with a man standing in the sea ready to fasten the capstan rope to the chain strop that went through the front of the keel. For a large lugger it would take 20 or 30 men at the capstan to then haul the boat up the beach and then turn it round ready for the next launch. This was a hazardous task in which men could be killed or injured if control was lost of the large weights being moved.