From The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 4th March1843:
"A report was circulated about half-past eight in the evening of the 23rd ult., that a man had fallen over the cliffs, and accordingly strict search was made by the light of lanterns, torches, &c., for the supposed mutilated remains of the unfortunate individual: but as none were found, it became suspected that it was a smuggler's trick, in order to decoy the Preventive Service men from their posts; these functionaries have consequently been on the qui vive during the past week.
"On Wednesday last, they succeeded in creeping up 58 4-gallon kegs of spirit, and yesterday (Thursday), 46 more. It is supposed that the crew who sunk the kegs, have met with a watery grave, as their boat, and two hats, have been picked up, and they have not since been heard of They consisted of three Frenchmen and two men named William Russell and Richard Mashell, both of Beer. The boat was driven ashore at Paignton."
Was this decoying not a smugglers' trick worthy of Doctor Syn? From their ship the smugglers must have smiled to see the flickering lights of the searchers for 'mutilated remains'.
The excisemen used a 'creeper' to creep up the sunken kegs of spirit. A creeper was a grapnel used for dragging the bottom of the sea.
It must have been a risky business in the mad March days, both sinking kegs down and creeping them up and it looks like the Beer smugglers (their names already known to the Gazette's corespondent!) and their three French colleagues ran out of luck in a lumpy sea.
Come to think of it, the smuggling business must have been a rare example of close Anglo-French co-operation. Here they were, literally, in the same boat and presumably communicating in Franglais and, it would seem, dying together.
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