Maritime record MWX5043 - Elizabeth and Kitty

Sloop run onto shore near Langton Herring in 1820 whilst smuggling.

On the 3rd Nov. 1820 the Elizabeth & Kitty was chased by the ‘Greyhound’ revenue cutter of Weymouth commanded by Lt. Anderson, off Langton Herring or Abbotsbury according to different accounts by members of the Greyhound crew. Sailing eastwards in the moonlight, visible to the cutter’s crew chasing them, the smugglers were fired at with musket shot. They hauled up the rowing boat, which had been trailing behind the sloop, jumped in, and rowed away in one direction having set the sloop to continue eastwards and occupy the cutter, and having already thrown overboard 300 kegs of spirit and several bales of tea. They set up the rowing boat sails to increase speed westwards, this time sailing away from the moon, so not to be visible to the cutter. One of the Greyhound’s mariners, Richard Buck, on board during the chase, reported the casks being thrown overboard. He sent one of the sloop boats to find them, while the sloop followed the Elizabeth & Kitty until it ran on shore near Langton, and went to pieces. John Gover, in command of another of the Greyhound’s boats, went in search of the casks the following morning, but found Robert White of Portland already there with 36 casks of spirits and 4 casks of tea, in his boat, saying that they had been informed during the night that a vessel had been wrecked on the beach at Abbotsbury and had gone to assist. (2) The building date for this vessel is an estimate based on an average age at wrecking of twenty years. This average is derived from those vessels wrecked on the Dorset coast whose age at wrecking is known.

Record last edited

Jun 19 2015 12:26PM