There was a somewhat complicated organization of the force responsible for the suppression of smuggling and the collection of duties levied upon certain goods. There were two independent services: the Board of Customs was responsible for the duties levied on imported goods, and the Board of Excise for the same on domestic goods; but as the latter included the taxes on imported alcohol, it also operated against smuggling. There were separate Boards of Customs and Excise in Scotland, and a separate joint Customs and Excise Board for Ireland, resulting in five different organizations performing the same duty, although the territorial responsibility of these bodies meant that there was not the duplication of effort which might be suggested from the concept of so many units conducting the same service.
The Custom Board maintained customs house in the main ports, manned by two "collectors" each, with a staff of clerks, seamen, etc.; there were also "riding officers" and their detachments who patrolled the coastline to deter and intercept smugglers. The Excise Board similarly had posts on the coast, coastal patrols, and establishments in inland towns as well.
The maritime arm of the revenue service was a small fleet of cutters,based around the coast, for antismuggling duty; most of these were maintained by the Board of Customs, although a smaller number were also maintained by the Board of Excise, whose vessels were supposedly the more efficient. The revenue craft varied in size, with crews of between 8 to 43 men; the ordinary design had a flush deck, a single mast and a long bowsprit, was around 130 tons, carried 14-16 guns and was crewed by a commander and 30-40 men. Although not naval craft per se, they could be used for war; some were deployed in support of the Walcheren expedition, for example, and would certainly have been able to engage the lighter-armed French privateers. In 1809 the revenue service was reorganized into the "Preventive Water Guard", the English and Welsh division being divided into three districts, each with its own commander.
All these details are expanded upon in Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization 1793-1815, B. Lavery, London 1989, the finest work on the subject.
The maritime officers of the revenue service wore a uniform similar to that of the Royal Navy, but without epaulettes, they were refused permission to wear silver epaulettes in 1804 lest they were confused with proper naval officers (who lace and epaulettes were gold). The other ranks would dress in the main like the sailors of the Royal Navy, in semi-civilian maritime costume equally common to merchant seamen; but evidently there was some "uniformity" even in some of the vessels of the revenue service, as there was in the case of some warships.
The crews of the two revenue ships attended the funeral of Field-Marshal John, 5th Duke of Argyll, who died on 24 May 1806, and with the exception of the mourning crape, it would appear that they may well have worn ordinary dress uniform rather than a special costume for the occasion: the crew of the boat of Princess Elizabeth revenue brig, which towed the Duke's barge to Holy Loch, were "dressed in nankeen, with crapes round their hat"; whilst the crew of the revenue cutter Prince William Henry, which formed a guard of honour along the path to the Duke's family vault, were "dressed in white frocks, with black velvet caps trimmed with silver". (Gentleman's Magazine, June 1806, page 585)
Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 6
Back to EEL List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1994 by Emperor's Headquarters
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com