EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WATER TRAVEL
illness owing to the discomforts of his journey.[1] James Essex, in August of 1773, counted four hours and a half as a good passage.[2] Arthur Young spent fourteen hours between Dover and Calais.[3] Birkbeck, in 1814, took only three hours to go from Boulogne to Dover — an exceedingly good record.[4]
Landing at Calais or Boulogne when the tide was low can have been no special pleasure, for in that case ships had to ride at anchor outside and passengers were obliged to go ashore in small open boats — if they could. Says Major Ferrier, who in 1687 landed at Calais: We "could not by reason of ye lowness of ye water either goe into harbour with our ship or goe ashore at seaside with ye boat."[5]
Smollett and his family could not enter the harbor of Boulogne except in an open boat, as there was a wind blowing offshore. "When I objected to the trouble of shifting from one boat to another in the open sea, which (by the bye) was a little rough; he (the captain) said it was a privilege which the watermen of Boulogne had, to carry all passengers ashore, and that this privilege he durst not venture to infringe." The transfer of Smollett and his family was made to an open French boat half full of water, and the party was then rowed a league to the harbor. "From our landing place we were obliged to walk very near a mile to the inn where we purposed to lodge, attended by six or seven men and women, bare-legged, carrying our baggage. This boat cost me a guinea, besides paying exorbitantly the people who carried our things."[6]
When Carr arrived at Cherbourg "men and boys, half naked, and in wooden shoes, … began … to seize upon every trunk within their reach, which they threw into their boats lying alongside."[7] And when one had landed, there was the unpleasant possibility of being "so late as to be shut out of the town and compelled to lodge in one of the houses that stand without it."[8]
31
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. Burney.
- ↑ Journal of a Tour, etc., p. 3.
- ↑ Travels in France, p. 150.
- ↑ Notes on a Journey through France, p. 114.
- ↑ Journal of Major Richard Ferrier, p. 17.
- ↑ Smollett, Travels, 1, 11, 12. It was notorious that one often paid as much for being rowed ashore as for the whole passage. See The Gentleman's Guide, p. 16.
- ↑ The Stranger in France, p. 21.
- ↑ In (Jones) Journey to Paris, i, 8.
