A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their PreventionColquhoun, Patrick
History
A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis: Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors by which Public and Private Property and Security are, at Present, Injured and Endangered: and Suggesting Remedies for their Prevention
Colquhoun, Patrick
Crime -- England -- London; Police -- England -- London
Police, above one-fifth of the whole fleet suffered by nightly
plunder.--The ships subject to this species of depredation were
generally known from the characters of the Mates or Revenue Officers
who were on board, and were denominated _Game Ships_, where the
aquatic labourers, called Lumpers, would on every occasion agree to
work without wages, and even solicit their employers to be preferred
on these terms, trusting to a general licence to plunder for their
remuneration.
This nefarious traffic had long been reduced to a regular system. The
mode of negociation necessary to obtain all the requisite advantages
for carrying into execution these iniquitous designs, was not only
perfectly understood, but in most cases, where new Officers were to be
practised upon, a plan of seduction was resorted to which seldom
failed to succeed, when one or more of the old practitioners in this
species of criminality happened to be stationed in the ship.--In this
particular line of aquatic depredations, (which certainly was the most
mischievous,) scenes of iniquity have been developed, which, from
their extent and magnitude, could not have been credited had they
stood on any other foundation than that of regular judicial proofs.
4th.--_Heavy Horsemen_, otherwise denominated Lumpers of the most
criminal class, who generally selected ships where plunder was most
accessible, either from the criminal connivance of the Mates and
Revenue Officers, in permitting nightly plunder, or from the
carelessness or inattention of these Officers.
This class, many of whom occasionally assisted in the depredations
committed during the night, were exceedingly audacious and depraved.
They generally went on board of West India ships, furnished with
habiliments made on purpose to conceal sugar, coffee, cocoa, pimento,
ginger, and other articles, which they conveyed on shore in great
quantities, by means of an under waistcoat, containing pockets all
round, denominated a _Jemie_; and also by providing long bags,
pouches, and socks, which were tied to their legs and thighs under
their trowsers.
It is a well-established fact, which does not admit even of the shadow
of a doubt, that these miscreants, during the discharge of what they
called a _Game Ship_, have been accustomed to divide from three to
four guineas a-piece every night from the produce of their plunder,
independent of the hush-money paid to Officers and others, for
conniving at their nefarious practices.
Long habituated to this species of depredation, they became at length
so audacious, that it was found extremely difficult to controul them
where a disposition existed to protect the cargo from pillage, and
where no seduction had taken place.--And indeed, so adroit had this
class of Lumpers become, that no ship escaped plunder in a certain
degree, wherever they were employed, in spite of the greatest
vigilance and attention on the part of many of the shipmasters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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