The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler: (Captain Harry Carter, of Prussia Cove) 1749-1809Carter, Harry
History
The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler: (Captain Harry Carter, of Prussia Cove) 1749-1809
Carter, Harry
Carter, Harry, 1749-1829; Smuggling -- Great Britain -- History
Beyond these I have mentioned, the literary records are very meagre, but
the whole county, and especially the western part, abounds with
legends. The smuggling was so universal, that every cove, and fishing
village on the coast has its own stories, and everywhere the curious
visitor is still shown the place where the smugglers landed their
cargoes, the secret caves where they stored them, and sometimes, but not
often, the places where the "officers" found them. Prussia Cove, beyond
all others, has the richest store of such history. Here are little
harbours cut out of the solid rock, which are now occupied by innocent
fishing boats. The visitor can see a roadway partly cut and partly worn
crossing the rocks below high water mark, and caves of which the mouths
have been built up, and which are reputed to be connected with the house
on the cliff above by secret passages.
In the legends of the Cove the personality of John Carter looms so large
that his associates are almost if not entirely forgotten, and everything
centres around him alone. It was he who cut the harbours and the road,
it was he who adapted the caves, and he is the hero of most of the
tales which are told of the good old days. One of these stories is worth
recording. On one occasion, during his absence from home, the excise
officers from Penzance came around in their boats and took a cargo,
which had lately arrived from France, to Penzance, where it was secured
in the Custom House store. In due course John Carter returned to the
Cove, and learned the news. What was he to do? He explained to his
comrades that he had agreed to deliver that cargo to the customers by a
certain day, and his reputation as an honest man was at stake. He must
keep his word. That night a number of armed men broke open the stores at
Penzance, and the "King of Prussia" took his own again, returning to the
Cove without being discovered. In the morning the officers found that
the place had been broken open during the night. They examined the
contents, and when they noted what particular things were gone, they
said to one another that John Carter had been there, and they knew it,
because he was an honest man who would not take anything that did not
belong to him. And John Carter kept his word to his customers. The story
that he once opened fire on a revenue cutter from a small battery which
he had made at the Cove is well known along the coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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