The Levelling Sea: The Story of a Cornish Haven in the Age of Sail
The story of Britain’s colourful maritime past seen through the changing fortunes of the Cornish port of Falmouth.Within the space of few years, during the 1560s and 1570s, a maritime revolution took place in England that would contribute more than anything to the transformation of the country from a small rebel state on the fringes of Europe into a world power. Until then, it was said, there was only one Englishman capable of sailing across the Atlantic. Yet within ten years an English ship with an English crew was circumnavigating the world.At the same time in Cornwall, in the Fal estuary, just a single building – a lime kiln – existed where the port of Falmouth would emerge. Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, Falmouth would be one of the busiest harbours in the world.‘The Levelling Sea’ uses the story of Falmouth’s spectacular rise and fall to explore wider questions about the sea and its place in history and imagination. Drawing on his own deep connection with Cornwall, award-winning author Philip Marsden writes unforgettably about the power of the sea and its ability to produce greed on a piratical scale, dizzying corruption, and grand and tragic aspirations.
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Philip Marsden
The Levelling Sea
The Story of a Cornish Haven in the Age of Sail
Nor is his thought on harp or on ring-taking,
On woman’s delight or on the world’s hope,
Nor on aught else save the tossing of waves:
He ever has longing who hastens on water.
From The Seafarer
(Trans. from the Anglo-Saxon by Jonathan A. Glenn)
To Arthur
List of Contents
Map of Falmouth
List of Illustrations
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part II
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part III
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Part IV
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
Other Books by Philip Marsden
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Map
Map of Falmouth (1693).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
‘Falmouth – To Sir Peter Killigrew, Baronet presented by Captain Greenville Collins (1693)’, engraving, 47 x 58 cms. © Falmouth Art Gallery Collection FAMAG:20003.13
Author’s grandfather. © Philip Marsden
Liberty’s stern. © Philip Marsden
Glasney College. © Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/The National Library of Wales
John and Elizabeth Killigrew, brass commemorative plaque in St Budock church. Reproduced from E.H.W Dunkin, The Monumental Brasses of Cornwall (Spottiswoode & Co., 1882)
Falmouth Haven. From Lord Burghley’s copy of Christopher Saxton’s Maps of the several counties of England. © The British Library Board. Royal MS. 18. D.III
Duke William and his Fleet Cross the Channel to Pevensey, from the Bayeux Tapestry (before 1082), wool embroidery on linen, by French School (11th century). © Musée de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France/With special authorisation of the city of Bayeux/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library
Ship illustration from Matthew Baker, Fragments of English Shipwrightry. Courtesy of the Pepys Library, Cambridge
Killigrew family tree
A map of the river Fal and its tributatries from a survey made in 1597, by Baptista Boazio. From H.M. Jeffrey, Early topography of Falmouth, JRIC vol. IX (1886). Courtesy of Cornwall Centre
Map of Smithwick (1615). From H.M. Jeffrey, Early topography of Falmouth, JRIC vol. IX (1886). Courtesy of Cornwall Centre
The Lizard Light-houses, Cornwall, by William Daniell. © Crown Copyright; UK Government Art Collection
‘Sovereign of the Seas’, by John Payne (1637). © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK
Thomas Killigrew, by William Sheppard (1650). © National Portrait Gallery, London
‘A View of Falmouth Harbour’, by Hendrick Danckerts (circa 1678). © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK
Detail from ‘Falmouth – To Sir Peter Killigrew, Baronet presented by Captain Greenville Collins (1693)’, engraving, 47 x 58cms. © Falmouth Art Gallery Collection. FAMAG:2003.13
Peter Killigrew. Frontispiece from Susan E. Gay, Old Falmouth: The Story of the Town from the Days of the Killigrews to the Earliest Part of the 19th Century (Headly Brothers, 1903)
The Killigrew Monument (The Pyramid Arwenack), by Unknown artist (19th century), oil on canvas, 49.5 x 63cms. © Falmouth Art Gallery Collection. FAMAG:1000.42
‘Fatte hogges, pretty oranges, strange crabs’. From Peter Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667, vol. III, part I (Hakluyt Society, London 1919)
Avery the Pirate. CRO J/2277. Courtesy of the Cornwall Record Office
John Avery. From Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates (Conway Maritime Press, 1998)
Armed guard for the Falmouth to London mail. © Mary Evans Picture Library/Bruce Castle Museum
Arwenacke House, Falmouth, Cornwall, by Unknown artist (1786). Engraver: Sparrow. Publisher: Hooper, S. Engraving, 15.3 x 20cms. © Falmouth Art Gallery Collection. FAMAG:1000.96
Cover of Samuel Kelly’s ‘Life & Voyages’, Vol. III. CRO X92. Courtesy of the Cornwall Record Office
Ship-worm (Teredo navalis). From Sir Charles Lyell, The Student’s Elements of Geology (Murray, 1871)
Jewish Cemetery, Falmouth. © Philip Marsden
Letter from George Croker Fox. By permission of Charles Fox
Books from the old G. C. Fox & Co. offices. © Philip Marsden
‘Sir Edward Pellew: Lord Exmouth’ after Sir Thomas Lawrence (c. 1797). © Hulton Archive/Getty Images
‘View of Falmouth & Sir J Borlase Warren’s prizes entering the harbour’, engraved by Thomas Medland (Bunney & Co., 1800). Courtesy of Cornwall Centre
The Indefatigable capturing La Virginie, by C. Sheppard (publisher) (1797). © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK
The wreck of the East Indiaman Dutton at Plymouth Sound, 26 January 1796, by Thomas Luny (1821). © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK
Extract from The Cornwall Gazette and Falmouth Packet, 7 March, 1801. Courtesy of the Courtney Libary (RIC), Truro
Grave of Joseph Emidy. © Philip Marsden
A View of Falmouth and places adjacent, by H. Michell (1806, published). Aquatint, 37 x 77cms. Lent by Cornwall Heritage Trust. © Falmouth Art Gallery Collection. FAMAG:L2000.4
‘Encounter with Robbers Near Kengawar’. From J. S. Buckingham, Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia (Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830)
