AUTHOR’S NOTE
147 Words
AUTHOR’S NOTENapoleon escaped from Elba without the help of the smugglers, but it’s an historic fact that Tom Johnson was offered forty thousand pounds by the French to release him from St. Helena. Tom Johnson was never caught, and he continued his smuggling activities until he died in 1839.
The Coastal Blockade, set up with a war-time technique including H.M.S. Ramillian with seventy-four guns, and H.M.S. Hyperion with forty-two, had some effect on the smuggling trade, but it was not until 1831, after fifteen turbulent years, that the Coast-Guards came into existence.
Two years later the Battle of Pevensey Sluice finally convinced the more intelligent smuggling companies that the day of the “forced run” was over. “Scientific” smuggling is said to have lasted another thirty years or so, but the terror and brutality of the gangs were finished. The name and the description of the Leopards given to the Duke of Wellington and his troops are accurate.
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