kith.] THE OLD SMACKS AND FERRY-BOATS. e11
smacks in their southward voyage merely touching
at Berwick for their cargoes of salmon.
In ISOZ the merchants of Leith established a
line for themselves, ?? The Edinburgh and Leith
Shipping Company,? which commenced with six
armed smacks, the crews of which were protected
from the impress.
On the 23rd of October, 1804, one of these
smacks, the Brifunnia, Captain Brown, and another
named the Sprz$fO, Captain Taylor, off Cromer,
fell in with a large French privateer, which bore
down on them both, firing heavily, particularly with
musketry; but the Leith smacks? men stood to
their guns, engaged her briskly, and so damaged her
sails and rigging that she sheered off and dropped
astern. The smacks had many shots through their
canvas, but none of their men were killed.
On the 9th January, 1805, another, the SwaZZm,
Captain White, was attacked off Flamborough
Head by a heavy French privateer, carrying fourteen
guns, and very full of men. Passing through a
fleet of Newcastle colliers, she came within pistolshot
of the Swallow, and poured in a broadside,
accompanied by volleys of musketry.
Captain White replied with his carronades and
small arms. The round shot of the former told so
well that the privateer was fairly beaten off, while
neither the smack nor her crew sustained much
injury. ?In these two actions,? says the Scots
Magazine, ? both seamen and passengers showed a
becoming spirit.? But such encounters were of
very common occurrence in those days.
In 1809 the new company had ten of these
smacks ; eventually, there were no fewer than four
companies trading between Leith and London ;
but in 182 I one was formed under the name of the
London and Edinburgh Steam Packet Company,
With three large steamers-the City of Eninbuqh,
theJnmes Watt, and the Solo.
So great was their success that in 1831 the London,
Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Shipping
Company superseded their fine smacks by the
introduction of powerful steamers, with beautiful
cabin accommodation, the WiZliam, Addaide, and
Victoria. In 1836 the London and Edinburgh
Steam Packet Company became merged in the
General Steam Navigation Company, sailing from
Granton to London. The old smacks were retained
by only two of the companies ; but having
been found expensive to build and to maintain,
from the number of men required to handle their
unwieldy canvas-particularly their great boom
main-sail-they were in 1844 superseded by clipper
schooners ; so these once celebrated craft, the old
Leith smacks, have entirely disappeared from the
harbour with which they were so long and exclusively
identified.
Before quitting the subject of passenger traffic,
we may glance at the ancient ferries of Leith.
By an Act of James I., in 1425, it was ordained
that all femes where horses were conveyed, should
?have for jlk boate a treene brig,? or wooden gangway,
under the pain of ?? 40 shillings of ilk boate ;?
and again, by an Act of James III., 1467, the
ferries at Leith, Kinghorn, and Queensferry are
ordained to have ?brigges of buuds,? under penalty
of the ? tinsel ? or forfeitursof their boats. In 1475
the charge for a passenger was twopence, and for
a horse sixpence; at Queensferry one penny for
a man, and twopence for a horse. (Scots Acts,
Glendoick.)
Nicoll records that in 1650 the ferrymen at Leith
and Burntisland (taking advantage probably of the
confusion of affairs) became so exorbitant in their
charges that complaints were made to the Deputy
Governor of Leith, who ordered that the fare for a
man and horse should be only one shilling sterling,
and for a single person one groat, ?quhairas it
wqs tripled of beioir.?
In July, 1633, a boat at the ferry between
Burntisland and Leith foundered in a fair summer?s
day, according to Spalding, and with it perished
thirty-five domestic servants of Charles I., with his
silver plate and household stuff, ?but it foretokened
great troubles to fall out betwixt the king
and his subjects, as after does appear.? Balfour
states that there was a great stoi-m, that the king
crossed ?in grate jeopardy of his lyffe,? and that
only eight servants perished.
In the early part of the present century the ferry
traffic between Leith, Kinghorn, and Burntisland
was carried on by means of stout sloops of forty oc
fifty tons, without topmasts, and manned generally
by only four men, and always known as ?the
Kinghorn Boats,? although Pettycur was adopted
as the more modern harbour.
Generally there were two crossings between
Leith and Fife every tide, though subsequently,
as traffic increased, the number of runs was increased
by having a boat anchored outside the
harbour when there was not sufficient water for it
to enter. Small pinnaces were used for the voyage
in dead calms. The old ferrymen were strong,
rough, and quaint fellows, and Leith still abounds
with anecdotes of their brusque ways and jovial
humour.
A recent writer mentions that if a passenger
had a dog whose acquaintance he was disposed
to ignore, in order to escape paying its fare, he
would be sure to be accosted by a blue-bonneted
212 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
boatman, with ?DO you belang to that dug,
Sir??
On a certain stormyday, when oneof the boats was
making rather a rough passage, outside Inchkeith,
and the skipper, after the manner of his kind, was
endeavouring to reassure the alarmed passengers
by telling them that there was no danger, he lost
his temper with a well-known Fifeshire laud,
whose pallid face betrayed his intense dismay.
knowledge of the state of things that existed in
the early years of the present century, in regard
to the communication between the north and south
sides of the Firth of Forth. If they could carry
back their recollections so far, they would be
inclined, like me, rather to marvel at thc extraordinary
improvement that has taken place
within the last sixty years, than to fret because we
are still some stages from perfection.?
?As for you E- ?
(Balcomie 7) said the old
Kinghorn salt, scornfully,
CCye were aye a frightened
cxature a? your days.?
If the breeze was fair,
the old boats might
achieve the passage in
about an hour; but with a
head wind, against which
they could beat, and still
worse, with a calm, the
voyage was often tedious,
and lasted five or six
hours.
There are few things
that tell, perhaps, more
strikingly on the changed
habits of life, than the
contrasts for crossing at
the Forth ferries now
and when the present
century was in its infancy.
At Kirkcaldy and Pettycur,
besides making use
of small boats to the great
discomfort and terror of
female passengers, travellers
were embarked and
disembarked by means of
a long gangway, which was run down to the wateredge
on wheels.
U In spite of the service of the fine boats plying
on the Granton and Burntisland ferry,? wrote the
correspondent of a local print, ?and the opening
of the new lines of railway along the coast, fatidious
pleasure-seekers tell us that a great deal
could be done to increase the attractions of a run
for a change of air to the quaint villages, the
stretches of green links and sandy beach, on the
opposite shore of the Firth. Few of these grumblers,
I venture to say, can speak from personal
ANCIENT CHAPEL IN THE KIRkGAIE.
(From WiZsm?s ? Mrrn&ls,?publishcdby T. C. Jack? E&nburg/r).
great improvement is to take place in the communication
between Leith and Fife.? This was
the introduction of two steamboats, the Tug and
Dumbarfon Castk, which were to make the trip
every morning to Kirkcaldy before going to
Grangemouth, and vice versa. (Week0 Jozrmai?,,
1820.)
Other steamers, the Sir WilZiam WdZace, the
Thane of Fie, and Add Reekie, were introduced ;
the passengers were embarked and landed by means
of gangways, though sometimes both were accomplished
on men?s backs.
After a time the ferry
between each side of the
Firth was placed in the
hands of trustees,
About 1812, when the
?( Union ? coach was put
on the road through Fife,
it occasioned a necessity
for a regular instead of a
varying tidal passage, and
thus an undecked sloop,
known as ?the coach
boat,? was placed on the
ferry. At low water it
anchored off the harbour,
and was reached by small
skiffs. Soon afterwards
the ferry trustees established
a regular service
of undecked cutters, gene
rally lateen-rigged, the
pier at Newhaven having
been built to afford better
accommodation.
It was in the spring cf
1814 or 1815 that the
first vessel propelled by
steam was seen in Leith ;
but it was not till 1820
that the newspapers announced
that ?a very
