Online Meeting Space for Descendants of Henry and Susannah Kable.
Boarding in Plymouth
Boarding Hulk Dunkirk in Plymouth
I recently returned from a holiday in Europe and spent some weeks near Plymouth and decided to research where Henry and Susannah stepped from England and spent months aboard Dunkirk in1786/87.
The initial clue came from the front page of “The return of Convicts confined onboard Dunkirk” part of which is Plate C 9 in Damned Rascals. Part of the heading reads “Dunkirk Hulk in the Harbour of Hamoze, Plymouth”. The Hamoaze is that part of the Tamar River west of Stonehouse and Devonport which have now merged together with modern Plymouth.
Another clue was the November 1786 Henry Bradley receipt for Henry and the baby, which is Plate C 5 in the book. That document is headed Plymouth Dock. My enquiries at Plymouth Library informed me that in 1786 Plymouth Dock was not in Plymouth. In first decade of 19th Century the people of Plymouth petitioned Parliament to have Plymouth Dock renamed. Parliament agreed and changed it to Devonport, which encompassed His Majesty’s Dockyard.
So now I was looking for some 1786 boat boarding steps in Devonport adjacent to the Hamoaze.
I walked all around the 18th Century Naval Dock particularly Mutton Cove to its south and North Corner to the north. Whilst at North Corner I went into the “Steam Packet” and found the landlord an amateur historian who had a booklet about his 19th Century pub written by a local historian. He said the home on the opposite corner was the 18th Century pub “The Swan”.
I contacted the historian and discovered she is writing a book about North Corner including the boarding of the convicts who were to go to NSW onboard Friendship and Charlotte.
She told me that the convicts boarded boats at the slipway at the end of Cornwall Street and that officers and ships’ crews used the steps. Here is a map showing the area. Note that the landing stage was not there in 1786.The semi circular steps are seen at the head of the cove. “The Swan” is at the corner of Cornwall Street and Cornwall Beach on the south side.
I took this next photo whilst there and went back several times to soak up the atmosphere and took Anne there for a drink at the Steam Packet. You can see the top steps of the semi circular ones and the boarding slip starts where the yellow-hulled boat sits. “The Swan” is the prominent corner building and the original corner pub door alcove can be seen. If John Simpson, the turnkey, was looking for an initial rest stop after returning ashore with the baby and to await a coach to London, then this was the only pub at hand.
The slipway now looks like this at low water:
The next photo shows the modern Cornwall Street showing the view over the Hamoaze and beyond the mud spit is St John’s Lake where the convict hulks lay and that area dries out at low water. So Henry and Susannah could see the hulks as they passed down Cornwall Street. There were many hulks there in 1786 as they housed French prisoners of war. Indeed Napoleon was held here although his ship was kept alongside the Dockyard where the public could see him getting his exercise on deck each day.
At the Barbican in Plymouth, opposite the Mayflower Steps, I found this plaque commemorating the sailing of Friendship and Charlotte in 1787. I can only imagine that the convicts were ferried by boat from Dunkirk in the Hamoaze to the transports in the Sound as the masters of the transports would not have wished to sail into shallow waters and risk being aground at low water.
I have a very good sketch of Cornwall Street done from seaward in 1736 and a 1841 photograph but waiting on permission to place them on the internet. We can then interpret half way between those dates to imagine 1786. By the way in 1786 Cornwall Street was know as North Corner Road but I have chosen to use the new name for simplicity.
I recently returned from a holiday in Europe and spent some weeks near Plymouth and decided to research where Henry and Susannah stepped from England and spent months aboard Dunkirk in1786/87.
The initial clue came from the front page of “The return of Convicts confined onboard Dunkirk” part of which is Plate C 9 in Damned Rascals. Part of the heading reads “Dunkirk Hulk in the Harbour of Hamoze, Plymouth”. The Hamoaze is that part of the Tamar River west of Stonehouse and Devonport which have now merged together with modern Plymouth.
Another clue was the November 1786 Henry Bradley receipt for Henry and the baby, which is Plate C 5 in the book. That document is headed Plymouth Dock. My enquiries at Plymouth Library informed me that in 1786 Plymouth Dock was not in Plymouth. In first decade of 19th Century the people of Plymouth petitioned Parliament to have Plymouth Dock renamed. Parliament agreed and changed it to Devonport, which encompassed His Majesty’s Dockyard.
So now I was looking for some 1786 boat boarding steps in Devonport adjacent to the Hamoaze.
I walked all around the 18th Century Naval Dock particularly Mutton Cove to its south and North Corner to the north. Whilst at North Corner I went into the “Steam Packet” and found the landlord an amateur historian who had a booklet about his 19th Century pub written by a local historian. He said the home on the opposite corner was the 18th Century pub “The Swan”.
I contacted the historian and discovered she is writing a book about North Corner including the boarding of the convicts who were to go to NSW onboard Friendship and Charlotte.
She told me that the convicts boarded boats at the slipway at the end of Cornwall Street and that officers and ships’ crews used the steps. Here is a map showing the area. Note that the landing stage was not there in 1786.The semi circular steps are seen at the head of the cove. “The Swan” is at the corner of Cornwall Street and Cornwall Beach on the south side.
I took this next photo whilst there and went back several times to soak up the atmosphere and took Anne there for a drink at the Steam Packet. You can see the top steps of the semi circular ones and the boarding slip starts where the yellow-hulled boat sits. “The Swan” is the prominent corner building and the original corner pub door alcove can be seen. If John Simpson, the turnkey, was looking for an initial rest stop after returning ashore with the baby and to await a coach to London, then this was the only pub at hand.
The slipway now looks like this at low water:
The next photo shows the modern Cornwall Street showing the view over the Hamoaze and beyond the mud spit is St John’s Lake where the convict hulks lay and that area dries out at low water. So Henry and Susannah could see the hulks as they passed down Cornwall Street. There were many hulks there in 1786 as they housed French prisoners of war. Indeed Napoleon was held here although his ship was kept alongside the Dockyard where the public could see him getting his exercise on deck each day.
At the Barbican in Plymouth, opposite the Mayflower Steps, I found this plaque commemorating the sailing of Friendship and Charlotte in 1787. I can only imagine that the convicts were ferried by boat from Dunkirk in the Hamoaze to the transports in the Sound as the masters of the transports would not have wished to sail into shallow waters and risk being aground at low water.
I have a very good sketch of Cornwall Street done from seaward in 1736 and a 1841 photograph but waiting on permission to place them on the internet. We can then interpret half way between those dates to imagine 1786. By the way in 1786 Cornwall Street was know as North Corner Road but I have chosen to use the new name for simplicity.
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Comment by Zillah Estelle (Kable) Campbell -- John "the Boxer". on October 19, 2009 at 5:44pm - Now the report on this page regarding the Plymouth picture of their lives and the events there is surely the best info for maybe decades now-- well done Paul. !!!i look at the photo of the inn and area, and do wonder if only we could see the scene at the time!--- how compelling.
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Comment by Zillah Estelle (Kable) Campbell -- John "the Boxer". on October 19, 2009 at 5:42pm
- Poor Len with all his good intentions he has found we are really harsh critics as far as the real facts go-- it's the 'that's my family' emotion of the thing -- we are rather melodramaric at times----see--- we even have a male finding a tear in his eye while reading it !!-- but it is very good when it sits in ones memory after the small iffy details get dimmer in the mind. A great fill in on the earler part of their lives !!! isn't it always the way we write the stories as we think they are and then find out what we missed-- "damn" is the word.
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Comment by Paul Kable on October 19, 2009 at 1:13pm - Yes Marie I enjoyed the novel too; it had me a bit teary at times. I have talked to Len and he wrote the book under a word number restraint and had to cut large sections immediately before publication which must have been difficult to remain cohesive.
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Comment by Marie Hoffman on October 19, 2009 at 8:37am - Yes, I agree about the facts, but I still enjoyed reading it. Thank you for all the research and work you have done over many years. Cheers, Marie
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Comment by Paul Kable on October 19, 2009 at 8:24am
- Some of the family are upset about "Enduring Spirit" as it is so factually wrong when it comes to the events of their lives in England; wrong places, wrong sequence, wrong events etc. However I take the view it is a novel and just hope people who want the facts will read "Damned Rascals" Len Hodges now has our book and, I guess, wishing he had waited before writing his novel. Regards, Paul
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Comment by Marie Hoffman on October 18, 2009 at 2:57pm
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Thanks you Paul, my husband and I have not long returned from a trip where we visited Plymouth. I read Len P Hedges book "Enduring Spirit" while we were in England and felt that I had got a good insight into the lives of Henry and Sassannah from that so can recommend it to everyone. There are a few spelling and typos in it, but really a good read.
I enjoyed your latest information too.
Best wishes,
Marie
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Comment by Neil Henderson on October 5, 2009 at 10:27am - Thanks Paul, I enjoyed reading your findings. I consider that your trip to England was well worth the effort as your research, photos and sketches have put a much more personal perspective to Henry and Susannah's lives, even down to picturing where John Simpson may have rested before his eventful trip to London. The local historian may be interested in being a "distribution point" for your book "Damned Rascals" !!! Tourists would be able to read about the "success" of the convict program. Regards Neil
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