Bloody British History Plymouth

What do Captain Cook and Scott of the Antarctic have in common? Was Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the world just an accident? What did the soldiers of D-Day leave behind at Crownhill Fort? Plymouth is a city full of secrets and gruesome stories. My favourite story is from 1801 when the crops failed, grain prices rocketed and the starving people of Plymouth rioted. Local farmers worked in fear for their lives, and the militia were repeatedly called out to counter the unrest. It didn’t work. The Devonport docks, full of enraged workers, were under siege and armed troops patrolled the streets. As the protestors were tried, angry mobs battered down the doors to the courthouse and rescued the plaintives, hiding them away from the authorities.  The battles raged on, until the Navy Board were compelled to bring in forces from London. Sixty-eight dockworkers lost their jobs and four men were tried and hanged. All over the cost of a loaf of bread.

 

Plymouth is famous for its pirates, shipwrecks and the pilgrims who sailed to the New World. You will have heard of John Hawkins and Francis Drake, maybe even Captain Avery the murderous pirate, but have you heard of John Howland? He joined the voyage of the Mayflower from Plymouth in 1620 as an indentured servant to John Carver. Carver would eventually become Governor of the Plymouth colony in the New World, but John Howland had the more dramatic tale to tell of his journey across the Atlantic. Conditions below deck were appalling – over-crowded and stinking with sickness in horrific Atlantic storms. Desperate for some fresh air, John Howland went on deck and the gales tossed him overboard. He managed to grab hold of a halyard, one of the ropes that hoisted the sales, and he refused to let go. The stormy waters took him ten feet under, and still he refused to let go of that rope. A cry of ‘man overboard’ brought help, and the sailors brought John Howland back on board with boathooks.

 

John Howland arrived safe in the new World and managed to have ten children and an astonishing eighty-eight grandchildren, all of the same hardy constitution as their grandfather.

 

During the Napoleonic Wars, the French prisoners captured and held in Plymouth were poorly treated. Hundreds were hanged. Those imprisoned in the Citadel were whipped on arrival. The worst offenders went to the Black Hole, a noxious gaol on Fore Street. The remainder were held in appalling conditions, the prisoners complaining bitterly about the meagre food and decrepit cells. Sickness ravaged their numbers. Some of the prisoners gained extra food by corrupting the guards; this they sold on to their fellow prisoners in a black market.

 

In desperation, the French prisoners resorted to gambling to raise money for their keep, frequently losing their clothes in the process. During the worst winter months, French prisoners were seen naked on board the prison ships in Millbay, forced to sleep in rotting straw. Some were so weak from lack of food that they fell out of their hammocks and broke their necks.

 

In 1799, hundreds of French captives burrowed under the walls of Millbay Barracks and escaped. A ‘hue and cry’ was raised throughout the West and haystacks and outhouses were frantically searched for the famished and footsore soldiers. A number of merchant ships were discovered in the Sound deliberately concealing the wretched escapees, while two prisoners were found in a hotel in Honiton, having paid for a boat and a coach to get them there.

 

So what’s your favourite story about Plymouth?