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Cornish Wreckers

"Tristam Davey"

Baring-Gould relates another story of a tavern keeper, an evil faced man, his complexion flaming red and his hair very white, which he remembers as a boy. A story of this innkeeper was told; he had been a smuggler in his day, a wild one:

On one occasion, he and his men were rowing a cargo ashore they were pursued by a revenue boat. Tristam Davey, as I will call this man, knew this bit of coast perfectly. There was a reef of short slate rock that ran across the little bay, like a very keen saw with its teeth set outward, and there was one point at which the saw could be crossed safely. Tristam knew the point to a nicety, even in the gloaming, and he made for it, the revenue boat following.

He, however, did not make direct for it, but steered a little on one side and then suddenly swerved and shot through the break. The revenue boat came straight on, went right upon the jaws of the reef, was torn, and began to fill. Now the mate of this boat was one against whom Tristam entertained a deadly enmity, because he had been the means of capture in which his property had been concerned. So he turned the boat, and running back, he stood up, levelled a gun and shot the mate through the heart; then away went the smuggling boat to shore, leaving the rest of the revenue men to shift as best they could with their injured boat.

Baring-Gould, A Book of Cornwall, pages 273-274.)

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