Sham sailors of the dry land navy
They swashbuckled their way through the streets of Manchester, but this fake navy of sham sailors had never been within 30 miles of the sea
Walk down Market Street in the Victorian era and you would be confronted by the sight of sailors staggering out of pubs as if they still had their sea legs on.
It’d be a surprising scene when you realise that Manchester is more than 30 miles from the ocean.
Some of them were genuine seadogs on shore leave from Liverpool.
In 1851, around 300 sailors sallied forth to Manchester to collect subscriptions for a strike at Bootle docks.
One drunken sailor woke up naked in an Angel Meadow lodging house and found his entire uniform — including his hat — had been stolen in the night.
But there was also an entire class of fake seamen who also swashbuckled their way up and down Market Street.
They were the sham sailors who dressed up in navy uniforms to try to con shoppers out of their hard earned money.
These men had a number of nicknames including “shallow coves” and the “dry land sharks”.
One notorious “shallow cove” was known as Jemmy the Crawler because he went around town on a wheeled cart wearing a disguise that included not just a sailor’s hat and jersey but muttonchop whiskers and a pirate’s earring.
A Victorian writer said of Jemmy: “The only humbug about him was his cry of ‘pity a poor old man of war’s man who has lost the use of his timbers’, which he repeated so often that he began to believe that he actually had served in the navy.”
The “dry land sharks” were a separate breed of conmen who were even more unscrupulous than the shallow coves.
These “sharks” who also wore navy uniforms and chewed tobacco in seaman-like fashion, would lead victims into the quiet backroom of a pub or down an quiet alley and whisper that they were selling smuggled goods.
Their wares were small pieces of silk or cigars bought cheaply at Smithfield Market, which they sold to their unsuspecting customers are three times their value.
Filling the buyer with feelings of excitement and adventure, they induced them not to tell a soul about their secret purchase.
After a parting glass and a shake of the hand, the victim would slip out into the night fearing arrest for being in possession of the “stolen” contraband.
John Milner was one sham sailor who was caught out by a detective named William Somerville.
Milner was standing on a street corner wearing a striped navy jersey with his chest partly exposed.
He appeared to have only one arm and was singing a mariner’s hymn named Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep (*you can listen to the hymn here while reading this story*).
Milner, who also had a fake limp, asked the undercover officer if he could “help a poor sailor”.
But when Somerville told him he was a police officer, Milner’s lameness suddenly disappeared and his “missing” arm appeared out of the jumper.
Somerville only caught him after he sprinted nearly a mile through the streets of Manchester.
The Irwell shipwreck
Today’s letter continues the nautical theme of last week’s post, where I wrote about the shipwreck of the Emma on the River Irwell — a near forgotten disaster that devastated whole communities when it happened in 1828.
A reader has told me about this song based on the sinking — and the naked rescuer whose clothes were stolen — by Harp and a Monkey.
They’re brilliant folk band from Greater Manchester who sing about everything from cuckolded molecatchers and bareknuckle boxers. Do check out their other music.
This song, A Naked Man in Paradise, is from their album The Victorians. You can find details of their upcoming gigs here.
The Manc History Hotlist
Here’s your curated list of history-related events taking place in Greater Manchester this week…
📚 There are just a few days left to visit the Portico Library’s Weird As Folk exhibition before it wraps up on 2 November. From Will-O-The-Wisp to the Bogart Hole Clough Boggart, you’ll learn about folk stories and cautionary tales from North West England. Free.
🏫 Meet the workers renovating Manchester Town Hall in a new photographic exhibition at Manchester Central Library. The Our Town Hall: Portraits of a Workforce Exhibition includes words by the workers themselves and portraits by photographer Barrie Leach. Free.
🏭 The giant Ellenroad Steam Engine in Milnrow, Rochdale, will be fired up on 3 November. If you have an interest in engineering or mill history, it’s worth a look. There’s a small charge for entry at the previously free “steaming” as the price of coal has doubled. There’ll also be a display by the West Pennine Wood Turners. £2.50.
📰 To celebrate Remembrance Sunday which is just around the corner, Find My Past is making its entire newspaper collection free to use this weekend so if you’re researching lost relatives, use this link here (affiliate link).
And here’s what I’ve been reading this week…
📕 Looking for Luddites is a short book written and illustrated by John Hewitt, whose daily sketches I follow on Instagram. The book delves into the culture and stories of the Luddite machine breakers by retracing their steps around the fringe of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
John revisited local sites of Luddite significance — telling the stories in the places where they happened — and captured them in his beautiful line drawing style to bring the past and present together. Available from Left Cultures. £5.
Thank you!
Thank you for supporting this little newsletter. It means a lot — and your support has helped it to grow to more than 1,300 readers.
My current schedule has been to post a free letter on Saturday mornings (which is what you’re reading now) with an extra letter just for paid subscribers on alternate Wednesdays.
I’ll be taking a break from writing this week to celebrate a milestone birthday but I’ll be back the following week with more Manchester history tales from the vaults.
Have a great weekend!
🎄 Oh, and P.S: If you’re looking for a professional family history researcher, perhaps to do some research as a unique gift for a Mancunian relative this Christmas, please do check out my family history website to see what I can do for you.
🌍 Since starting my professional genealogy work earlier this year I’ve helped families in Colorado and Virginia in the US, the Australian Gold Coast and Malta find their Mancunian and Irish ancestors.
👨🏻⚕️ If it’s something you’re interested in, I’m currently hosting a series of 30 minute family history surgeries on Thursdays where I can find out what you need and you can hear about the genealogy services I offer. You can book a Zoom call here. The surgeries are free and at no obligation to continue with any research.
Really great stuff
I am always captivated by the wonderful characters you come across in your research and bring to life in your writing! What a terrific way to learn history - thanks!