Note 446 — Chapter XV

These celebrated smacks were from 160 to 200 tons register. In the early part of this century (before the close of the great war) they sailed in company for protection. On one occasion they were attacked by a French privateer, heavily armed, to which they gave action, and, after a severe encounter, beat her off in gallant style; the senior captain, Nesbitt, acting as “Commodore” of the little fleet. Each of these smacks had accommodation for about twenty first-class passengers. The passage between Leith and London, a distance of 500 miles, usually occupied from three to five days, but has been made in fifty hours, although it was not, unfrequently, protracted from eight to twenty days. The first-class fare, including a table “groaning with food,” but exclusive of wine, spirits, or beer, was only two guineas each person; a rate which must have left little profit on long passages.