the approach of two schooners manned with Sea Fencibles from Redcar. The French privateer reportedly was under the command of a notorious pirate with the name "Blackman". The French privateer brig Intrepide, of 16 guns, from Cherbourg, was cruising in sight of Scilly on 13 April 1806 and had taken three vessels on that coast. One of her prizes was the transport Mary, Macarthy, master, from Cork to Portsmouth. The Scilly Sea Fencibles, together with the revenue cutter Providence, Capt. Worsell, recaptured Mary. The Sea Fencibles also acted as a coastguard or lifeboat service. When wrecked in 1800, the Sea Fencibles attempted a rescue. Similarly, in January 1809, when was wrecked at Kingsgate, near Margate, the Sea Fencibles helped rescue the survivors. However, the Navy was not entirely enthusiastic about this role. In late 1804, the Sea Fencibles in Kinsale rescued the crew of a vessel wrecked in the District. Their commander, Commander Terence O'Neill, reimbursed them out of his own pocket, and then applied to the Navy for reimbursement. This was allowed, but William Marsden, First Secretary of the Admiralty, wrote: "But although the conduct of the persons who exerted themselves on this occasion, in saving the lives and property of their fellow creatures is highly meritorious, it has no relation to the service for which they were enrolled, and the precedent, if followed in all other parts where Sea Fencibles are established, would occasion a very heavy expense to the public". In January 1810, Sea Fencibles from Happisburgh and Winterton used newly issued Manby mortars to effect successful rescues of those on board two vessels driven ashore in a gale. On 3 February 1810, off Newhaven a French privateer lugger took a brig, in response five small boats of Sea Fencibles set off to attempt to recover the brig, outgunned they were unable to do so, however, some were able to board a smack and thereby prevent it being taken also. The same month when it became clear that the threat of invasion by Bonaparte had passed, the Sea-Fencibles were disbanded. River Fencibles In 1798, watermen and other groups of river tradesmen on the River Thames voluntarily formed associations of River Fencibles. Officially established in 1803 as "Corps of River Fencibles of the City of London", to be Captain-Commander Mathias Lucas (1761-1848), Esq. Captains - John Drinkeid, Esq. jun., Henry Grey, Esq, Jeffery Smith, Esq., James Betts, Esq,