History of Southampton 1779 . On the 5th September 1779 , a parson preaching on the Isle of Wight was handed a note which caused him to leap out of his pulpit , run outside and fire the beacon , so throwing the entire Island into panic . During the American War of Independence , France , Holland and Spain had joined forces to support the rebel American colonists against Great Britain and her loyal colonists . Fears of invasion by the French had reached a peak in 1779 . The French plan was to land on the Isle of Wight , simultaneously invading Portsmouth . Then , having successfully neutralised the Royal Navy , they would march on London . Messenger Monsey , a physician writing from Southampton , recorded the parson`s reaction and reported the local consternation : .........." I fear that the Southampton Governor was as much , if not more , alarmed than the rest of the inhabitants , which is not very clever " . Sightings of the combined fleet were reported all along the south coast , but the invasion never came . The French and Spanish sailors were dying of typhus and smallpox so fast that the ships could not be manned properly and they limped back home . So many bodies were thrown overboard that the locals refused to eat fish for months , for fear of being poisoned .
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:53:56 +0000
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