Sea Fencibles The original Sea Fencibles ( Fencible being a noun formed from the adjective fencible , a shortened form of defencible ) , were a naval militia established to provide a close - in line of defence to protect the United Kingdom from invasion by France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . Britain ' s defence rested on two lines : a blockade of French ports provided the first , forward line of defence , and the Sea Fencibles and Martello tower s provided the second , coastal , line of defence . The Sea Fencibles lasted from 1798 to its disbandment in 1810 , with a break of a few years after the Treaty of Amiens . Later , other countries , including the United States , copied the idea . United Kingdom . The Sea Fencibles were formed in early 1798 by order of the Admiralty to act as an anti - invasion force in coastal waters . The Sea Fencibles consisted of volunteers , usually fishermen and local residents along the coast , under the command of serving or retired naval officer s . The Sea Fencibles served as a coast guard , performing coastal patrol and manning coastal signal stations and small boats . During the Peace of Amiens in 1802 – 1803 the organization was disbanded , but on the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars it was quickly reformed and expanded . By the end of 1803 Sea Fencible units were re - established from Portsmouth all the way to St Abb ' s Head in Scotland . The Sea Fencibles were finally disbanded in 1810 after the threat of French invasion had passed . Origin and organization . Admiral Sir Home Popham , while in Flanders , in November 1793 formed a marine militia using local fishermen . He initially recruited them to man gunboats , but they also distinguished them selves in the defence of Nieuport during the second siege . In 1798 , when a French invasion of Britain appeared imminent , Popham recommended that the Admiralty create a similar body . An Order in Council dated 14 May 1798 established the Sea Fencibles " For the protection of the coast , either on shore or afloat ; comprising all fishermen and other persons occupied in the ports , and on the coast , who , from their occupations are to be unpressed . " An admiral was appointed Director of Sea Fencibles England , Scotland and Wales . The Sea Fencibles organisation was divided into some 36 districts for England , Scotland , and Wales . Each district covered a stretch of coast and was under the command of a Post - Captain , assisted by three to six Lieutenant s , depending on the size of his command . A senior Post - Captain of a district received £1 15s a day ( equivalent to £ today ) , junior Post - Captains received £1 10s ( equivalent to £ today ) , and Lieutenants 8s 6d ( equivalent to £ today ) . Petty Officers received 2s 6d ( equivalent to £ today ) for each day they assembled , while Ordinary Seamen received 1 shilling and provisions ( food and drink ) , or 2 shillings if no provisions were available ( equivalent to £ and £ today ) . Sea Fencibles were also eligible to receive prize and salvage money . For example , on 13 June 1805 the sixth - rate frigate and the Sea Fencibles recaptured the " Industry " , off Hastings , and shared the subsequent salvage money . The volunteers were trained in the use of arms and manned watch and signal towers , and fixed and floating batteries along the coasts and ports . They also operated a fleet of gunboat s . A member of the Sea Fencibles would spend one day a week training . They were also allowed to choose their own Petty Officer s at the rate of one per 25 men . Most importantly , all Sea Fencibles received a certificate that exempted them from impressment into the Navy . The Treasury argued that the exemption from impressment was the principal reason smugglers joined as impressment was a common punishment for smuggling . The Sea Fencibles ' fleet consisted of small vessels such as colliers and coasting vessels such as hoys adapted to serve as gunboats . The owners were expected to pay for the fitting of slides , ring and eye bolts for the installation of guns , usually two forward and two aft , and in smaller craft to fit sweeps for use in calms . The Admiralty provided guns , ammunition and powder , and it required the ship owners to keep close and regular accounts of their use . The owners were under orders to co - operate with the Royal Navy , and they were entitled to payment of compensation , according to the size of their ships and the amount of time they were required . For instance , on 28 September 1804 the Navy held a meeting with the owners of 16 hoys at Margate . The Navy then hired the vessels for the defence of the coast . The Navy manned each vessel with a regular Navy man as master and nine men from the Sea Fencibles . When the Sea Fencibles were re - established in 1803 after the resumption of war with France , the Admiralty set them the task of surveying the coastline within their districts to determine where the enemy might be able to land , together with remarks about the condition of the winds , surf and tide there . Equally , they were to determine which stretches of coast were less vulnerable to landings . Lastly , they were to survey the creeks and rivers within their districts . In February 1810 , when it became clear that the threat of invasion by Bonaparte had passed , the Sea Fencibles , which by then had hit a peak strength of 23 , 455 men , were disbanded . Active duty . There are a few accounts of Sea Fencibles actually being called out to engage with the enemy . However , the vessels and boats employed the Sea Fencibles used received letters of marque , which entitled their crews to take prizes and share in the proceeds . On 13 November 1798 a French privateer appeared off Hastings . Captain E . H . Columbine of the Sea Fencibles put a number of his men on the cutter " Lion " , offered by a Mr . Wexham , and set out after the French vessel . They caught up with their quarry after a chase and captured her after " a little firing " that resulted in the death of one Frenchman . The privateer was the " Success " , of Cherbourg , Nicholas Dubois , master , with four guns and 24 men . She had been out four days without making any captures . Captain Columbine remarked on the " zeal and readiness " of the Hastings men . A second case occurred on 9 January 1799 . The next day Captain Edward Buller , commander of the Sea Fencibles along the coast of Devon , reported that on the previous day , the brig " Susannah " had left Dartmouth only to fall prey to the French 14 - gun privateer " Heureux Speculateur " . The Brixham Sea Fencibles . seeing this take place , took a boat , and armed only with muskets and pikes , succeeded in recapturing the " Susannah " and her prize crew . Lieutenant Nicholas , with the assistance of Revenue Collector Brooking , who provided small arms and a boat , took another detachment of Sea Fencibles and , accompanied by a boat from the cutter , set off , unsuccessfully , to capture the privateer . On 11 March of the same year the Margate Sea Fencibles were somewhat more successful . When a small cutter was observed boarding two brigs eight or nine miles from the North Foreland , 40 or 50 Sea Fencibles pushed off in three boats and recaptured the two brigs , the privateer having made off . Another case occurred on 13 June 1804 . HM hired armed cutter " Princess Augusta " , under the command of Lieutenant John Tracey , encountered a 14 - gun French privateer off Huntcliff . During the engagement , which lasted nearly four hours , the " Princess Augusta " took several shot near the water line and sustained extensive damage to her rigging . Still , she suffered only three men wounded , though one desperately . The French vessel sheered off on 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 " . Lastly , as mentioned earlier , " Vestal " and the Hastings Sea Fencibles recaptured the ship " Industry " . 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 . Notable Sea Fencibles . Several naval officers spent some time as a Sea Fencible . Service with the Sea Fencibles was preferable to being unemployed and on half - pay . After the formation of the Sea Fencibles , Home Popham himself was appointed to head up the district from Beachy Head to Deal . One notable Sea Fencible was Francis Austen , the brother of the novelist Jane Austen . On the renewal of war with France after the brief peace of the Treaty of Amiens , he was appointed to raise and organise a corps of Sea Fencibles to defend a strip of the Kentish coast . He subsequently married a local Ramsgate girl , Mary Gibson . The assignment was a temporary one and he went on to serve at sea again , eventually rising to the rank of admiral . 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 " , by 1804 they had uniformed commissioned officers in command . Members of the Corps escorted the barge carrying the body of Lord Nelson along the Thames in small boats during his state funeral in 1806 . In 1807 River Fencibles sailed to Copenhagen to help bring back some of the Danish vessels captured there after the second Battle of Copenhagen . The Greenwich River Fencibles consisted of a commandant , three captains , six lieutenants , 24 masters , 24 mates , and 157 gunners and privates . The Government provide pikes , but nothing else , so the men defrayed their own expenses . The Greenwich River Fencibles sent two officers and 126 men to Copenhagen . The City of London , Loyal Greenwich , and Royal Harbour River Fencibles also contributed men to the Walcheren expedition in 1809 . The Greenwich River Fencibles alone sent two officers and 130 men on the Walcheren expedition , two of whom were killed . In all , about 300 Fencibles volunteered to serve at Copenhagen and about the same number served on the Walcheren Expedition . The Corps was disbanded in 1813 . Irish Sea Fencibles . At the same time as they were building Martello towers and establishing Sea Fencibles on the British coasts , the British were doing the same on the Irish coasts . There were some 20 Sea Fencible districts , though the number of men and boats per district varied widely . The British also were concerned about the reliability of the Irish Sea Fencibles , especially given Robert Emmet ' s insurrection in Dublin in 1803 . In 1804 , the Sea Fencibles had some 28 gun vessels of various sorts - a brig , three galliot s , and the rest sloops . Generally these carried two 18 - pounder guns and two 18 - pounder carronades . The owners usually provided a crew consisting of four men and a boy , with the plan that Sea Fencibles would augment this cadre when the vessels had to put out to sea . United States Sea Fencibles . 1813 - 1815 . On July 26 , 1813 , during the War of 1812 with the United Kingdom , the United States Congress passed " An act to authorize the raising [ of ] a Corps of Sea Fencibles . . . not to exceed one year [ service ] , and not to exceed ten companies who may employed for the defense of the ports and harbors of the United States . . . " At Baltimore , two companies were raised under the command of Captains Matthew S . Bunbury and William H . Addison . Though generally mariners by trade , the Sea Fencibles were equipped and organized under the authority of the War Department . Officers received the uniform , pay , and rations of the Army , while the balance of each company ( boatswains , gunners , and privates ) received the uniform , pay , and rations of the Navy . A company consisted of 107 officers and enlisted men . Both companies at Fort McHenry were considered part of the regular garrison . Records indicate that Captain Bunbury ' s company was quartered at Fort McHenry , while Addison ' s men were quartered at Fort Covington . Their duties consisted of manning the barges , maintaining the chain - mast boom , providing guard duty , and manning the great guns of Fort McHenry ' s water batteries . On February 27 , 1815 , Congress repealed the act establishing the Corps of Sea Fencibles . Civil War . There were sea fencibles in the Confederate Army in Charleston . John Symon started a unit known as ' Symon ' s Sea Fencibles , ' which was a land based unit used for coastal surveillance . There is no record of this unit ever fighting , but it is assumed they later joined other Confederate units after dissolving . They would most likely have worn civilian clothing . Surprisingly , the group had a Hispanic officer , which was not characteristic of most Confederate units . Many of the Fencibles were disgruntled because they wanted the $ 15 pay offered by the Union Navy , but only received the $ 11 pay of the Confederates . Thus , by the end of 1861 , the unit was disbanded . These fencibles later joined other local units . Canada . There were Sea Fencible units attached to the battalions of St . John , Charlotte and Northumberland counties in New Brunswick during the War of 1812 . They were raised among seafaring men in coastal communities and seem to have all disbanded after the war . From 1833 to 1867 , there was a unit of St . John Sea Fencibles that functioned primarily as an artillery unit . Its officers and men wore naval uniforms .