The largest of these forty-four cruisers was the Repulse, 210 tons.  She carried 33 men and was stationed at Colchester.  Her cost for this year (1784) was L1552, 16s. 8d.  She was not one of the hired vessels, but on the establishment.  Next in size came the Tartar, 194 tons, with 31 men, her station being Dover.  She was on the establishment, and her annual cost was L1304, 6s. 2-1/2d.  Of the same tonnage was the Speedwell, which cruised between Weymouth and Cowes.  There was also the Rose, 190 tons, with 30 men, stationed at Southampton, being on the establishment likewise.  Next to her in size came the Diligence, 175 tons, with 32 men.  She cruised between Poole and Weymouth.  She was one of the hired vessels, and was in 1784 removed from Weymouth to have her headquarters at Cowes.  The smallest of all the cruisers at this time was the Nimble, 41 tons and a crew of 30.  She also was a hired craft.  Her station was at Deal, and her annual cost was L1064, 9s. 9d. for the year mentioned.

But though there was less expenditure needed at the outset, these contract ships were not altogether satisfactory:  or rather it was the method than the cruisers themselves.  For if we have any knowledge at all of human nature, and especially of the dishonest character which so frequently manifested itself in the eighteenth century, we can readily imagine that the contractor, unless he was a scrupulously honourable man, would naturally succumb to the temptation to economise too strictly regarding the keeping the ship in the best condition of repair; or he might gain a little by giving her not quite a sufficiently numerous crew, thus saving both wages and victuals.  For the Crown allowed a certain number of men, and paid for the complement which they were supposed to carry.

Therefore, since this arrangement was marked by serious drawbacks, the contract system was discontinued, and at the beginning of 1788 fifteen contracts were ended, and five other cruisers’ contracts were not renewed when they expired in that year.  All the cruisers in the employment of the Customs Service were now placed on the establishment, and the practice of paying the charges and expenses out of the King’s share of the condemned goods was rescinded.  In the year 1797 the number of Customs cruisers was 37, the commanders being appointed by the Treasury; and it may be not without interest to mention the names, tonnage, and guns of some of those which were on the books for that year.  There was the Vigilant, which was described as a yacht, 53 tons, 6 guns, and 13 men; the Vigilant cutter, 82 tons, 8 guns.  During the winter season she cruised with ten additional hands off the coasts of Essex, Kent, and Sussex.  There was another, the Diligence, given as of 152 tons; the Swallow, 153 tons and 10 guns; the Lively, 113 tons, 12 guns, and 30 men.  The Swift, 52 tons and 8 men, used to cruise