Smuggling was once a popular “pass time” in Cornwall. An adventurous sometimes dangerous way to supplement a meagre income for ordinary folk, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries. Of course it is impossible to know exactly how many people in Cornish communities were actually involved in “free trading” because we only really know the names of those who were caught!
Two of those that history has recorded are Silas Finn and Amram Hooper. These two men were firm friends, thick as thieves one might say. Their two families lived together for many years on the secluded smuggler’s haunt of Looe Island, just off the Cornish coast.
Silas Finn and Amram Hooper
Silas Finn, known as Finny, is said to have stayed clear of the watchful eye of the excise men by dressing up as a woman. He would disguise himself in a dress and a bonnet with the wide brim to hide his face and thus avoided being recognised.
Amram Hooper, born in 1795, was a fisherman out of Looe as well as a smuggler and had a wife, Philippa, and six children. They, along with his mother, Grace Hooper, lived on Looe Island in a quaint cottage that still stands today and is said to have secrets stores beneath its floors.
Both men operated on Cornwall’s south coast in around Looe and the quiet bay of Portwrinkle in the early 19th century. Both men were well liked characters who relied on each other and the support of local people to move and distribute their contraband goods. But ultimately their stories were forever linked when one famously betrayed the other.
Despite his best efforts to avoid detection on one fateful night Silas Finn was caught red handed. The excise men found him with a large amount of smuggled goods and by all accounts Silas panicked. Rather than face his punishment he agreed to turn in his fellow conspirators.
And so a deceitful plan was hatched. Finn would signal his friends with a lantern on the cliffs at Portwrinkle, something he had done many times before to indicate to them that the coast was clear. But of course this time as soon as Hooper and his men landed on the beach the customs officers swooped and they were arrested with a cargo of brandy, lace, tea and tobacco. Silas Finn walked free.
The ghost of Silas Finn
Legend has it that Finn never forgave himself for his betrayal and on stormy nights his ghost still haunts the cliffs above the beach. Amram Hooper on the other hand served his time and lived to the ripe old age of 84. It isn’t clear whether he continued in his smuggling ways but the beach where this happened is still known as Finnygook beach and a nearby pub is called the Finnygook Inn, supposedly in remembrance of Silas Finn.
