Epilogue

After the discovery of the customs fraud on board the Alice and Francis, the incriminated parties were instructed to remain in the port. Dring, however, had other ideas.1 Addobbati and Dyble, ‘One hundred barrels of gunpowder’, pp. 842–3. Having no intention of brooking further delay, he boldly contacted the Governor’s court and asked that they put out a final call for two unclaimed bales of silk belonging to one Ezechiel Lampsen, as he was ‘ready for departure for Naples and Messina’.2 ASL, Capitano, poi Governatore Auditore Vicario, 269, document 548. This indemnifying action completed, he prepared for departure. News of this precautionary measure soon reached the ears of Girolamo Migliorotti at the customs house, who rushed to the Auditore del Governo to demand Dring’s immediate arrest. But when his men arrived on the dockside, they were too late – the Alice and Francis had already taken to the open seas. Subsequent recriminatory efforts came to nothing. A master’s freight money would usually be looked after by the merchant who was his principal contact in the port, but Robert Foot claimed to know nothing of the matter, adding that the English consul was likewise seeking Dring because he had left without paying his consular fees.3 ASL, Capitano, poi Governatore Auditore Vicario, 269, document 559. The swashbuckling Stephen Dring lived to fight another day.