we find him holding an appointment in the Kentish district of Sea Fencibles.
It is well known to those officers who held commands previous to the peace of Amiens, that the private signals then in use were much exposed to discovery in a variety of cases, and consequently might, in the possession of an enemy, have led to disastrous results. To obviate this danger, Captain Ricketts turned his attention to the subject, and planned a code on an entirely different system, at once so simple as to be readily understood by the meanest capacity; and so safe from discovery, that even if they lay open before an inquisitive stranger, or fell into the hands of the keenest of our enemies, no danger could be incurred, because it would be impossible under such circumstances to comprehend them. This improved code he submitted to his patron, the Earl of St. Vincent, who entered at once into its merits, and lost no time in returning a letter expressive of his strong approbation, acknowledging the absolute necessity that existed for its adoption, and offering to recommend it himself to the Admiralty, although he feared he had no longer any influence there, having some time before retired from office. This offer was gratefully accepted by Captain Ricketts, who subsequently made several applications on the subject, in consequence of a report that a change was about to take place in the private signals; but at length, after the lapse of several years, he had the mortification to receive his own code back without the slightest comment, and to see another, somewhat similar, though much more complex, brought into general use.
Captain Ricketts’ zeal for the public service does not appear to have been damped by this disappointment. In “Phillips’s Guide to all the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places,” published about 1809, we find the following notice under the head of “Folkstone:”
“In 1808, the temporary rudder of Captain Ricketts was first used in steering one of the Folkstone boats , and it was in the Clyde frigate, commanded by Commodore Owen, that the same officer’s Sea Friend, better known by the name of the Folkstone Machine, was successfully tried, and found to perform the operation of working the great chain pumps of that ship without the slightest assistance from any person on board.”
