On 27 December 1755, John Harvey, master of the pilchard sloop Mary and Alice, along with his crew of eight, put to sea from Penzance pier to cast their nets. Shortly beyond the pier, they spotted two casks of brandy, which they pulled into their boat. All of a sudden, eight Customs officers burst on the scene; they ‘bore down upon ’em & order'd them to bring to’. With ‘horrid Oaths and Imprecations declar'd they'd fire at ’em, & blow their Brains, and did discharge 2 volleys of Horse Pistols the Wadding of one of which scorch'd John Sampsons Wigg – & Thomas Campion … was wounded in the left Temple as suppos'd by a Shot from one of the Pistols’. But they were not smugglers. Rather, they were attempting to land the casks ‘for the use of Lord Arundell’, which would have brought them salvage payment, but they were assaulted before they could do so. The salvors, afraid for their lives, made a dash for the quay, but not before the Customs boat reached Harvey's sloop, and the officers, ‘having large Clubbs in their hands, violently assualted [sic] and wounded the Salvors, & threatening to throw them overboard, and, actually would have thrown one over, had not he held by the Shrouds’. The men were saved when Excise Surveyor Young intervened. Young seized the brandy ‘for the use of the King’, at the same time that Lord Arundell's bailiff, John Treluddra, claimed it as a right of wreck. They agreed that they should secure the brandy until such a time as legal ownership could be ascertained. However, when Young left the scene to speak to the Collector of Customs, ‘the Officers most cruelly beat James Lander, So that Blood run out at his Mouth, Nose &c, & almost Killed him & Mr Harvey's Son, and then by Violence took the Brandy away’.

This case contains multiple threads important to wreck history. It illustrates the conflicting legal entitlement between HM Customs, the Admiralty, and the lord of the manor over unclaimed goods.