Zebedee Milgate

"He lived to 80 in about 1945 still working to the last. A very interesting old sea dog, he had what is believed to be the last trial of piracy on the high seas in England due to a bloody sea fight over the ownership of oysters [culch] being dredged by a Burnham crew, that Zeb and others believed belonged to Mersea and Tollesbury. After telling the Burnham chaps to back off, which they didn't, they took direct action by boarding their much larger boat and fought the crew. They were convicted but believe it was later quashed due to the help of local dignitaries who knew the Mersea crew. [Caroline Robinson - great granddaughter]

For more, see The Blackwater Culch War of 1894