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Lt. Thomas Hope RN [8] was in command of the ship HMS Pincher when it sank in 1838 in heavy seas near the Selsey light vessel, with the loss of over forty crew members. His body was washed ashore close to the village.  The Pincher had until the year before been playing a vital role in the interception of illegal slave ships operating in and out of the Caribbean, after the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Act. From 1829 the Pincher scoured the seas around Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda, and Cuba, with the aim of suppressing pirates, who were at the time mainly engaged in the kidnap, incarceration and sale of African people.  
Despite chasing down and capturing several pirate ships under the Treaty with Spain for the suppression of the Slave Trade, the receiving countries were usually reluctant to take any action, resulting in frustration for the British enforcement officers. For example, on 16 December 1836, crew from the Pincher boarded the Spanish brigantine General Laborde off the north coast of Cuba and "found her to be fitted as a slaver in all respects". Despite this, the ship was released back to its owners, "allowing her to depart Havana, following which it is understood that she landed some 700 slaves a little further along the coast from Havana". It is not known why the Pincher had returned to English waters, where she sank.

_{Plan of the deck and lower deck of the schooner HMS Pincher}