[3] Sandown, Deal and Walmer castles were constructed around the town by Henry VIII to protect against foreign naval attack.

(The reverse is true for ships heading for London from the Channel: a westerly wind prevents the last part of their journey.)

It was common to find four or five hundred ships[citation needed] waiting for a slight change in wind direction that would allow them to proceed.

[8]: 61–62 [9]: 113–114 When the port of Sandwich silted up, the only way to provide ships in the Downs with fresh provisions, stores and equipment was in boats launched directly from the beach.

[8]: 61–62  Deal also provided a convenient landing place for passengers for London, potentially saving a long wait for a fair wind to finish a voyage; it also allowed outward bound ships to be caught up with and joined.

Hence it was common for ships in the roadstead to drag their anchors in strong winds, especially those from north round to east northeast or from the southeast, as these directions were less sheltered.

[9]: 129 Deal was, for example, visited by Lord Nelson and was the first English soil on which James Cook set foot in 1771 on returning from his first voyage to Australia.

[citation needed] In 1672, a small Naval Yard was established at Deal, providing stores and minor repair facilities.

The Deal Maritime and Local History Museum is housed in an historic complex of light-industrial buildings in St George's Road, dating from 1803.

[11] The Deal boatmen were internationally famous for their skilled seamanship and bravery in operating their locally-built craft, launching and recovering from the open beach.

A range of work was done, with provisions and supplies being taken out to ships anchored in the Downs, and the Post Office paying for mail to be taken out or landed.

A large store of ground tackle of every size was kept by the boatmen, from which a suitable example could be loaded into one of the larger luggers and taken out and sold to the ship which needed it.

After the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, the salvage claims became more fairly assessed than in prior years and substantial payments could be made to boatmen who launched into strong winds to provide this service.

Special fast galleys (boats primarily propelled by oars) were built and used in calm misty weather, when the Revenue vessels had little chance of catching them.

In response to this, in 1784 the government sent a punitive expedition of soldiers to Deal, supported by naval cutters stationed offshore.

The resentment at this community punishment was set aside when the Napoleonic wars started, and the many naval vessels anchored in the Downs needed their services.

The smaller luggers were called "cats", able to do most of the work of the larger boats, but instead of the enclosed forepeak they had a removable cabin that could be set up between the thwarts.

[8]: 84–86  At high water, the shorter run to the sea increased the difficulty of getting a good launch, as there was less space in which to pick up speed.

For a large lugger it would take 20 or 30 men at the capstan to then haul the boat up the beach and then turn it round ready for the next launch.

A popular pleasure pier, it survived until the Second World War, when it was struck and severely damaged by a mined Dutch ship, the Nora, in January 1940.

The Deal Maritime and Local History Museum has exhibits of boats, smuggler galleys and model naval ships.

The Timeball Tower Museum, on the other hand, focuses on the importance of timekeeping for ships, and the role the building it occupies played.

Defoe wrote:[15][8]: 65 [16] If I had any satire left to write,Could I with suited spleen indite,My verse should blast that fatal town,And drown’d sailors' widows pull it down;No footsteps of it should appear,And ships no more cast anchor there.The barbarous hated name of Deal shou’d die,Or be a term of infamy;And till that’s done, the town will standA just reproach to all the landWilliam Cobbett passing through in September 1823 noted in his book Rural Rides: Deal is a most villainous place.

I was glad to hurry along through it, and to leave its inns and public-houses to be occupied by the tarred, and trowsered, and blue and buff crew whose very vicinage I always detest.Dickens, who had visited the town, had Richard Carstone garrisoned here in Bleak House,[17] so that Woodcourt and Esther's paths can cross when Woodcourt's ship happens to anchor in the Downs at the same time as Esther and Charley are visiting Richard: At last we came into the narrow streets of Deal, and very gloomy they were upon a raw misty morning.

The online station of the same name launched on 30 July 2011 offering local programmes, music and news for Dover and district.

[26] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South East and ITV Meridian from the Dover transmitting station.

The rugby club, Deal & Betteshanger Lions, plays at the old RM Drill Field off Canada Road.

[54][55] Author Russell Hoban repurposes Deal as "Good Shoar" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker.