Chapter 13

THE PERIOD OF INGENUITY

Just as there had been a great improvement in the reorganisation brought about by the advent of the Coast Blockade, so the Preventive service on shore generally was smartened up. That this was so is clear from the existing correspondence. For instance, five more Preventive boats were to be stationed between Shellness and Southwold, and three between Cuckmere Haven and Hayling Island; another boat was sent to Newton (Yorkshire), another to Dawlish (Devonshire), and another to Happisburgh (Norfolk) or, as it was then spelt, Hephisburg.

Some idea of the activity of the cruisers may be seen from the number of smugglers which these craft had been able to capture. The reader will recollect that during the year ending October 1, 1810, the highest number of smugglers handed over to the Navy was thirteen, and this was done by Captain Gunthorpe of the Excise cutter _Viper_. He thus became entitled to the sum of £500. It will be remembered also that it was afterwards decided that, beginning in 1812, £500 would be paid only if the number captured was not less than twenty. But now from a Treasury Minute of October 20, 1818, we find that, although the former number of captures was over thirteen, it was just under twenty. And, here again, Captain Matthew Gunthorpe, this time commanding the Excise cutter _Vigilant_, and Captain Robert Hepburn of the Excise cutter _Regent_, in the year 1816 seized nineteen smugglers each, or a total of thirty-eight. As neither captain had reached the twenty and both were equal, it was decided to add the second and third rewards together (_i.e._ £300 plus £200) and to give £250 to Captain Gunthorpe, officers and crew, and £250 to Captain Hepburn, officers and crew. And there is on record at this time a memorial from one W. Blake, the son of W. Blake, senior. The last-mentioned had been commander of the cutter _Nimble_, but was drowned in 1816. His son now prayed for the reward of £300 to be paid to the family of the deceased, as he had captured sixteen smugglers.

After the Admiralty had taken over the Revenue cruisers they did not neglect to sanction a pension system, and the following scheme was embraced:--Commanders of cruisers on retiring were to have from £91, 5s. to £155, 2s. 6d. per annum, according to their length of service; and for any wound received they were to have an additional £91, 5s. per annum. First mates were pensioned after five years' service at the rate of £35 a year, but after thirty years' service they were to have £85 a year as pension. And so it was arranged for all ratings down to the boys. The widow of a commander killed or drowned in the service was allowed £65 a year.

And now that we are in that period after the year 1815 we must not fail to bear in mind that this is the epoch when the smugglers were using ingenuity in preference to force. The busiest part had yet to come and did not occur till the third decade of the nineteenth century. But even from the time of the Battle of Waterloo until, say, about 1825 there were ten years in which the smugglers left no device untried which they could conceive to enable them to outdo the Revenue authorities. And we may now proceed to give actual instances of these ingenious attempts.

We begin with the early part of 1816. At this time the Tide-Surveyor at one of the out-ports had reason to suspect that the French market-boats which used to sail across to England were in the habit of bringing also a good deal of silks and other prohibited goods. At last he went on board one of these craft and immediately after she had arrived he caused the whole of her cargo to be put ashore. He then searched her thoroughly from deck to keelson, but he found nothing at all. However, he was determined not to give up his quest, and had part of her ceiling examined minutely, and was then surprised to note that some fresh nails had apparently been driven. He therefore caused the ceiling to be ripped off, when he discovered that a large variety of contraband goods had been neatly stowed between the ship's timbers.

It was only a few months later in that same year that another Revenue officer boarded a Dutch schuyt which was bound from Amsterdam to London. Her cargo consisted of 500 bundles of bulrushes, but on making his examination these innocent articles were found to conceal between the rushes forty-five boxes of glass in illegal packages, and also some other prohibited goods which had been shipped from the United Kingdom for exportation and were intended to have been again clandestinely relanded.

The reader will remember our mentioning the name of Captain M'Culloch just now in connection with the Coast Blockade. Writing on the 2nd of April, 1817, from on board H.M.S. _Ganymede_ lying in the Downs, this gallant officer stated that, although it was known that the smugglers had constructed places ashore for the concealment of contraband goods under the Sand Hills near to No. 1 and No. 2 batteries at Deal, yet these hiding-places were so ingeniously formed that they had baffled the most rigid search. However, his plan of landing crews from his Majesty's ships to guard this district (in the manner previously described) had already begun to show good results. For two midshipmen, named respectively Peate and Newton, commanding the shore parties in that neighbourhood, had succeeded in locating five of those places of concealment.

"This discovery," continued the despatch, "I am assured will be a most severe blow to the smugglers, as they were enabled to remove their cargoes into them in a few minutes, and hitherto no person besides themselves could form any idea of the manner in which their store-holes were built. They are generally 4 feet deep, of a square form and built of a 2-inch plank, with the scuttle in the top, into which a trough filled with shingle is fitted instead of a cover to prevent their being found out by pricking; and I understand they were built above two years ago. I have ordered them to be destroyed, and parties are employed in searching for such concealments along the other parts of the beach." Thus, thanks to the Navy, the smugglers had been given a serious repulse in the most notorious district.

Then there was also the danger of collusive smuggling. For instance, when a smuggler had been frustrated from successfully landing a cargo of spirits from a small foreign vessel or boat he might go and give information to a Custom officer so that he might have the goods seized by the latter, the arrangement being that the smuggler should be paid a fair portion of the reward which the officer should receive for the seizure. Inasmuch as the officers' rewards were by no means inconsiderable this method might fully indemnify the smuggler against any loss.

Just before Christmas of 1819 the Custom officers at Weymouth seized on board a vessel named _The Three Brothers_ sixteen half-ankers and seven small kegs or flaggons of foreign spirits. These were found to be concealed under a platform of about nine feet in length fitted on either side of the keelson, and of sufficient height for one cask. Its breadth was such as to allow of two casks and a flaggon. When full this secret hiding-place would contain about thirty casks in all. The whole concealment was covered with stone and iron ballast. The platform was fitted with false bulkheads and filled up with large stones so as to avoid suspicion, the entrance to which was made (after removal of the ballast) from the bottom of the forecastle through two bulkheads about two feet apart.

Another instance was that of a consignment of four cases which had come over from France. These cases contained plaster figures and appeared to be hollow. However, the Custom officers had their suspicions and decided to perforate the plaster at the bottom with an auger. After making still larger holes there were extracted from inside the following amazing list of articles:--Two clock movements, six pieces of bronze, thirty-two pieces of porcelain, and two small paintings.

A certain other French craft was boarded by the Revenue officers who, on measuring her range of deck and also under it including the bulkheads, found a greater difference than the rake would fairly account for. They were naturally highly suspicious and proceeded to take down part of the bulkhead aft, when they discovered that this bulkhead was not single but double, being between the cabin and the hold. This bulkhead was made of solid oak planking and was 2 feet 10 inches thick. It was securely nailed, and the cavity thus made extended from one side of the hull to the other, giving a breadth of 7 feet 2 inches, its length being about 2 feet 2 inches, and the height 3 feet 6 inches. It will thus be readily imagined that a good quantity of spirits, wine, and plums from France could easily therein be contained and brought ashore when opportunity presented itself.

At another port a vessel was actually discovered to have false bows. One might wonder how it was that the officer ever found this out, but he was smart enough to measure the deck on the port side, after which he measured the ship below. He found a difference of over a foot, and so he undertook a thorough search of the ship. He first proceeded to investigate the forepeak, but he was unable to discover any entrance. He therefore went to the hold, examined the bulkhead, and observed that the nails of the cleats on the starboard side had been drawn. He proceeded to force off the cleats, whereupon one of the boards of the bulkhead fell down, and a quantity of East India silk handkerchiefs came tumbling out. Needless to say, this proved a serious matter for the vessel's skipper.

Sometimes too, cases used to come over from France containing carton boxes of artificial flowers. These boxes, it was found, were fitted with false bottoms affording a space of not more than a quarter of an inch between the real bottom and the false. But into this space was squeezed either a silk gauze dress or some parcels "very nicely stitched in," containing dressed ostrich feathers. The flowers were usually stitched down to the bottom of the boxes to prevent damage, so it was difficult to detect that there was any false bottom at all. However, after this practice had been in vogue for some time it was discovered by the Revenue officers and the matter made generally known among the officials at all the ports, so that they could be on the alert for such ingenuity.

Sometimes when a Revenue officer was on her station she would come across a sailing craft, which would be found to have quite a considerable number of spirits in small casks together with a number of other prohibited goods. If the master of such a craft were told by the cruiser's officer that they would have to be seized as they were evidently about to be smuggled, the master would reply that they were nothing of the kind, but that whilst they were on the fishing grounds working their nets they happened to bring these casks up from the sinkers and warp which had kept them below water; or they had found these casks floating on the sea, and had no doubt been either lost or intentionally thrown overboard by some smuggling vessel while being chased by a Revenue cruiser. It became a very difficult matter to ascertain under such circumstances whether the master were speaking the truth or the reverse, for it was not altogether rare for the kegs to be picked up by fishermen in the manner indicated. So the only way out of this dilemma was for the commanders of the cruisers to bring such craft as the above to the nearest Custom House, where the master could be brought ashore and subjected to a cross-examination as to where they found these casks and what they proposed doing with them.

A seizure was made at Deal about the year 1818 consisting of thirty-three packages of China crape and silk. These had been very artfully concealed in the ballast bags of a lugger called the _Fame_, belonging to London. One package was found in each bag completely covered up with shingles or small stones, so that even if a suspicious officer were to feel the outside of these bags he would be inclined to believe that they contained nothing but ballast, and if he opened them he would think there was nothing else but stones, for the goods were carefully squeezed into the centre of the bags and surrounded with a good thickness of shingle. Another dodge which was discovered at Shoreham on a vessel which had come from Dieppe was to have the iron ballast cast in such a form that it was not solid but hollow inside. By this means a good deal of dutiable stuff could be put inside the iron and then sealed up again. There was a ship, also, named the _Isis_, of Rye, which fell into disgrace in endeavouring to cheat the Customs. She was a smack of 26-16/94 tons burthen, her master being William Boxhall. It was while she was lying at her home port that one of the Revenue officers discovered a concealment under her ballast, the entrance to which was obtained by unshipping two bulkhead boards forward. There was one concealment on each side of the keel, and each contained enough space to hold from twenty to twenty-four ankers of spirits.

Along the Kentish coast a good deal of smuggling used to go on by means of galleys which were rowed by six, ten, and even twelve oars. As these were navigated by foreigners and sailed under foreign papers, the Customs officers were a little puzzled as to what exactly could be done. Could such craft be seized even when found with no cargoes on board, when they were either hauled up the beach or were discovered hovering off the coast? After applying to the Board of Customs for guidance they were referred to the Act,[19] which provided that any boat, wherry, pinnace, barge, or galley that was built so as to row with more than four oars, if found within the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, or Essex, or on the river Thames, or within the limits of the Port of London, Sandwich, or Ipswich, or the creeks thereto belonging, should be forfeited together with her tackle. The object of this was clearly to prevent the shortest cross-Channel route being traversed from Holland or France by big, seaworthy but open, multiple-oared craft, with enough men to row them and enough space to carry cargo that would make the smuggling journey worth while.

The following fraud was detected at one of the out-ports in 1819. An entry had been made of twenty-seven barrels of pitch which had been imported in a ship from Dantzic. But the Revenue officers discovered that these casks were peculiarly constructed. Externally each cask resembled an ordinary tar-barrel. But inside there was enclosed another cask properly made to fit. Between the cask and the outside barrel pitch had been run in at the bung so that the enclosure appeared at first to be one solid body of pitch. But after the affair was properly looked into it was found that the inner cask was filled with such dutiable articles as plate glass and East India china.

Sometimes tubs of spirits were packed up in sacks and packs of wool and thus conveyed from the coast into the interior of the country; and in the seizing of some goods at Guernsey it was found that tea had been packed into cases to resemble packages of wine which had come out of a French vessel belonging to St. Malo. Nor was the owner of a certain boat found at Folkestone any novice at this high-class art. Of course those were the days when keels of iron and lead were not so popular as they are to-day, but inside ballast was almost universal, being a relic of the mediæval days when so much valuable inside space was wasted in ships. In this Folkestone boat half-a-dozen large stones were used as ballast, which was a very natural thing for such a craft. But when these stones came to be examined they were found to have been hollowed out and to have been fitted with tin cases which were filled with spirits. One cannot acquit the owner of any fraudulent intent, but one certainly can admire both his ingenuity and the great patience which must have been necessary to have hollowed a cavity from such an unyielding material as stone. This was equalled only by the cargo from Guernsey. Four sacks said to contain potatoes from the Channel Isles were opened by the Revenue officers at a certain port, and, on being examined, it was found that these were not potatoes at all. They were so many rolls of tobacco which had been fashioned to resemble the size and form of the vegetable, and then covered artfully over with a thin skin and finally clayed over so cleverly that they had every appearance of the potatoes they pretended to be.

But the Channel Isles were still notorious. In twelve sacks of flour imported from Jersey were found hidden in the middle twelve bales of tobacco weighing 28 lbs. each. A few weeks later three boxes of prunes also from Jersey were opened, when it was discovered that the prunes were not more than three inches deep at the top and three inches deep at the bottom. But between there was a space in which were concealed--in each box--a paper parcel of silk, some scarves and gloves, &c. But in order to make the total weight of the box approximate to that which would have existed had it been full of prunes a square piece of lead was placed above and another underneath these dutiable articles.

But to me the most ingenious method of all was that which was employed in 1820 for smuggling tobacco. The offending ship was one of the vessels employed in the transport service, and the man who thought of the device was not far from being a genius. He first of all obtained the quantity of tobacco which he proposed--no doubt with the assistance of more than one confederate--to smuggle ashore. He then proceeded to divide this into two, each of which formed one strand. Afterwards he made these strands into a rope, every bit of it being tobacco. But then he took a three-strand hawser and laid this over the tobacco, so that when the hawser was finished no one could suspect the tobacco without first cutting or unlaying the rope. I have not been able to discover how this trick was ever suspected. Nothing less than an accident or the information of a spy could possibly lead to detection in such a clever case.

There were all sorts of varieties of concealments now practised since the "scientific" period of smuggling had come in. And since those wicked old days have passed, and with them a good many of the old-fashioned types of craft, it may be well that examples of these misdirected efforts should be collected herewith. There was a smack, for instance, which was found to have under her ballast a large trunk that was divided into four separate compartments each about 15 feet long and could contain twelve half-ankers. One end of the trunk was fixed against the bulkhead of the cabin, and extended the whole length of the hold opening at the forward end close to the keelson by unshipping two pieces of the bulkhead.

Another instance of the employment of false bows to a craft was found on searching the fishing smack _Flower_, of Rye, whose master's name was William Head. It was observed that this false section would hold as much as forty to fifty half-ankers, the entrance being on the port side of the false bow, where a square piece took out, being fastened by a couple of screws, the heads of which were concealed by wooden bungs imitating treenails. The _Flower_ was further discovered to have a false stern, the entrance to this being by means of the upper board of this stern on the port side in the cabin. She was a vessel 39 feet 2-1/2 inches long, 12 feet 1-1/2 inches beam, 5 feet 9-1/2 inches deep, and of 23-1/2 tons burthen, being fitted with a standing bowsprit and sloop-rigged. An almost identical set of concealments was found in the smack _Albion_ at Sandwich, a vessel of over 42 tons burthen. The entrance to her false stern was through a small locker on the port and starboard sides. She was further fitted with a false stern-post and false timbers.

A considerable amount of ingenuity must have been exercised in the case of an open four-oared boat which was seized at Dover together with twelve ankers of spirits. The device was as follows:--Across the bow end of the boat was the usual thwart on which an oarsman sat. At the after end where the stroke sat was another thwart. Under each of these thwarts was an ordinary stanchion for supporting the thwart. But each of these two stanchions had been made hollow. Thus, through each a rope could be inserted, and inasmuch as the keel had also been pierced it was possible to pass one rope through at the bow-thwart and another at the stern-thwart, these ropes penetrating the boat from thwart to keel. The inboard ends of these two ropes were carelessly lashed round the thwarts or covered with gear, so there was no untoward appearance. But at the other ends of the ropes were fastened the twelve ankers, which were thus towed along under the keel of the craft, and not trailing out astern as was sometimes done in the case of bigger boats. Thus because the whole body of the boat covered the floating casks it was very unlikely that their presence would be suspected.

The smack _Strawberry_ of Deal, on being searched, was found to have a false bottom, capable of containing a considerable quantity of goods. This bottom was constructed by two leaden cases fixed on the timbers the whole length of the hold, one on each side of the keelson, and ceiled over with the usual ceiling, having the ballast placed over it. The cases opened on each side of the hold by taking out a plank from the temporary ceiling. In the case of the lugger _Fox_ (as usual belonging to Rye), a vessel over 16 tons, John Souden, master, there were found to be double bottoms underneath the bed cabins, the entrance being made from underneath the cabins, and then unshipping a small piece of board about a foot square, each concealment being able to hold from fifty to sixty pieces of bandana silks.

Another smuggling device in vogue during this ingenious period had to be employed in such places as Ramsgate harbour, where it would have been utterly impossible to have employed ordinary methods. It resembled very much the method employed at Dover, mentioned just now. A rowing-boat would come into the harbour, apparently with nothing in her nor anything towing astern. But there were fifteen or so half-ankers underneath her hull, spirits of course being contained in these casks. Now the latter were all fastened to a long iron bar, the ropes to the boat being fastened to this bar. Consequently, after the boat had reached her corner of Ramsgate harbour, all she had to do was to let go the ropes and the iron bar would keep the kegs on the sandy bottom and prevent them from disclosing their identity by floating. At low water the smugglers could have gone to get them up again, for they would not move far even with the ebb tide. Unfortunately, however, the Revenue Tide Surveyor at this port preceded the smugglers, and by creeping for the bar and tubs with grapnels succeeded in locating what he wanted.

On another occasion at one of the out-ports, or rather along the neighbouring beach, thirty-three gallons of spirits, contained in nineteen small casks, were recovered in a startling manner. Going along the beach were noticed among the chalk rocks and stones of the neighbourhood some other objects. These were the casks, but they had been so cleverly covered over with a cement of chalk, to which was fastened seaweed in the most natural manner, that seeing them there among the rocks of the shore they would never have been discovered by the Revenue men, had not it been (as one may guess) for a hint given by an informer. Otherwise there they would have remained until the smugglers found it convenient to come and fetch them.

We called attention just now to the concealing of tobacco in rope. This device evidently became a fine art, and had succeeded on many an occasion. At any rate in Flushing tobacco was openly on sale in the shops ready for smuggling into England already made up into ropes. You could get anything as big as a hawser and as small as a sail-tyer done up so ingeniously as to deceive almost any one. In fact on washing these slightly with a little rum they had every appearance of hempen rope.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] 8 George I. cap. 18.