, a difficulty with regard to the smugglers when
they became prisoners. We have already remarked how ready they were to
escape from the men-of-war. In the year 1815 there were some smugglers
in detention on board one of the Revenue cutters. At that time the
cutter's mate was acting as commander, and he was foolish enough to
allow some of the smugglers' friends from the shore--themselves also
of the same trade--to have free communication with two of the
prisoners without anyone being present on behalf of the Customs. The
result was that one of the men succeeded in making his escape. As a
result of this captive smugglers were not permitted to have
communication with their friends except in the presence of a proper
officer. And there was a great laxity, also, in the guarding of
smugglers sent aboard his Majesty's warships. In several cases the
commanders actually declined to receive these men when delivered by
the Revenue department: they didn't want the rascals captured by the
cutters, and they were not going to take them into their ship's
complement. This went on for a time, until the Admiralty sent down a
peremptory order that the captains and commanders were to receive
these smugglers, and when an opportunity arose they were to send them
to the flagship at Portsmouth or Plymouth.

As illustrative of the business-like methods with which the smugglers
at this time pursued their calling, the following may well be brought
forward. In the year 1814 several of the chief smuggling merchants at
Alderney left that notorious island and settled at Cherbourg. But
those small craft, which up till then had been wont to run across to
the Channel Isles, began instantly to make for the French port
instead. From Lyme and Beer in West Bay, from Portland and from the
Isle of Wight they sailed, to load up with their illicit cargoes, and
as soon as they arrived they found, ready awaiting them in the various
stores near the quays, vast quantities of "tubs," as the casks were
called, whilst so great was the demand, that several coopers were kept
there busily employed making new ones. Loaded with spirits they were
put on board the English craft, which soon hoisted sail and sped away
to the English shores, though many there must have been which
foundered in bad weather, or, swept on by the dreaded Alderney Race
and its seven-knot tide, had an exciting time, only to be followed up
later by the English Revenue cutters, or captured under the red c