own to the run of the
vessel the same principle was followed. The entrance to this was by
taking down the seats and lockers in the cabin, and a false stern-post
appeared to be fastened with a forelock and ring, but by unfastening
the same, the false stern-post and middle plank could be taken down.

Two ingenious instances of the sinking of contraband goods were found
out about the year 1823, and both occurred within that notorious
south-east corner of England. The first of these belongs to Sandwich,
where three half-ankers of foreign spirits were seized floating, being
hidden in a sack, a bag of shingle weighing 30 lbs. being used to act
as a sinker. Attached to the sack were an inflated bladder and about
three fathoms of twine, together with a small bunch of feathers to act
as a buoy to mark the spot. When this arrangement was put into use it
was found that the bladder kept the sack floating one foot below the
surface of the water. The feathers were to mark the spot where the
sack, on being thrown overboard, might bring up in case any accident
had occurred to the bladder. At spring tides the rush of the water
over the Sandwich flats causes a good deal of froth which floats on
the surface. The reader must often have observed such an instance on
many occasions by the sea. The exact colour is a kind of dirty yellow,
and this colour being practically identical with that of the bladder,
it would be next to impossible to tell the difference between froth
and bladder at any distance, and certainly no officer of the Revenue
would look for such things unless he had definite knowledge
beforehand.

[Illustration: The Sandwich Device.
In the sack were three half-ankers. A bag of shingle acted as sinker,
and the bladder kept the sack floating.]

The second occurrence took place at Rye. A seizure was made of twelve
tubs of spirits which had been sunk by affixing to the head of each a
circular piece of sheet lead which just fitted into the brim of the
cask, and was there kept in its place by four nails. The weight of the
lead was 9 lbs., and the tubs, being lashed longitudinally together,
rolled in a tideway unfettered, being anchored by the usual lines and
heavy stones. The leads sank the casks to the bottom in 2-1/2 fathoms
of water, but at that depth they in specific gravity so nearly
approximated to their equal bulk of fluid displaced that they could
scarcely be felt on the finger. The leads were cast in moulds to the
size re