y hauling tightly on to this line the kegs could be kept
beautifully concealed under the bilge of the vessel, so that even in
very clear water it would not be easy to suspect the presence of these
tubs. The other end of this pipe came up through the ship until it was
flush with the deck, and where this joined the latter a square piece
of lead was tarred and pitched so as scarcely to be perceived.

There must indeed have been a tremendous amount of thought, as well as
the expenditure of a great deal of time and money, in creating these
methods of concealment, but since they dared not now to use force it
was all they could do.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] The cro'jack yard was really the lower yard of a full-rigged ship
on the mizzen-mast, to the arms of which the clews or lower corners of
the mizzen-topsail were extended. But as sloops were fore-and-aft
craft it is a little doubtful what is here meant. Either it may refer
to the barren yard below the square topsail carried by the sloops of
those days--the clews actually were extended to this yard's arms--or
the word may have been the equivalent of what we nowadays call
cross-trees.

CHAPTER XVII

SMUGGLING BY CONCEALMENTS

Second cousin to the method of filling oars and spars with spirits was
that adopted by a number of people whose homes and lives were
connected with the sea-shore. They would have a number of shrimping
nets on board, the usual wooden handles being fitted at one end of
these nets. But these handles had been purposely made hollow, so that
round tin cases could be fitted in. The spirits then filled these long
cavities, and whether they caught many shrimps or not was of little
account, for dozens of men could wade ashore with these nets and
handles on their backs and proceed to their homes without raising a
particle of suspicion. It was well worth doing, for it was calculated
that as much as 2-1/2 gallons of spirit could be poured into each of
these hollow poles.

Collier-brigs were very fond of smuggling, and among others mention
might be made of the _Venus_ of Rye, an 80-ton brig which between
January and September one year worked three highly profitable voyages,
for besides her ordinary cargo she carried each time 800 casks of
spirits, these being placed underneath the coals. There was also the
brig _Severn_ of Bristol, which could carry about five keels of coal,
but seldom carried more than four, the rest of the space of course
being made up with