names in her
papers. Even open boats were found fitted with double bottoms, as for
instance the _Mary_, belonging to Dover. She was only 14 feet long
with 5 feet 9-1/2 inches beam, but she had both a double bottom and
double sides, in which were contained thirty tin cases to hold 29
gallons of spirits. Her depth from gunwale to the top of her
ceiling[22] originally was 2 feet 8-1/2 inches. But the depth from the
gunwale to the false bottom was 2 feet 5-3/4 inches. The concealment
ran from the stem to the transom, the entrance being made by four
cuttles very ingeniously and neatly fitted, with four nails fore and
aft through the timbers to secure them from moving--one on each side
of the keelson, about a foot forward of the keelson under the fore
thwart. Even Thames barges were fitted with concealments; in fact
there was not a species of craft from a barque to a dinghy that was
not thus modified for smuggling.

The name of the barge was the _Alfred_ of London, and she was captured
off Birchington one December day in 1828. She pretended that she was
bound from Arundel with a cargo of wood hoops, but when she was
boarded she had evidently been across to "the other side"; for there
was found 1045 tubs of gin and brandy aboard her when she was
captured, together with her crew, by a boat sent from the cruiser
_Vigilant_. The discovery was made by finding an obstruction about
three feet deep from the top of the coamings, which induced the
Revenue officer to clear away the bundles of hoops under the fore and
main hatchways. He then discovered a concealment covered over with
sand, and on cutting through a plank two inches thick the contraband
was discovered.

The accompanying diagram shows the sloop _Lucy_ of Fowey, William
Strugnell master. On the 14th of December 1828 she was seized at
Chichester after having come from Portsmouth in ballast. She was found
to be fitted with the concealment shown in the plan, and altogether
there were 100 half-ankers thus stowed away, 50 being placed on each
side of her false bottom. She was just over 35 tons burthen, and drew
four feet of water, being sloop rigged, as many of the barges in those
days were without the little mizzen which is so familiar to our eyes
to-day.

[Illustration: The Sloop _Lucy_ showing Concealments.]

Cases of eggs sent from Jersey were fitted with false sides in which
silks were smuggled; trawlers engaged in sinking tubs of spirits; a
dog-kennel was washed ashor