were coals, and around the coals under the cabin deck
were placed some kegs. The fore bulkhead had also a false bulkhead 2
feet 5 inches apart, and this space held as many as 148 kegs. Under
the deck of the forepeak were also 21 kegs. The length of these kegs
was 17 inches, and they were nearly a foot in diameter. Each cask
contained 4-1/2 gallons of French brandy. This vessel was found to
have merely limestone ballast in her hold, but her illicit cargo was
more valuable to her than if she had been fully laden with the
commodity which she usually and legitimately traded in. Later in the
same year, and by the same cruiser _Sylvia_, this time off Land's End,
the Jersey schooner _Spartan_, a vessel of 36-1/2 tons, was seized, as
she was found to be fitted up with similar concealments (see sketch).

[Illustration: The Schooner _Spartan_.

1. Hollow beam.
2. Opening for entering No. 3.
3. Place of concealment.]

One day about the middle of the last century a 16-ton Grimsby
fishing-smack named _Lord Rivers_ left her native port and journeyed
south. Her owner and master was in a dismal frame of mind, and
complained to his mate that things were pretty bad, and he was
becoming remarkably poor. The fishing was not prospering so far as he
was concerned, and so after thinking the matter over he was proposing
to take the ship over to Boulogne and get a cargo of between thirty
and forty gallons of spirits. His mate heard what he had to say and
agreed to go with him. So to Boulogne they proceeded, where they
purchased the spirits from a dealer, who brought the spirits on board,
not in casks but in skins and bladders, making about fifty in all.
These were deposited in the smack's hold, and she then cleared out of
harbour and went to the fishing-grounds, where, to make matters appear
all right, she remained twenty-four hours, for the purpose of
obtaining some oysters by dredging. Whilst on the fishing-grounds the
spirits were stowed in a neat concealment at the stern of the vessel
on both sides abaft the hatchway. Before long the smack got going and
ran into Dover with the oysters and her spirits, lowered her sails,
and made everything snug. In due course the bladders of spirits were
got out of the hold in small numbers, and placed in baskets and
covered over with a sufficiently thick layer of oysters to prevent
their presence being detected. These baskets were taken to a
neighbouring tap-room, the landlord of which bought as