Some idea of the activity of the cruisers may be seen from the number of smugglers which these craft had been able to capture.  The reader will recollect that during the year ending October 1, 1810, the highest number of smugglers handed over to the Navy was thirteen, and this was done by Captain Gunthorpe of the Excise cutter Viper.  He thus became entitled to the sum of L500.  It will be remembered also that it was afterwards decided that, beginning in 1812, L500 would be paid only if the number captured was not less than twenty.  But now from a Treasury Minute of October 20, 1818, we find that, although the former number of captures was over thirteen, it was just under twenty.  And, here again, Captain Matthew Gunthorpe, this time commanding the Excise cutter Vigilant, and Captain Robert Hepburn of the Excise cutter Regent, in the year 1816 seized nineteen smugglers each, or a total of thirty-eight.  As neither captain had reached the twenty and both were equal, it was decided to add the second and third rewards together (i.e. L300 plus L200) and to give L250 to Captain Gunthorpe, officers and crew, and L250 to Captain Hepburn, officers and crew.  And there is on record at this time a memorial from one W. Blake, the son of W. Blake, senior.  The last-mentioned had been commander of the cutter Nimble, but was drowned in 1816.  His son now prayed for the reward of L300 to be paid to the family of the deceased, as he had captured sixteen smugglers.

After the Admiralty had taken over the Revenue cruisers they did not neglect to sanction a pension system, and the following scheme was embraced:—­Commanders of cruisers on retiring were to have from L91, 5s. to L155, 2s. 6d. per annum, according to their length of service; and for any wound received they were to have an additional L91, 5s. per annum.  First mates were pensioned after five years’ service at the rate of L35 a year, but after thirty years’ service they were to have L85 a year as pension.  And so it was arranged for all ratings down to the boys.  The widow of a commander killed or drowned in the service was allowed L65 a year.

And now that we are in that period after the year 1815 we must not fail to bear in mind that this is the epoch when the smugglers were using ingenuity in preference to force.  The busiest part had yet to come and did not occur till the third decade of the nineteenth century.  But even from the time of the Battle of Waterloo until, say, about 1825 there were ten years in which the smugglers left no device untried which they could conceive to enable them to outdo the Revenue authorities.  And we may now proceed to give actual instances of these ingenious attempts.