duty the matter was to be reported to the Board of Customs.  The Revenue craft were apparently not above suspicion, for in November of 1729 the Southampton officers of the Customs reported to headquarters that this very sloop, the Swift, every time she went across to Guernsey in connection with her duties of prevention, used to bring back quantities of wine, brandy, and other dutiable goods under the pretence that they were the ship’s stores.  The intention, however, was nothing less than that which dominated the actions of the smugglers themselves—­the very class against which the Swift was employed—­for Captain Cockayne’s men used to find it no very difficult matter to run these goods ashore clandestinely under the very eyes of the unsuspecting Customs officers.  The Commissioners of the Customs therefore sent down strict instructions that the Swift was to be rummaged every time she arrived at Southampton from Guernsey.  We shall have reason presently to refer more especially to the Channel Isles again, but it may suffice for the present to state that they were in the south the counterpart of the Isle of Man in the north as being a depot whence the import smugglers fetched their goods across to England.

Additional to the Naval sloops just mentioned, there were two other cutters belonging to the Southampton station under the Revenue and not, of course, Admiralty-owned craft.  These vessels were respectively the Calshot and the Hurst, and it is worth noting that at the time we are thinking of (1729) these vessels are referred to generally as “yatchs” or “yachts.”  It was not quite seventy years since the first yacht—­that presented to Charles II., named the Mary—­had arrived in England, and it was only in 1720 that the first yacht club had been established, not in England, but in Cork.  If we may judge from contemporary paintings of yachts we can visualise the Hurst and Calshot as being very tubby, bluff-bowed craft with ample beam.  But what would especially strike us in these modern days would be the exceptionally long bowsprit, the forward end of which was raised considerably above the water than its after end, both jib and foresail each working on a stay.

The commander of the Calshot yacht was a Captain Mears, and there is an entry in the Southampton documents to the effect that he was paid the sum of L2, 12s. 6d. for piloting his vessel from Southampton to Guernsey and back in connection with the Preventive duties.  This trip took him five days, his pay being half a guinea a day.  It is clear from a record of the following year that Mears was employed by special arrangement, for on July 18, 1730, the Board of Customs decided that it was necessary that Captain John Mears, commander of the Calshot yacht at Southampton, should now be placed on the same footing as the other commanders of the Revenue sloops and smacks in regard to the matter of wear and tear.  Henceforth the