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 ashore from a vessel that foundered off Dungeness, and on being examined this kennel was found to be fitted with a false top to hold 30 lbs. of tobacco; an Irish smack belonging to Cork was specially fitted for the contraband trade, having previously actually been employed as a Coastguard watch-boat.  There was a vessel named Grace manned by three brothers—­all notorious smugglers—­belonging to Coverack (Cornwall).  This vessel used to put to sea by appointment to meet a French vessel, and having from her shipped the contraband the Grace would presently run the goods ashore somewhere between Land’s End and Newport, South Wales; in fact, all kinds of smuggling still went on even after the first quarter of that wonderful nineteenth century.