A smuggling vessel was usually provided with what was called a tub-rail—­that is to say, a rail which ran round the vessel just below the gunwale on the inside.  When a vessel was about to arrive at her destination to sink her tubs, the proceeding was as follows.  The tubs were all made fast to a long warp, and this warp with its tubs was placed outside the vessel’s bulwarks, running all round the ship from the stern to the bows and back again the other side.  This warp was kept fastened to the tub-rail by five or seven lines called stop-ropes.  Consequently all the smugglers had to do was to cut these stop-ropes, and the tubs and warp would drop into the water, the stone weights immediately sinking the casks.

Bearing this in mind, let us see the Revenue cutter Tartar, on the night between the 3rd and 4th of April 1839, cruising off Kimeridge, between St. Alban’s Head and Weymouth, and a little to the east of where Lieutenant Knight was murdered, as we saw in the last chapter.  About 1.40 A.M.  Lieutenant George Davies, R.N., the Tartar’s commander, was below sleeping with his clothes and boots on, when he heard the officer of the watch call for him.  Instantly he went on deck and saw a smuggling vessel.  She was then about thirty yards away and within a mile of the shore.  Her name was afterwards found to be the French sloop Diane.

It was rather a warm, thick night, such as one sometimes gets in April when the weather has begun to get finer.  By the time that the cruiser’s commander had come up on deck, both the cutter and the Diane were hove-to, and the vessels were close alongside.  When first sighted by the boatswain the smuggler was standing out from the land.  The Tartar’s boat was now launched into the water, and the bo’sun and two men pulled off in her and boarded the Diane, and then came back to fetch Lieutenant Davies.  The instant the latter boarded the Diane, he saw one of the latter’s crew throwing something overboard.  He stooped down to pick something up, when Davies rushed forward and caught him round the body as something fell into the water, and a tub-hoop, new, wet, and green, was taken from him.  Davies called to his bo’sun to bring a lantern, so that he might identify the seized man and then proceed to search the vessel.

A tub-rail and stop-rope were found on board, and, on going below, the hold was found to be strewn with chips of tub-hoops and pieces of stones for sinking.  The upper deck was similarly strewn, while by the hatchway were found sinker-slings.  These sinkers in actual employment were accustomed to be suspended and hitched round the warp at about every sixth tub.  The Diane’s master was asked where his boat was since none was found aboard, but there was no satisfactory answer.  Tub-boards for fixing on deck so as to prevent the tubs from rolling overboard were also found, so altogether there was sufficient reason for seizing the vessel, which was now done.