But by the middle of the nineteenth century so thoroughly had the authorities gripped the smuggling evil that these men were actually sometimes afraid to take advantage of what fortune literally handed out to them.  The schooner Walter of Falmouth was bound on a voyage from Liverpool to Chichester with a cargo of guano on May 30, 1850.  Her crew consisted of Stephen Sawle, master, Benjamin Bowden, mate, Samuel Banister, seaman, and George Andrews, boy.  On this day she was off Lundy Island, when Andrews espied a couple of casks floating ahead of the schooner and called to the master and mate, who were below at tea.  They immediately came up on deck, and the master looked at the kegs through his glass, saying that he thought they were provisions.

The three men then got out the ship’s boat, rowed after the casks and slung them into the boat, and brought them on board.  In doing so the mate happened to spill one of them, which contained brandy.  This gave the skipper something of a fright, and he directed the mate and seaman to throw the casks overboard.  They both told him they thought he was a great fool if he did so.  He gave the same orders a second time and then went below, but after he had remained there for some time, he said to his crew, “If you will all swear that you will not tell anybody, I will risk it.”  They all solemnly promised, the master swearing the mate, the seaman, and the boy on the ship’s Bible that they would not tell the owner or any living creature.

Presently the mate and Banister removed the hatches and handed up about two tiers of guano, sent the casks of brandy below and placed bags on their top.  After the master had been below a couple of hours, he asked whether the casks were out of sight.  The mate and Banister replied that they were, whereupon the master took a candle, examined the hold, and afterwards the sleeping-berths, but he could not see anything of the brandy.  He then went to the boy and said, “Mind you don’t let Mr. Coplin [the owner] know anything about this business, for the world.”

The vessel arrived at Falmouth on Sunday morning, the 2nd of June, and brought up off the Market Strand.  At six in the morning the boy went ashore and returned about midnight.  The mate was on board and addressed him thus, “You knew very well what was going on and ought to have been on board before this.”  For at that time both the master and Banister were ashore.  On Monday the boy went down to the hold and saw the brandy was gone, and the same night about half-an-hour before midnight the mate and Banister brought four gallons of the brandy to where the boy was lodging, as his share.  The youngster complained that it was very little, to which Banister replied that one of the casks had leaked amongst the cargo of guano or he would have had more.

Ostensibly the schooner had put into Falmouth for repairs.  Later on the Custom House officers got to hear of it, but it was then the month of July, and the schooner had since sailed and proceeded to Liverpool.