Flat-Bottomed Boat found off Selsey.
The sketch shows longitudinal plan, the method of covering with net, and midship section.[ToList]
Built very roughly, with half-inch deal, and covered over with a thin coat of white paint, she had a grommet at both bow and stern. She measured only 16 feet long and 4 feet wide, with a depth of 2 feet 2 inches. It will be noticed that she had no thwarts. Her timbers were of bent ash secured with common French nails, and alongside the gunwales were holes for lacing a net to go over the top of this boat. Her side was made of three deal planks, the net being made of line, and of the same size as the line out of which the tub-slings were always made. The holes in her floor were made for the water to get in and keep her below the surface, and the net, spreading from gunwale to gunwale, prevented her cargo of tubs from being washed out. It was in order to have ample and unfettered room for the tubs that no thwarts were placed. She would be towed astern of a smack or lugger under the water, and having arrived at the appointed spot the towrope would be let go, and the grapnels attached to both grommets at bow and stern would cause her to bring up when in sufficiently shallow water. Later on, at low tide, the smugglers' friends could go out in their boats with a weighted line or hawser and sweep along the bottom of the sea, and soon locate her and tow her right in to the beach.
In order to prevent certain obvious excuses being made by dishonest persons, all British subjects were distinctly forbidden to pick up spirits found in these illegal half-ankers, only officers of the Royal Navy, the Customs, and the Excise being permitted so to do. But it was not always that the Revenue cruisers were employed in catching smugglers. We have pointed out that their duties also included Quarantine work. In the spring of 1837 it was represented to the Treasury that there was much urgent distress prevailing in certain districts of the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland owing to the failure of the last harvest. Sir John Hill was therefore directed to proceed to Scotland and take such steps as might be necessary for the immediate supply of seed, corn, and potatoes, and the officers and commanders of the Revenue cruisers were directed to afford him every assistance.
Plan of the Schooner Good Intent showing Method of Smuggling Casks.[ToList]
In the previous chapter attention was called to the singular inappropriateness of calling a smuggling vessel the Good Intent. That was a smack belonging to the year 1824, which was found at Rye. But this name seems to have had a certain amount of popularity among these ingenious gentlemen, for there was a smuggling schooner named the Good Intent which was seized in the year 1837. How cleverly and effectively she was fitted up for a smuggling voyage can be ascertained by considering the accompanying longitudinal plan. She had a burthen of 72 tons, and was captured by the Revenue cruiser Sylvia in Mount's Bay on the 14th of March. The plan denotes her principal features, including her sail-room and general store right aft. Immediately forward of this was the first concealment on the port side only. Entrance was gained by means of a slide which was nailed up, and here many casks could easily be stored. Next to this came the after bulkhead, but forward of this was also a false bulkhead, the distance between the real and the false being 2-1/2 feet, and affording a space to contain 138 kegs.
Under the cabin were coals, and around the coals under the cabin deck were placed some kegs. The fore bulkhead had also a false bulkhead 2 feet 5 inches apart, and this space held as many as 148 kegs. Under the deck of the forepeak were also 21 kegs. The length of these kegs was 17 inches, and they were nearly a foot in diameter. Each cask contained 4-1/2 gallons of French brandy. This vessel was found to have merely limestone ballast in her hold, but her illicit cargo was more valuable to her than if she had been fully laden with the commodity which she usually and legitimately traded in. Later in the same year, and by the same cruiser Sylvia, this time off Land's End, the Jersey schooner Spartan, a vessel of 36-1/2 tons, was seized, as she was found to be fitted up with similar concealments (see sketch).
