OFF SELSEY 332

PLAN OF THE SCHOONER "GOOD INTENT" SHOWING METHOD OF
SMUGGLING CASKS 334

THE SCHOONER "SPARTAN" 336

DECK PLAN AND LONGITUDINAL PLAN OF THE "LORD RIVERS" 337

"THE CRUISER'S GUNS HAD SHOT AWAY THE MIZZEN-MAST" 348

"THE 'ADMIRAL HOOD' WAS HEAVING TUBS OVERBOARD" 358

"GETTING A FIRM GRIP, PUSHED HIM ... INTO THE WATER" 365

"LET'S ... HAVE HIM OVER THE CLIFF" 373

"UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS TOOK ON BOARD ... FORTY BALES
OF SILK" 377

"ANOTHER SHOT WAS FIRED" 383

METHODS EMPLOYED BY SMUGGLERS FOR ANCHORING TUBS THROWN
OVERBOARD 385

THE "RIVAL'S" INGENIOUS DEVICE 392

"TAKEN COMPLETELY BY SURPRISE" 398

King's Cutters & Smugglers

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Outside pure Naval history it would be difficult to find any period so
full of incident and contest as that which is covered by the exploits
of the English Preventive Service in their efforts to deal with the
notorious and dangerous bands of smugglers which at one time were a
terrible menace to the trade and welfare of our nation.

As we shall see from the following pages, their activities covered
many decades, and indeed smuggling is not even to-day dead nor ever
will be so long as there are regulations which human ingenuity can
occasionally outwit. But the grand, adventurous epoch of the smugglers
covers little more than a century and a half, beginning about the year
1700 and ending about 1855 or 1860. Nevertheless, within that space of
time there are crowded in so much adventure, so many exciting escapes,
so many fierce encounters, such clever moves and counter-moves: there
are so many thousands of people concerned in the events, so many
craft employed, and so much money expended that the story of the
smugglers possesses a right to be ranked second only to those larger
battles between two or more nations.

Everyone has, even nowadays, a sneaking regard for the smugglers of
that bygone age, an instinct that is based partly on a curious human
failing and partly on a keen admiration for men of das