OLD SMUGGLING DAYS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 July 1925, Page 11

OLD SMUGGLING DAYS.

“ THE GENTLEMEN GO BY.”

Although the word “bootlegging” is listed in the dictionary as “United States slang,” the profession is an old one.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, rum-runners brought rum and brandy from I*'ranee into lingland, and to avoid the high taxes imposed by th e British Government smuggled their goods ashore. A lucrative business as long as it lasted, this early-day rum-running. Fishermen gave up their honest calling to bring the tubs across th e channel, while farm lads turned their backs on the fields, for they found it more profitable to help unload the “crops’’ and later distribute the same Coastwise England enjoyed* a dangerous prosperity by way of this illicit trade until that inevitable day when the British Government succeeded in making rumrunning highly unprofitable from every angle. . Take a trip in the retrospect with the old-time smugglers and see how many similiarities there are between them and the present generation. The first smugglers wer© usually the captains of their own luggers. They went to the Channel Islands for supplies, for those islands, through certain charters granted to them several centuries previously, were* exempt from the excise law s and various Customs regulations enacted for the protection of the revenue of Great Britain. The English smuggling vessels could lie in a Guernsey or Manx port and load safe from any interference. The'lsles of Guernsey and Man had given up agriculture to pander to the needs of the rum-runners and imported spirits from France and Holland to save them the trip.

England was aware that she could not suppress smuggling until she assumed authority over the Channel Islands. Parliament was made to realise that smuggling did not begin at home and. since France was lie von d her sphere of iniiuence, she decided to tak e over again her jurisdiction of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. “THE SMUGGLERS’ HAVEN.”

Tile old charter which handicapped the English ami which had made the Isle of Alan the smugglers’ haven had been granted to Sir John Stanley in 1405 by Henry IV. The island had been under the control of Sir .John and his descendants from that day until th e middle of the eighteenth century, when it was governed by Charlotte, daughter of the second Duke of AtholJ, and her husband, John. They became Duke and Duchess of Athoil and Lord and Lady of Alan. When England decided it was necessary to take possession to achieve its objective, it offered to purchase the island from the duke, who, satisfied with his revenues, declined to sell. But in subtle fashion the duke was informed that, nevertheless, he would be forced to give up his sovereign rights. He made the best of it and gracefully agreed to the purchase. On July 11. 1765, the Manx coat-of-arms was hauled clown, the standard of Great Britain succeeded it and George 111 was acknowledged the King of Alan, A major in command of a schooner with fourteen guns and forty men was stationed at the island with the right of seizure and search. It was the end of prosperity for the Alanxmen, but not for’the smugglers. There were other islands which obligingly offered themselves as storehouses until England’s next move in her fight against rum-runners.

Guernsey enjoyect the same privileges of exemption from search as had Man. To bottle up the source England decided to extend* her “hovering limits’’ to within 100 leagues of the United Kingdom. Thereby the Channel islands became subject to search. 'the* Hoy at Court of Guernsey protested against the edict on th© ground that if deprived of smuggling the loyal and industrious Jerseyites would have no trade —they would be destitute. It was hard ou the islands, hut not a whit did it hurt the smugglers. For when England had taken the first stens to wards preventing the exporting of rum and brandy illegally from the Channel Islands, France obligingly had opened up Roscoff, a small fishing village, and handed it over, figuratively speaking, to th© smugglers. Roscoff had hitherto been an unknown port, the home of fisherlolk. and until it became the smugglers’ mecen had led a monotonous life But when France made it a “fre e port,” where merchant vessels could bring every liquid invested in by smugglers fro© to he reloaded and taken clandestinely in. to some nart of England, large houses succeeded' th© small fisher cottages, and English. Scottish Irish, and Guernsey merchants built Inigo warehouses for their stores. The same prosperity settled on Koscoff, as it always d°es where

BOOTLEGGERS OF ENGLAND

If you wake at midnight- and hear a horse’s feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind or looking- in the street. Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, till the gentlemen go by. Five-and-twenty ponies, trotting through the dark — Brandy for the parson, baccy for the clerk, Laces for the lady, letters for the spy— And watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen, go by. —Kipling,

illicit importers make their headquar ters.

Tnis co-operation of France continued for many \ears. Even during the war with England in the eighteentn century uie ireach did not molest the smugglers. Napoleon, m telling ol the con •sideration lie showed this source oi tne uational revenue said:

“They (the smugglers) had a part ol Dunkirk allotted to them, to which they were restricted; but as they latterly went out of their limits, committed riots, and insulted every Dody I ordered Gravelines to be prepared for their reception, where they they had a little camp for their accommodation. At one time there were upward of 500 of them in Dunkirk.”

The accommodating French not onlyoffered a tax-fiee harbour to the smugglers, but helped them to outfit the casks and boats for the homeward trip. There was a variety of boats made for concealment, as the smugglers preferred to elude the coastguard rather than do battle. These boats that were prepared to carry a small quantity of spirits often had their oar s and spars hollowed out and filled with brandy. Some, masquerading as fishing smacks, car ried a number of shrimping nets on board with the usual wooden handles. Only this time the handies were hollowed out so that round, tin cases could necessity. be fitted into them. These tin cases held each two and one-half gallons ol spirits. Boats specially made for smuggling specialised in false parts. The smacks Fox and Lovely Lass had false bottoms which could be reached only from the outside. The' kegs were loaded at low tide and, unloaded at the same time. There was no way of entering this false section from the inside of the boat, and it was impossible for an inspector to detect the fraud in his. usual rounds. The Alary, an open boat 14 feet long, carried double sides as well as a double bottom. In the space provided by these hiding places she could secrete thirty tin cases, which held about twenty-nine gallons of spirits. Other boats haj false decks, others double bulkheads, which provided a cavity from one side 'of the hull to another.

There was no end to the ingenuity of the industrious smuggler when it cam* to a cache for his liquid spirits. When ballast was necessary, huge stones were frequently used. One captain had his stone ballast hollowed out and fitted with tin cases in which he transported his liquid cargo from coast to coast, mo casks of water which every boat carried were in one instance fitted with false sides and false ends. The innei casks held the fresh water to satisfy tlie curiosity o'f the inquisitive; the outer casks contained a valuable amount of eau-de-vie. The methods used by the rum-runners in evading the coastguard in order to land their cargo of casks have been adopted and adapted by modern ruinrunners. Even the motor boats of today have been able to make use of the clever apparatus used by the sailing vessels 150 years ago. “The science of rafting,” one of the most effective ways of handling a eaigo was first used about 1826. when a raft made of forty-on e tubs was lowered over the side of the boat when land was sighted. Attached to this i-aft was a light buoy divided into two sections, an tipper and lower. In the upper nart was a short candle which was lighted bv the smugglers when they dropped the raft and buoy overboard. The tide carried the raft ashore and about the time it has passed the coastguard station the candle had burned down and in turn had lighted the lamp in the lower section. The smugglei usually timed his trip to arrive at the •oast about dusk, so that by this ligh--his (onfederates on shore were able to locate the drifting raft and tow it to safety. “PYRAMID” OF LIQUOR. The tide was a great help to these capable seamen. Frequently, as they drew near shore, the entire cargo, carefully weighted and equipped with a signal, was dropped overboard and the deoendable tide washed it, ashore.

One smuggler lashed his sixty tubs together in the form of a pyramid. Th e tops of the tubs wer© painted white, and when the raft; dirifted towards shore only thro© white tops of the uppermost could be seen amid the foam and whitecaps on the surface of the water. But the watchful bootleggers on shore were on the lookout ami eventually spotted it. Short anchors with grapnel hooks held the raft secure when ir drifted in and then it h\s easily reached and unloaded. Sometimes the skipper would tie his kegs at intervals of three feet to a

I heavy rope. In between the kegs were j heavy hints to keep the line of barrels I underneath the surface, as no came near shore, the kegs, line, and sinkers, I were lowered into the water, bi.t with | oii e end of the rope wound round a reel ! under the ship’s bottom. Th e reel unj wound and the casks dr it ted many feet I away from their owner. There was no clue' to their whereabouts, and they drilled happily by under llm eyes yt the guards. Later the reel was wound up and the casks taken hack on deck. Or, again, the master-might mop his casks overboard without any rope, weighted with heavy stones, if carefully done, they could be depended to stay in place for a couple of weeks. To recover the sunken tubs “creepers,” heavy chains of links, were drawn back and forth until the. crop was found. Then the tubs were easily hooked on and towed to land. Probably the first use of a submarine wa s made by the ingenious smugglers, though the craft had for its passengers omy a cargo of kegs. This boat, made about 1831, had a flat bottom, - with sides made of three planks. It was sixteen feet fcmg, four feet wid 0 and a little more than two feet deep She had holes in her side through which a net was lac-ed, which covered the cargo of kegs and held them securely in the boat. In the bottom were three extra large holes through which the water poured, thereby keeping the boat under water as she was towed along by a smack or lugger. Two anchors, tore and aft. held her fast in the sandy bottom of the shore until her owners came to welcome this home-made submarine “Running in the crops,” as landing the kegs was called, was as dangerous a task as the actual rum-running across the Channel. The night before a cargo was. due, the local bootlegger would notify a "sufficient number of tub-car-riers that they would he needed lor th© following, night. If luck was with them, tlie re was no. moon. It was not difficult to got men for the adventure and farmers complained that they could get no farmhands at harvest time, carrying and the like being both more profitable and more interesting. The men gathered together and waited patiently for the tubs to be brought ashore. If th e kegs had been dropped overboard with heavy weights they went into the ocean as far as they could with heavy iron chains and swept the water for the sunken kegs. If the boat came in with its cargo on board, the: tub-carriers waded in and slung the tubs over their shoulders bv the ropes the French had obligingly tied around them before they were loaded on the boat. _ As the tub-carriers went about their work they were protected by “batmen.” who were collectively known as the “fighting gang.” These men carried bats, which they used in case of BUR IE D ‘ ‘TR EAS URK. ’ ’ If it was suspected that the preventive men were nearby, the kegs were quickly hidden in store holes .deep in the sand or buried under seaweed. Otherwise each tub-carrier would march quietly to an arranged meeting pi ace .urther inlang and safe from interruption. Then a rest would be called and all drank to the health of the smugglers. The run*inland was made with horses and carts, still protected by the dangerous batmen. “Flashers" distributed the liquor in small quantities and, when sold out, came back to the “resetter” for another supply. “Land smugglers” were in charge oi this transoortation of the kegs throughout the country. Each man rode horseback through the country, the kegs strapped to the saddles. If on the road more than one day they found obliging caches in friendly stables. lor rent the bootlegger left a keg in payment, [f he found it necessary to commandeer a. horse or two he pa’id for it in the same merchandise. Everybody was kind to the poor bootlegger! If there were no barns handy, some irreverent - bootleggers made use of sacred edifices. It is said that “the churchyards were frequently crowded at night by other spirits than those of the dead, and not even the church was exempted from such visitations'. ’ The vicar of Hove, returning home unexpectedly, found his church full oi tubs, and the pulpit of tea. Another time the sam 0 vicar found that the gutters of the roof of his church wore supporting twenty-three kegs of spirits’ Bootleggrng was lust as profitsh.e a venture then as now, though the methods of financing were slightly different. At first- the smugglers usually did their own ruin-running, but later investors took it up and employed a lugger to make the trip. In the latter instance £1 would be paid for each tub to be brought over. Another pound would be out in the bank for expenses. If 150 tubs were bargained for, the first .Clso would be used to seal tlie bargain with the owner of the boat for the trip across. Sometimes the captain would be naid a lump sum, perhaps £IOO. out of which be paid Ins crew. In France the tubs would cost about £1 and weighed about fifty-six pounds and contained four gallons of brandy. In England this same brandy would cost , duty paid, 32 shillings a gallon. It cost the investors £2 for each tub. including the cost of the ship and its crew, and each tub could readily be sold at £6, a goodlv profit, and still undersell tlie legally imported spirits. The spirit, says one old smuggler, was always supplied uncoloured. White brandy it was called, and with it came a tub of colouring matter which was added later. The average strength was 70 decrees above oroof, though sometimes'it was as high as 180 degrees -iroof. Tf it were brought over stronger. It cost less in transportation and could lie easilv adulterated at home Another familiar touch! But eventually smuggling died a natural death when the Government nlnuiiod that there should, be no more profit for the smugglers.