GIN IN COFFIN

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4631, 4 December 1934, Page 6

GIN IN COFFIN

LINER'S STEWARDS FINED. twenty-seven bottles of gin found b(y customs officers in a coffin carried for emergency purposes in the Cunard White Star liner Homeric, led to tjhe appearance at Southampton recently of three of the crew, Charles Curran, 47, assistant second steward 1 ; George Longfield, 35, steward; and James Frank Godfrey, 38, steward. They were charged with attempting to defraud the customs by concealing the spirits. Mr T. H. ISherlock, chief preventive officer, and when the Homeric arrived ait Southampton from' a Mediterranean cruise the vessel wlas searched. In a luggage room were four coffins and caskets carried in all ships for emergency purposes. (One of the officers noticed that the screws of the lid of one co(ffin showed signs ocf having recently heen tampered with. Five brown paper parcels were tihen found in the coffin. Thely contained 27 bottles of gin. The remaining coffins were in order. Afterwai'ds a fruit room was searched, and nine apple cases were each found to contain either a case of whisky or a case of gin. The spirit had apparently been placed there at Gibraltar, where whisky and gin could, be purchased at very low prices. •Curran was fined £SO and ordered to (pay £8 single value and duty, a total of £l3O. Godfrey and Longfield were each fined £lO.