Collier-brigs were very fond of smuggling, and among others mention might be made of the Venus of Rye, an 80-ton brig which between January and September one year worked three highly profitable voyages, for besides her ordinary cargo she carried each time 800 casks of spirits, these being placed underneath the coals.  There was also the brig Severn of Bristol, which could carry about five keels of coal, but seldom carried more than four, the rest of the space of course being made up with contraband.  In 1824 she worked five voyages, and on each occasion she carried, besides her legitimate cargo, as much as eight tons of tobacco under her coals.  And there was a Danish-built sloop named the Blue-eyed Lass belonging to Shields, with a burthen of 60 odd tons, also employed in the coal trade.  She was a very suspicious vessel, and was bought subsequently by the people of Rye to carry on similar work to the other smuggling craft.  All sorts of warnings were sent to the Customs Board giving them information that The Rose in June (needless to say of Rye) was about to have additional concealments added.  She was of 37 tons burthen, and had previously been employed as a packet boat.  They were also warned that George Harrington, a noted smuggler resident at Eastbourne, intended during the winter months to carry on the contraband trade, and to land somewhere between Southampton and Weymouth.  He had made arrangements with a large number of men belonging to Poole and the neighbouring country, and had obtained a suitable French lugger.

In 1826 the smacks Fox and Lovely Lass of Portsmouth were seized at that port with kegs of spirits secreted under their bottoms in a thin contemporary casing, as shown in the accompanying diagram.  The ingenious part of this trick was that there was no means of communication into the concealment from the interior of the vessel.  Thus any officer coming aboard to search would have little or no reason to suspect her.  But it was necessary every time this vessel returned from abroad with her contraband for her to be laid ashore, and at low water the kegs could be got at externally.  To begin with there were pieces of plank two inches thick fastened to the timbers by large nails.  Then, between the planks and the vessel’s bottom the tubs were concealed.  The arrangement was exceeding simple yet wonderfully clever.  Practically this method consisted of filling up the hollow below the turn of the bilge.  It would certainly not improve the vessel’s speed, but it would give her an efficacious means of stowing her cargo of spirits out of the way.  And it was because of such incidents as this last mentioned that orders were sent to all ports for the local craft and others to be examined frequently ashore no less than afloat, in order that any false bottom might be detected.  And the officers were to be careful and see that the name of the ship and her master painted on a ship corresponded with the names