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- 6870
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z
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- 6810
- text
- man is let pass; and so on, till the whole boat’s crew, averaging about
sixteen men, are examined. The chief of police then descends into the
boat, and walks from stem to stern, eyeing it all over, and poking his
long rattan into every nook and cranny. This operation concluded, and
nothing found, he mounts the ladder, touches his hat to the
deck-officer, and reports the boat _clean_; whereupon she is hauled out
to the booms.
Thus it will be seen that not a man of the ship’s company ever enters
the vessel from shore without it being rendered next to impossible,
apparently, that he should have succeeded in smuggling anything. Those
individuals who are permitted to board the ship without undergoing this
ordeal, are only persons whom it would be preposterous to search—such
as the Commodore himself, the Captain, Lieutenants, etc., and gentlemen
and ladies coming as visitors.
For anything to be clandestinely thrust through the lower port-holes at
night, is rendered very difficult, from the watchfulness of the
quarter-master in hailing all boats that approach, long before they
draw alongside, and the vigilance of the sentries, posted on platforms
overhanging the water, whose orders are to fire into a strange boat
which, after being warned to withdraw, should still persist in drawing
nigh. Moreover, thirty-two-pound shots are slung to ropes, and
suspended over the bows, to drop a hole into and sink any small craft,
which, spite of all precautions, by strategy should succeed in getting
under the bows with liquor by night. Indeed, the whole power of martial
law is enlisted in this matter; and every one of the numerous officers
of the ship, besides his general zeal in enforcing the regulations,
adds to that a personal feeling, since the sobriety of the men abridges
his own cares and anxieties.
How then, it will be asked, in the face of an argus-eyed police, and in
defiance even of bayonets and bullets, do men-of-war’s-men contrive to
smuggle their spirits? Not to enlarge upon minor stratagems—every few
days detected, and rendered naught (such as rolling up, in a
handkerchief, a long, slender “skin” of grog, like a sausage, and in
that manner ascending to the deck out of a boat just from shore; or
openly bringing on board cocoa-nuts and melons, procured from a knavish
bum-boat filled with spirits, instead of milk or water)—we will only
mention here two or three other modes, coming under my own observation.
While in Rio, a fore-top-man, belonging to the second cutter, paid down
the money, and made an arrangement with a person encountered at the
Palace-landing ashore, to the following effect. Of a certain moonless
night, he was to bring off three gallons of spirits, _in skins_, and
moor them to the frigate’s anchor-buoy—some distance from the
vessel—attaching something heavy, to sink them out of sight. In the
middle watch of the night, the fore-top-man slips out of his hammock,
and by creeping along in the shadows, eludes the vigilance of the
master-at-arms and his mates, gains a port-hole, and softly lowers
himself into the water, almost without creating a ripple—the sentries
marching to and fro on their overhanging platform above him. He is an
expert swimmer, and paddles along under the surface, every now and then
rising a little, and lying motionless on his back to breathe—little but
his nose exposed. The buoy gained, he cuts the skins adrift, ties them
round his body, and in the same adroit manner makes good his return.
This feat is very seldom attempted, for it needs the utmost caution,
address, and dexterity; and no one but a super-expert burglar, and
faultless Leander of a swimmer, could achieve it.
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