and very few of them could speak Dutch or French. But for the purpose
of evading the English law they got themselves made burghers of
Ostend, and notwithstanding that their crews were for the most part
English they designated their craft as foreign.

During the year 1785 it happened that two of these pseudo-foreign
smuggling craft were chased by an English frigate. Owing to the fact
that the frigate had no pilot on board, one of these vessels escaped,
but the other, after a chase lasting five hours, realised that she
would soon be overhauled. Her master, therefore, threw overboard his
cargo as the frigate fast approached, and in company with a number of
his crew took to his large boat. The lugger, after no fewer than
twenty shots had been fired at her, hove-to. On taking possession of
the lugger and examining her papers it appeared that her master's name
was the very English-sounding Thomas March, and yet he described
himself as a burgher of Ostend, the vessel being owned by a merchant.
The master's excuse was that he was a pilot-boat cruising with a
number of pilots on board, and for this reason it was decided to give
him the benefit of the doubt and not detain him. But the frigate's
captain had noticed that before the lugger had hove-to during the
evening a part of the cargo had been thrown overboard. The following
morning, therefore, he proceeded on board a Revenue cutter, "went into
the track where the cargo was thrown overboard," and was able to find
just what he had expected, for he located and drew out of the sea no
fewer than 700 half-ankers of foreign spirits.

This precedent opened up an important question; for if a neutral
vessel, or indeed any craft similarly circumstanced as the above, were
to anchor off the English coast it was hardly possible to detect her
in running goods, as it seldom took more than an hour to land a whole