November of 1729 the Southampton officers of the Customs reported to
headquarters that this very sloop, the _Swift_, every time she went
across to Guernsey in connection with her duties of prevention, used to
bring back quantities of wine, brandy, and other dutiable goods under
the pretence that they were the ship's stores. The intention, however,
was nothing less than that which dominated the actions of the smugglers
themselves--the very class against which the _Swift_ was employed--for
Captain Cockayne's men used to find it no very difficult matter to run
these goods ashore clandestinely under the very eyes of the unsuspecting
Customs officers. The Commissioners of the Customs therefore sent down
strict instructions that the _Swift_ was to be rummaged every time she
arrived at Southampton from Guernsey. We shall have reason presently to
refer more especially to the Channel Isles again, but it may suffice for
the present to state that they were in the south the counterpart of the
Isle of Man in the north as being a depôt whence the import smugglers
fetched their goods across to England.

Additional to the Naval sloops just mentioned, there were two other
cutters belonging to the Southampton station under the Revenue and
not, of course, Admiralty-owned craft. These vessels were respectively
the _Calshot_ and the _Hurst_, and it is worth noting that at the time
we are thinking of (1729) these vessels are referred to generally as
"yatchs" or "yachts." It was not quite seventy years since the first
yacht--that presented to Charles II., named the _Mary_--had arrived in
England, and it was only in 1720 that the first yacht club had been
established, not in England, but in Cork. If we may judge from
contemporary paintings of yachts we can visualise the _Hurst_ and
_Calshot_ as being very tubby, bluff-bowed craft with ample beam. But
what would especially strike us in these modern days would be the
exceptionally long bowsprit, the forward end of which was raised