BLOCKADE TRICKS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2825, 17 July 1916, Page 7

BLOCKADE TRICKS

SOME TRUE STORIES

(By "A Blookader," in the "Daily. Mail")

"Onions one might play tennis with! What an absurdity "Not so big a one as it sounds; wait' until you -have heard tho.story." Tumbling over the waves on her way back from a' "search." came tlio Seascraper's boat, f She tied up alongside, and her crew scrambled inboard along the boom.- , . "Bill, here's something to put in your soup," called, ono of them to a messmate, holding up a large, onion. "Right you are; pitch' it here," answered Bill, extending a- huge, workhardened .palm.' Whizz came the. onion, which touched Bill's horny, paw, rebounded from it, struck tho'edge of a table, and then, went bounding along tho mess-deck like a ball."Well, I'm blbwed!" exclaimed Bill, ; looking after it.with a surprised yet understanding sye. "So that's the latest, is it? -Blest: if "you can ever mako sure you've properly overhauled them ships until you've prized open tho mouths of the crew "and looked- down their throats with a telescope." , ' : The alleged "onion" was made of rubber, and had been brought back as a curio by one of the search party from ' the ship that had just been overhauled, and aboard which 1 there were many bushels of other "onions" exactly like it. All sorts of clover, devices are adopted to 'try to get contraband through the British blockade.: The American genius who invented wooden nutmegs gave an Idea to would-be,'blockade runners which they have elaborated and vastly ■. improved.' - - '■ ■But hard war experience has taught our patrol service not to accept things as being just what they seem—no matter how guiltlessly like them they may ap. pear. In this particular case, when the vessel was boarded, many sacks of onions were found among her. cargo. Most succulent,' oniony oiiions, too, they looked, and thei orew opened'the sacks quite confidently. However, when - the"-.examining officer picked -up one of . the onions at random and dropped it on tlio deck, it bounoed back into Jus hand—and the game was up. Except for a few Teal'ones spread carefully at the top of the sacks, the whole of the "onions" were made ot rubber. They were undoubtedly, on their way to Germany, through some neutral port, but the discovery of their real composition meant confiscation, and the wily Hun got none of -these "vegetables" for -his war-broth. • As rubber-lends itself to clever "faking" this is always being done.. Germany, offers a'good market for the article if the sender.can only got it there— and lie does not fail in doing this .from lack of in trying..'■ ' • Queer- Honey. long months 'speit in countering the wiles of clever tricksters have made tho crews of our blockading ships the most Suspicious people, on earth. And not without good cause do they decline to. judge."djt appearances ODly. Yet with all their astuteness they sometimes coma very near to .being, deceived. Would anyone think that rich, juicy honeycomb,- with honey .'dripping from it, Qonld bo - anything than—well,' just rich, juicy honeycomb made by "the little busy . bee", whose liabit of "im.proving each 1 shining", hour" receives so much praise, from poets, philosophers, and others who are more given to talk-' ing than working- themselves Our naval patrol service can tell you that there is a kind of honey made, by bees which! do not. buzz while they labour, although they try-, to :"improvo each shining hour" -well- enough. ■-. Specimens of it aro occasionally found in • the blockade area.- 'As usual, it'was first unearthed in a ship; that was. being searched for. contraband, and so good was the imitation that tjio "honey" had a chanco of getting through. - •:':■ • Part of the vessel's-cargo consisted of case- after case labelled' "pure honey.'.'. This turned out to bo "pure falco"—but this is getting rather ahcad'of thi 'iiar-' rative. ' When tho cases were opened they were found to bo filled with the familiar iittlo square boxes "of comb with honey—or what looked liko honey—. runing out of .it. One inquisitive sailor tasted this, made a grimace, and tasted again; then he wrenched a comb from its box and dropped it on tlied eck--and lo! it bnih'ped up and down thoro right merrily. Closer , investigation revealed that comb were built of rubber and ' had been - filled with . some smeary, honey-coloured ' substance to mako thorn resemble the rear thing, as they did-to tho life. A clever idea this for getting rubber into Germany, -though it failed.. ■■ ■

" " And "Coffee." Among tl\o lading of another merchant ship the-"search" found what pur. ported to be many bags of coffee. These were overhauled and tested, with, the result that a.great deal of .rubber was discovered hidden in them, . this being: made to appear as nearly like coffee aa possible. Being' accommodating stuff in thei hands of the.clever "faker,-" rubber has become ■ tho prime masquerader among contraband goods.. It has been found posing as rusty iron hoops, toys, sponges, and as. qh.iiisido tilling to various articles, from tinned meat cans to. broom handles. ■ In the earlier days of tho war some of theso blockade-running dodges, may have been successful. They stand no chance. of , escaping exposure now. , . v' But rubber is by no means the only substance which the exponents of contraband tricks endeavour to get through. Germany wants copper badly, and there are always'people trying to supply her with it.- Some-of them hit upon an ingenious plan which seemed to promise certain success. Instead of being hidden in the ship, the copper was damped to her bottom. Apparently the consigners thought that, however closely the British Navy might search the' interior of a vessel, no one would have nous enough to think of examining the outside of • her below the water-lino. But they had. One. sailing vessel when intercepted and overhauled was found to have a great quantity of copper fixed along her keel. Into harbour she went and the copper 'was seized. ; Going through one ship the soaroh party noticed that her bulkheads were abnormally thick. "When in doubt investigate" being the principle upon which the examination service is run, the bulkheads were ripped open and quite an extensive arsenal discovered,- inside them. Rifles and ammunition galore had been secreted there. Upon another occa.eion a big stock of rifles was found packed ju«t under a tramp steamer's decks, and so cunningly stowed, away that detection seemed impossible. 'Really, the oily. way . of making sure that some ves. sfels carry no, contraband would s<Som to be'by pulling them to pieces.Cotton Smuggling'. Hollow masts filled with petrol wero part of the "find" in one tramp "picked up" iti the blockade area, and her double bottoms were also stuffed ivith contra, band. Double bottoms are frequently used as places' of concealment, though much less, secure than somo others that are improvised-such as, i'oi-example, the hollow furniture and 'batiks, like a conjurer's trick-box which came to light in one innocent-looking old trader. Since cotton became contraband all sorts of'ingenious dodges have been tried to get it through the blockade. One ship which, was intercepted carried what purported to bo a cargo of Hour. Certainly, there was a great deal of flour -in it—and a great deal of cotton as well. Some of the first sacks examined panned out correctly. Then an officer kicked one mid-waj'. The.sack, yielded oddly to the impact of his foot. No dust flew out, and it seemed, as he expressed it, "Like kicking a. pillow." At once the eaclc was emptied, und what a revelation! 3,' ha middle part of it contained only, cotton. And the other sacks, gave up a. like secret. There was flour at tho top, flour at tho bottom—and, cotton in the middle of them all.

Said a bluejackot, indicating tho crew of an overhauled steamer that he was just leaving, "If any of thoso chaps fell overboard they'd sink .like stones, with the stuff they've got bidden in their 'boots." A humorously satirical exaggeration, no doubt, but nono the less expressive of what, they think who are engaged in tho exacting task of blockading. .T.J,