CURIOUS DISCOVERY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3860, 30 November 1883, Page 4

CURIOUS DISCOVERY.

A curious "find" has been made recently in tho neighborhood of Sandwich, in Kent, closo to tho place where the River Stour makes its exit into (ho sea. This is nothing less than the buried hull of an old smuggling vessel, lying half covered in mud at the bottom or the stream. It must have lain embedded in its resting-place for several centuries, inasmuch as some of tho wood of •which it was composed had undergone petrifaction. The size of the lugger is about 40 tons, and it is supposed that she was engaged in carrying on a contraband trade when she was sunk right in mid-stream by a well-aimed shot from some Government ahip. This supposition is rendered almost certain by tho fact that in the disentombed vessel were found several stone jars of antiquo shape, and packages of decayed and mouldy tobacco, while a 1 Hb ball was embedded in tho timbers of tho hull. Ono of tho jars had been so securely sealed up as to havo escaped tho effects of time and water, and in it remained some " strong smelling liquor," which ought to havo been handed over to a competent analyst without delay. Tho treasmre-trovo was come across in a perfectly accidental way. It was found lately that au obstruction existed in the bed of tho river, and tho authorities at Sandwich Haven gavo orders for its removal, when the obstacle to navigation was found to be the Contraband lugger in question, which will probably now be raised and carefully investigated by archioologists. Tho smugglers ■who loaded that vessel with their surreptitious goods some couple of hundred years ago littlo thought that they wore providing materials for a uuiseuin of curiosities in tho Victorian era.