The Wiles of the North Sea Blockade Runner
���To deceive the British naval officers of the North Sea Blockading Fleet, shippers who used neutral vessels resorted to many ingenious devices. Thus, "rubber honey" was sent in honeycombs filled with a curious mixture
��Rear Admiral Sir Dudley ih- Chair, Commander of the Tenth Cruiser (Blockade) Squad- ron in the North Sea, states that '"whenever a ship is dis- covered to be carrying contra- band, an officer and an armed guard of five men are j)ut aboard to conduct the blockade runner into our nearest port, where examination usually takes from two to five days according to the disposition of the cargo and the consequent difficulty of removing it. The weekly average of ships passing east- ward through our patrols is fifty; in summer time, about eight per cent of these are s;iiling vessels. . . . The British customs officers did not slide easily into new grooves. Accus- lomed for years to board a ship and intiuire merely for dutiable wines or spirits, they were per- haps too easily satisfied. ..."
���According to Rear Admir- al de Chair, rubber was sometimes smuggled through in the form of onions. "These were dis- covered when one of our officers dropped one on the deck; the onion bounced up ten feet into the air"
���Cases of guns, rifles, and other firearms or ammun it ion were stowed away in double bottoms, decks and bulk- heads, as shown above. To the left is illustrated the method of conceal- ing cotton in the cen- ter of barrels of Hour
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