Customs Consolidation Act 1876

179Any vessel or boat arriving within the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands, or within three leagues thereof, having prohibited goods on board or attached thereto, forfeited. Prohibited goods shipped or water-borne with intent to be exported, &c. Persons found or discovered to have been on board vessels with contraband goods may be detained.

If any ship or boat shall be found or discovered to have been within any port, bay, harbour, river, or creek of the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands, or within three leagues of the coast thereof if belonging wholly or in part to British subjects, or having half the persons on board subjects of Her Majesty, or within one league if not British, having false bulkheads, false bows, double sides or bottom, or any secret or disguised place adapted for concealing goods, or any hole, tube, pipe, or device adapted for running goods, or having on board or in any manner attached thereto, or having had on board or in any manner attached thereto, or conveying or having conveyed in any manner any spirits, tobacco, or snuff, in packages of any size and character in which they are prohibited to be imported into the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands, or any spirits or tobacco or snuff imported contrary to the Customs Acts, or any tobacco stalks, tobacco stalk flour, or snuff work, or which shall be found or discovered to have been within three leagues of any part of the coast of the United Kingdom from which any part of the lading of such ship or boat shall be or have been thrown overboard, or on board which any goods shall be or have been staved or destroyed to prevent seizure, every such ship or boat, together with any such spirits, tobacco, or snuff, tobacco stalks, tobacco stalk flour, or snuff work, and all packages, casks, or other vessels containing the same, and everything packed therein, and also any cordage, or other articles adapted and prepared for slinging or sinking small casks, or any casks or other vessels whatsoever of less size or content than twenty gallons of the description used for the smuggling of spirits found on board, shall be forfeited; and every person who shall be found or discovered to have been on board any ship or boat liable to forfeiture as aforesaid, within three leagues of the coast if a British subject, or within one league if a foreigner, or on board any vessel in Her Majesty's service, or on board any foreign post office packet employed in carrying mails between any foreign country and the United Kingdom having on board any spirits or tobacco in such packages as aforesaid, or any tobacco stalks, tobacco stalk flour, or snuff work, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds; and every such person may be detained and taken before any justice, to be dealt with as herein-after directed; provided that no person shall be detained whilst actually on board any vessel in the service of a foreign state or country.