England has a big history of smuggling, mostly in the area of Hastings (East Sussex) when it was a risky business, people would often be killed or crippled as they climbed up or down cliffs to smuggle contraband goods. Today there is even a local museum where you can see how the smuggling operation worked.
In Wiltshire, local people are known as ‘moonrakers’. This is because local smugglers were once caught trying to smuggle alcohol when the local police arrived. They quickly sat around a pond and stared at the reflection of the moon in the pond where they had hidden the goods, pretending they thought it was made of cheese. The police thought they were simpletons and left them be!
Of course, years ago many pirates would be involved in smuggling, especially off the Scilly Isles (many local rums and gins are named after infamous locals). Hundreds of years later, the beer bottles still wash up on the coast, the glass washed smooth by the sea. That’s where ‘sea-glass jewellery’ comes from, which is quite beautiful. Often made from a pirate’s last boozy tipple. Shiver me timbers!