Hell on high w water

Visit any waterside tavern along the coast of Britain and you’re likely to hear some yarn about its smuggling past, no doubt embellished with each sip of ale: barrels clandestinely offloaded onto a mo

FT has covered these a number of times, with one of the earliest and most disastrous examples taking place in Hammersmith in 1804 (see FT296:42-45, 310:30-35, 452:16-18). Then a semi-rural village on

That threatened thrones

In Potopaddu harbour, on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, we were navigating through a narrow and tricky channel, with minimal depths, which then widened into a large, sheltered pool. There were seve

Today, the ocean liner is often considered a glamorous yet thoroughly outdated form of transport. While ships such as the RMS Titanic and the RMS Lusitania remain household names, their lesser-known c

Strange murder mysterie s from times gone by