IT WAS the traditional seek and find exercise officers ritually carried out before the liner set off on her latest trans-Atlantic run.

Stowaways, either seeking adventure in the new world or wanting to return to the old, were a continual problem for shipping companies, and several who thought they had found the perfect hiding places were duly escorted off the SS Majestic as she prepared to leave New York for Southampton in late 1930.

However, three evaded detection until the following morning when she was many miles out to sea.

John Fitzgerald, 39, had hidden in a glory hole; Joseph McCaffery, 22, had secreted himself in a dog kennel on the upper deck, and John Nichols, 20, had slipped into one of the lifeboats.

But if they thought they were in for a free passage, they were very much mistaken – confined to a cabin and arrested as soon as the Majestic docked in Southampton.

The three were charged with stowing away and within hours appeared before the town magistrates.

Prosecutor C F Hiscock told the court Fitzgerald, who came from Portsmouth, was a deserter from the liner, having jumped ship in New York the previous year.

McCaffery, a jobless bricklayer, had also gone to America in 1929 in the hope of securing a better future but had decided to return to England.

Nichols, an American, said because of the depression he could find no work at home and hoped to find some in England.

Asked if they wished to say anything in mitigation, Nichols thought that after being caught, the captain would have put him to work to pay for his trip in exchange for food and accommodation.

The prosecutor informed the Bench that as he was an American, he would have to be returned to New York, adding the single fare was £20.

His accomplices had nothing to say.

They were each jailed for four weeks.