Honolulu Record, August 2, 1951, vol. 4 no. 1, p. 10
Opium smuggling in the not-so-far-gone days, says an old-timer, was done largely via the Empress Lines. When an Empress ship was nearing the harbor, old style sampans would go out to follow her wake. The pickup sampan often flew a long red banner as a signal to the passer on ship to heave his bundle or bundles over the side. The bundles were small bales tightly wrapped in cotton that would float them for a long time. When the pickup sampan got the bales, it would pass them on to another and that one to another until a pattern was set up believed sufficient to confuse searching authorities.
Many bundles were missed by the pickup men of course, and were later found by fishermen — to whom local dealers left a standing offer of $10 per bundle for all they found and turned over.