Eventually they selected the s.s._Fanny_, which had just returned to Bergen with a cargo of coal from Newcastle.

She was only an eight-knot vessel, but her skipper, a Norwegian, gave a favourable report of her sea-going qualities and coal consumption, and Agnew and his engineer were satisfied by their inspection of her.

The deal was quickly completed, and the Captain and his Norwegian crew willingly consented to remain in charge of the _Fanny_; and, in order to enable her to sail under the Norwegian flag, as a precaution against possible confiscation in British waters, it was arranged that the Captain should be the nominal purchaser, giving Crawford a mortgage for her full value.
Then, leaving Agnew to get sufficient stores on board the _Fanny_ for a three-months' cruise, Crawford returned to Hamburg on the 20th, and thence to Belfast to report progress.

Agnew's orders were to bring the _Fanny_ in three weeks' time to a rendezvous marked on the chart between the Danish islands of Langeland and Fuenen, where he was to pick up the cargo of arms, which Crawford would bring in lighters from Hamburg through the Kiel Canal.
While Crawford was in Belfast arrangements were made to enable him to keep in communication with Spender, so that in case of necessity he could be warned not to approach the Irish coast, but to cruise in the Baltic till a more favourable opportunity.

He was to let Spender know later where he could be reached with final instructions as to landing the arms; the rendezvous so agreed upon subsequently was Lough Laxford, a wild and inaccessible spot on the west coast of Sutherlandshire.
Crawford was warned by B.S.that he was far from confident of a successful end to their labours at Hamburg.