What makes them smuggling compartments? Is it just that they're hidden underneath and hard to find? Is there some kind of special shielding in place?
TL;DRSarah McCulloch describes the compartments as lock boxes for contraband and treasure that also work as bait for trapping people, though they weren't designed specifically for trapping.
The compartments are mainly for if you've got contraband. I see them as lock boxes. So I can imagine they would have some sort of lock system on them, and maybe you could grab them or even break into them or something like that. So that's the way that I saw them, because it was something that I really wanted with the ship. It was this cool little hidden section where you could go and find this almost like treasure. And also, as I say, just hide whatever you wanted or what you thought was precious, and it also coaxes people down into there and you can trap them, essentially.
Is that what those compartments were designed for originally? Trap?
Not specifically for trapping people. No, but it's just a part of the element that, because you have to go down there, that is that aspect now. It's kind of like bait. That's what I see them as, as well. It's very tempting to go in there. There's always the element of, as I say, getting trapped down there.