smuggle oneself aboard a ship

[PINKGREAT]

What does it mean?

[Tdol]

Get on a ship without a ticket: stowaway.

[PINKGREAT]

What if the ship is a nuclear submarine? You can't have the ticket for a war ship

[Delmobile]

To "smuggle" anything is to hide it from the authorities. You can smuggle jewelry through customs without paying duty on it, or smuggle guns or drugs across the border, or smuggle a bag of caramels into weight-loss camp.

So, to smuggle oneself aboard a ship means to get yourself there secretly, whether it's to avoid paying for a ticket, to flee the country, or even to photograph nuclear secrets.

[native speaker & writer, not a teacher]