Firo nods as he begins to understand what Maiza's getting at. "...Smart." Despite what eventually became of the voyage, he's not being sarcastic at all. The tragedy was because Szilard was there, not because of the setting.

"Aren't there some ships that do stuff like that back home?" But with alcohol, of course. A few stills and some innocent malt syrups or yeasts aren't too hard to load onto a ship, and once it's out of American waters, well, who cares what they do with their supplies?