Rumrunners
Title | Rumrunners PDF eBook |
Author | J. Anne Funderburg |
Publisher | McFarland |
Total Pages | 208 |
Release | 2016-11-18 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1476626707 |
In 1920, the 18th Amendment made the production, transportation and sale of alcohol not merely illegal--it was unconstitutional. Yet no legislation could end the demand for alcohol. Enterprising rumrunners worked to meet that demand with cunning, courage, machineguns and speedboats powered by aircraft engines. They out-maneuvered the U.S. Coast Guard and risked their lives to deliver illicit liquor. Smugglers like Bill McCoy, the Bahama Queen, and the Gulf Stream Pirate, along with many others, ran operations along the U.S. coastline until Prohibition was repealed in 1933. Drawing on legal records, newspaper articles and Coast Guard files, this history describes how rumrunners battled the Dry Navy and corrupted U.S. law enforcement, in order to keep America wet.
The Rumrunners
Title | The Rumrunners PDF eBook |
Author | Marty Gervais |
Publisher | Biblioasis |
Total Pages | 225 |
Release | 2009-10-26 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1926845064 |
A 10,000 copy seller in Canada, The Rumrunners offers a photographic history of the regular men and women who smuggled Canadian liquor to the United States during the roaring '20s. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Prohibition.
The Rumrunner's Boy
Title | The Rumrunner's Boy PDF eBook |
Author | E.R. Yatscoff |
Publisher | BWL Publishing Inc. |
Total Pages | 206 |
Release | 2019-12-13 |
Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
ISBN | 0228611652 |
Canadians are only too happy to supply liquor to thirsty Americans during U.S. Prohibition. Jarrod Hooker, 17, steps in for his injured father on a rum running crew smuggling liquor across Lake Erie. It’s a lucrative job they cannot afford to lose. Jarrod’s young age is resented by the rumrunners and they set out to sabotage him and confiscate his father’s boat. Carving out respect for himself among rough men will take a mighty effort. But Ill winds begin to blow across the lake when money from liquor shipments goes missing and the U.S. Coast Guard steps up smuggling patrols. Worse yet, an American gangster, a rogue from the notorious Purple Gang, tries to seize control of the operation. Whatever happens on the next run will change everything for everyone. Amid sabotage and bullets flying, Jarrod must put his trust in a very dangerous man. Although Canada is only a few miles offshore, it may as well be a world away.
Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties
Title | Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties PDF eBook |
Author | Eric Mills |
Publisher | Cornell Maritime Press/Tidewater Publishers |
Total Pages | 240 |
Release | 2000 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
It was a whiskey-soaked age that was supposed to be dry. Prohibition may have been the law of the land, but hte Chesapeake Bay country was awash in a sea of illegal alcohol. The marshes were teeming with hidden stills, and bootleg liquor was smuggled throughout the waterways and the adjoining countryside by daring men in fast boats and faster cars. Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties is a saga of people--watermen and steamer captains, mob raketeers and "legitimate" buisnessmen--all of them wanting part of the action. In the maze of Bay waters, boats played a key role in that action, many disguised as workboats but built for speed and the ability to out-maneuver the law. On the other side, Billy Sunday and an army of temerpance crusaders campaigned tirelessly to encourage Prohibition, while federal agents and Coast Guardsmen shared the impossible task of enforcing it.
Rumrunning and the Roaring Twenties
Title | Rumrunning and the Roaring Twenties PDF eBook |
Author | Philip Parker Mason |
Publisher | Wayne State University Press |
Total Pages | 156 |
Release | 1995 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 9780814325834 |
On January 17, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment took effect in the United States, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, use, or importation of alcoholic beverages except for scientific and medicinal purposes. Church and business leaders, temperance advocates, and state and national officials predicted that a tranquil new era was about to begin-an era when prisons would be empty, police forces could be drastically cut, and workers would be more productive, spending time with their families rather than in saloons. As Rumrunning and the Roaring Twenties illustrates, peace and tranquillity and abstinence never arrived. The Prohibition experiment failed dismally in the United States, and nowhere worse than in Michigan. The state's close proximity and easy access to Canada, where large amounts of liquor were manufactured, made it a major center for the smuggling and sale of illegal alcohol. Although federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies attempted to stop the flow of liquor into Michigan and its widespread sale and use in blind pigs, joints, speakeasies, and exclusive clubs and restaurants, an astounding seventy-five percent of all illegal liquor brought into the United States was transported across the Detroit River from Canada, especially the thirty-mile stretch from Lake Erie to the St. Clair River. In fact, the city's two major industries during most of the 1920s were the manufacture of automobiles and the distribution of Canadian liquor. Using police and court records, newspaper accounts, and interviews with those who lived during the time, Philip P. Mason has constructed a fascinating history of life in Michigan during Prohibition. He regales readers with stories of the bungled efforts by officials at every level to control the smuggling and sale of illegal alcohol. Most entertaining are the hundreds of photos capturing the essence of the era: the creative smuggling efforts undertaken by citizens of all walks of life-the poor, middle class, and affluent, upstanding citizens and organized criminals and gang members. The smugglers concocted both practical and ingenious methods to transport liquor into the state. Boats of all sizes were used, from small rowboats to powerful river crafts that could easily outrun police boats. Jalopies, trucks, airplanes, and railroad freight cars also carried large amounts of alcohol across the border. Clever smugglers rigged electronically controlled torpedoes to cross the river, laid pipes underwater and pumped alcohol into a bottling facility in Detroit, and concealed contraband in every conceivable device-hot water bottles, chest protectors, false breasts, hollowed out eggs and loaves of bread, picnic baskets, shopping bags, and baby carriages. By 1928 Prohibition was so obviously flawed and controversial that it became a major issue in the presidential campaign. In 1933, with the support of President Franklin Roosevelt, Michigan's governor William Comstock, and other leaders, the Twenty-first Amendment was passed, repealing Prohibition. Michigan was the first state to ratify the amendment on April 10, 1933, and soon the Detroit River was returned to pleasure boats and fishing and commercial vessels whose holds no longer carried illegal liquor.
New Jersey Coast Guard Stations and Rumrunners
Title | New Jersey Coast Guard Stations and Rumrunners PDF eBook |
Author | Van R. Field |
Publisher | Arcadia Publishing |
Total Pages | 134 |
Release | 2004 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780738535913 |
With its many inlets, points, and coves, the coast of New Jersey stood out as a haven for rumrunners brazenly thumbing their nose at the federal government during Prohibition. New Jersey was also recognized as the birthplace of the federal government's shore-based units of the United States Coast Guard, the organization charged at that time with stopping the flow of "demon run" into America. With its vivid images, New Jersey Coast Guard Stations and Rumrunners revives the days when New Jersey's "coasties" stood toe-to-toe with the rumrunners of the 1920s and 1930s.
Rum Runners, Governors, Beachcombers and Socialists
Title | Rum Runners, Governors, Beachcombers and Socialists PDF eBook |
Author | Jim Lampos |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 88 |
Release | 2010-08-01 |
Genre | Beaches |
ISBN | 9780983547235 |
Written by Old Lyme residents Jim Lampos and Michaelle Pearson, Rum Runners is an intricately researched, intriguing exploration of the beach communities from Griswold Point in the west to Point O' Woods in the east. Illustrations include a map of the Old Lyme shoreline, decades-old newspaper clippings and postcards, and original photographs. Paperback, 88 pages.