mattyboy
08-10-2009, 09:37 AM
I got caught up in a show yesterday on the history channel about the prohibition and the illegal running of booze thru the united states.
it was very interesting some of the highlights
they had Claudios a very popular hot spot for boaters out on long island, they showed pictures of the place back in the 20's and it really has not changed much. the story goes on to tell about how the rum runners would meet up 3 miles off shore with boats loaded with booze and they would shuttle it to shore. they would wait for the right tide and get the boats as close to the rest. as possible then drag the booze up under the rest.
there were 3 trap doors that the booze was loaded into.
one that came up under the loading dock . this was used to load the trucks undercover and send them on their way bringing the booze to places all over the island and the city.
the second door was to a secret store room which is now the mens room
the third which is the only one still in existence comes up right thru the bar floor in front of the liqour shelves from there they could restock the entire bar or empty it for an impending raid.
the next highlight is about a ship yard and a boat builder who bought several dozen liberty v 12 airplane engines off army surplus and built sparce fitted but fast boats around them. his name was Fred Schopnick ( spelling i think that's how you say it)
he wound up building boats for the CG too. One side of the yard had the CG boats built to the CG specs of running at 25 mph. the other side of the yard had boats built for the rum runners built to exceed the CG specs.
That sounds vaquely familiar doesn't ;) .
the CG eventually captured a rum runner called the black duck and fitted it with a machine gun and went on to run down a few rum runners.
the other thing i found interesting was a guy named Mc Coy who was noted for running the high quality real whiskey around. Seems some people would cut the booze with whatever they could find somtimes things like embombing fluid and other toxins. Not Mc Coy he ran top notch stuff noted for his real whiskey and hence the term the "real Mc Coy"
I could have watched the next two installments but i had to go work at the bar ;)
ps during this time the Gov't moved the international waters from 3 miles to 12 miles to try and stop the rum runners. that didn't work they just built bigger faster boats. i won't go into the politics as this is not the section just wanted to keep it on the boats ;)
it was very interesting some of the highlights
they had Claudios a very popular hot spot for boaters out on long island, they showed pictures of the place back in the 20's and it really has not changed much. the story goes on to tell about how the rum runners would meet up 3 miles off shore with boats loaded with booze and they would shuttle it to shore. they would wait for the right tide and get the boats as close to the rest. as possible then drag the booze up under the rest.
there were 3 trap doors that the booze was loaded into.
one that came up under the loading dock . this was used to load the trucks undercover and send them on their way bringing the booze to places all over the island and the city.
the second door was to a secret store room which is now the mens room
the third which is the only one still in existence comes up right thru the bar floor in front of the liqour shelves from there they could restock the entire bar or empty it for an impending raid.
the next highlight is about a ship yard and a boat builder who bought several dozen liberty v 12 airplane engines off army surplus and built sparce fitted but fast boats around them. his name was Fred Schopnick ( spelling i think that's how you say it)
he wound up building boats for the CG too. One side of the yard had the CG boats built to the CG specs of running at 25 mph. the other side of the yard had boats built for the rum runners built to exceed the CG specs.
That sounds vaquely familiar doesn't ;) .
the CG eventually captured a rum runner called the black duck and fitted it with a machine gun and went on to run down a few rum runners.
the other thing i found interesting was a guy named Mc Coy who was noted for running the high quality real whiskey around. Seems some people would cut the booze with whatever they could find somtimes things like embombing fluid and other toxins. Not Mc Coy he ran top notch stuff noted for his real whiskey and hence the term the "real Mc Coy"
I could have watched the next two installments but i had to go work at the bar ;)
ps during this time the Gov't moved the international waters from 3 miles to 12 miles to try and stop the rum runners. that didn't work they just built bigger faster boats. i won't go into the politics as this is not the section just wanted to keep it on the boats ;)