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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 ;)

Ghost
08-10-2009, 09:40 AM
I've seen that show--great stuff.

BigGrizzly
08-10-2009, 10:36 AM
This is one of the ways the Kennedy family mad a lot of their money. My Grand mother was alcohol beverage control and chased him for years.

mattyboy
08-10-2009, 10:54 AM
This is one of the ways the Kennedy family mad a lot of their money. My Grand mother was alcohol beverage control and chased him for years.


they did mention joe kennedy and the money he made exporting booze from canada.

mattyboy
08-10-2009, 10:57 AM
This is one of the ways the Kennedy family mad a lot of their money. My Grand mother was alcohol beverage control and chased him for years.


they did mention joe kennedy and the money he made exporting booze from canada.
they also mention that exporting from canada was legal as long as the declared destination was not in the US. so it was common for people to take a row boat across the detroit river buy the booze legally and declare their final destination as Cuba

BigGrizzly
08-10-2009, 11:28 AM
He also ran sugar up the coast for making it too. This is part of his boating expertise.

penbroke
08-10-2009, 11:33 AM
...they also mention that exporting from canada was legal as long as the declared destination was not in the US. so it was common for people to take a row boat across the detroit river buy the booze legally and declare their final destination as Cuba


Ya gotta love it!


Frank :cool:

mattyboy
08-10-2009, 12:56 PM
for those who might not see all the connections to the hobby we love so much. most of this is due to a bootlegger from bay ridge brooklyn vannie higgins the owner of a sleek fast boat with a reputation as the fastest boat in New York waters. Of course that boat's name was "Cigarette", this all had an effect on another famous man that hailed from brooklyn some 50 years later. yes the 32 foot cary named ' the cigarette' was named for that famous rum runner by Don Aronow from Brooklyn. he later went on to found Cigarette racing team ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannie_Higgins

justleft
08-10-2009, 04:42 PM
Knew an old guy that had owned a trucking company back then.
They mostly hauled legal goods between Canada and the US.

He talked about the year Lk Erie froze and they ran 100s of loads
across the ice. With out ever being checked.

No idea if it's true.

McGary911
08-10-2009, 07:54 PM
There's also a Black Duck Cafe on the water in CT. In the early 80s, the owner (Pete Aiken?) campaigned a Shadow cat in what I think was the APBA back then. I remember seeing the boat at the Bennihana Grand Prix when I was growing up in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ.

NAme of the boat. Black Duck. :wink: No machine guns on this one tho.

mattyboy
08-11-2009, 07:12 AM
they do credit the bootleggers that used souped up cars with the birth of nascar after they cars were no longer needed. I guess it is not too far of a stretch to say that the guys who used souped up boats did have some kind of effect on offshore racing

roadtrip se
08-11-2009, 11:38 AM
they do credit the bootleggers that used souped up cars with the birth of nascar after they cars were no longer needed. I guess it is not too far of a stretch to say that the guys who used souped up boats did have some kind of effect on offshore racing

but I would think another form of contraband running had more of an impact on offshore racing, especially modern day offshore racing, than bootlegging. Especially if you start talking about the 188th Street glory days.

mattyboy
08-21-2009, 10:09 AM
just got this in an email about prohibition
I mean seriously would this make you quit drinking
I think not
I am not sure these ladies would get any better looking even at closing time
coyote ugly

this was supposedly found in a Montana history book from 1919