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Ghost
12-29-2012, 10:29 PM
I had never heard of this...

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_chemists_war.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2

mattyboy
12-30-2012, 07:56 AM
Never heard of the gov't doing it but it was a common occurance during that time.

bathtub gin and homemade hooch was mostly made with poisonous materials to get the taste, look and kick , the gangsters also cut the booze with other toxic chemicals to enhance the yield and their profits.

there was a boot legger named McCoy who was known for not doing this , he always thought the quality of the booze was more important so when he delivered his booze it was alway real stuff.

hence the term the "real Mccoy"

the history channel has a great series on this including rum running boats and a segement on claudio's out on the island still a favorite spot for the go fast set to this day. they still have the trap doors behind the bar where the bootlegged booze could be delivered by boat and stocked directly on the lower shelves of the bar.

mattyboy
12-31-2012, 09:21 AM
I would recomend watching that series on the history channel. The history of the rum runners can be linked directly to our hobby.

the Skopanich (sp) ship yard on the island was the first yard to start putting WWI surplus v12 liberty engines airplane engines into bay boats for the purpose of running offshore and getting back with a load quickly. the coast guard set 24 knots as the speed their new patrol boats needed to be . the rum runners then knew how fast they had to go . Boats like the Artemis with 3 Liberty's were hard to catch and faster than 24 knots but wound up being fired upon. The Black Duck a rum runner which was captured and converted to a CG boat, ironically it was the boat that fired upon the Artemis.

The Name cigarette made famous by Don Aronow was derived from the rumrunner named Cigarette a fast sleek vessel which couldn't be caught .

A sad time in America when the gov't outlawed an industry and forced law abiding citizens to make a living on the wrong side of the law.

joseph m. hahnl
01-01-2013, 07:46 AM
I would recomend watching that series on the history channel. The history of the rum runners can be linked directly to our hobby.

the Skopanich (sp) ship yard on the island was the first yard to start putting WWI surplus v12 liberty engines airplane engines into bay boats for the purpose of running offshore and getting back with a load quickly. the coast guard set 24 knots as the speed their new patrol boats needed to be . the rum runners then knew how fast they had to go . Boats like the Artemis with 3 Liberty's were hard to catch and faster than 24 knots but wound up being fired upon. The Black Duck a rum runner which was captured and converted to a CG boat, ironically it was the boat that fired upon the Artemis.

The Name cigarette made famous by Don Aronow was derived from the rumrunner named Cigarette a fast sleek vessel which couldn't be caught .

A sad time in America when the gov't outlawed an industry and forced law abiding citizens to make a living on the wrong side of the law.



Matty: great stuff! The Black Duck must be the one in front and to the left "the little one"

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2656/5837461898_790a646bae_z.jpg
Rum runner Black Duck escorted by Coast Guard boats to Newport, RI harbor after CG-290 fired shots killing 3 or 4 of crew.

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/41695/legendboat.jpg








Black Duck, 1930 (CG 808)Length: 45'
Beam: 10' 9"
Draft: 2
Displacement: Unknown
Launched: Unknown
Acquired: Seized
History: One of the fastest and more notorious rumrunners, Black Duck was captured by CG-290 after machine-gun fire had killed three of her crew. She was taken into the Coast Guard 27 March 1930 and stationed at New London, CT.


http://www.uscg.mil/history/uscghist/Prohibition_Photo_Index.asp


They say that the V-12 is the perfect geometry for a cumbustion engine. and if you can fit a straight 6 you can fit a v12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toDLJFFjIA4

mattyboy
01-01-2013, 10:33 AM
Joe,

they did some wild things . one trick was to drip oil into the exhaust for a smoke screen . The artemis also had a doubled walled wheel house they filled the void between the walls with sand to make it bullet proof , that didn't worked out so well.

they interviewed an older lady and she wore to hot water bottles under her garments. she rode back and forth on a ferry between Canada and Michigan carrying Canadian whiskey .

Ghost
01-01-2013, 12:11 PM
I'll second that...the rumrunners show was great. Wish we had more footage and photography from all of that.

mattyboy
01-01-2013, 02:22 PM
here's some of the series ( from pot tv LOL)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XimvsNMC4jg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkXPgxULRRE

mattyboy
01-02-2013, 07:44 AM
watching that again, that story sounds very familiar . building boats for the gov't on one side of the yard and boats to out run them on the other side .

Conquistador_del_mar
01-02-2013, 11:53 AM
watching that again, that story sounds very familiar . building boats for the gov't on one side of the yard and boats to out run them on the other side .

It immediately made me think of the drug boat builders in the 1960s through the 1980s, too. There is nothing like some good "competition" to make a business profitable - ;)

silverghost
01-02-2013, 10:46 PM
Ventnor Boatworks In South Jersey was very famous worldwide for their fast innovative raceboats with aero engine power. during the 20s-50s . Adolph Apel the Ventnor owner designed the first three point hydroplane hull there.


What many folks outside of the local South Jersey area don't really know was the fact that rumrunners were some of their very best fast & large high-powered speedboat customers.

Ventnor Boatworks was basically located on the same barrier island ,Abseacon Island, as Atlantic City.

Atlantic City was basically immune to the national prohibition laws.
It was basically a wide open town.

People would travel to Atlantic City NJ for vacations from Philadelphia & New York because of this wide open policy.

There is a lot of truth told on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire".

mattyboy
01-04-2013, 08:55 AM
some more reading on the subject

from SI in 1971

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1085253/index.htm

mattyboy
01-12-2013, 11:17 AM
More reading on the subject (http://www.lgdonziclassic.com/pdfs/deadrise.pdf)

enjoy from the Library of the Lake George Donzi Classic club