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| #LunenburgNSCanada_AmericanProhibitionHistory Lunenburg Inn Once known as the Hillside Hotel, this town and boardinghouse (located in my Province of Nova Scotia) became the epicenter of the lucrative rum running trade to the United States during its Prohibition era As rumor has it, some of the high profile guests included Joseph P. Kennedy, who was for sure connected to the liquor trade during the 1920s to 1936 But please keep reading and you can make up your own decisions if he was ever a guest, as i send out the facts during my investigation of this time in Lunenburg Rail Connection The hotel opened in 1924 by Sophia Hamm, a smart business move as the Inn sat directly adjacent to the train station in Lunenburg This made it ideal for all the travelers, traders and figures connected to this black market Smuggling Industry By 1925 half the areas fishing fleet had repurposed their vessels into sleek, fast sailing ships to carry the illegal booze to the awaiting Mob controlled boats off the coast of New Jersey and New York For a more detailed explanation on how this all worked, go to my previous writing on this subject #LasVegasHowardHughes_NovaScotia_TheMob Today; Rum Runners Trail The railway line is long gone that was used to transport some of the booze from Halifax to here, but you can hike or bike the 120km (65 miles) and then let your imagination run wild of those times |
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Joe Kennedy When i was in Lunenburg to research this subject, i sought out some of the "old guard: of the area to ask if it was true But who knows if time has clouded their memories or like a fishing tale that the story gets embellished jajaja, there was no clarity to be found Bootlegging Myth There is no evidence according to biographers and historians of his connection to the illegal trade of alcohol Personally he drank very little and famously offered his sons cash rewards to avoid partaking until they reached the age of 21 The Mob boasting of working with Kennedy, this has come down to post facto story telling or confusion with other liquor merchants with the same name Post Prohibition Success With a legitimate business move, just before the ban was lifted he used his connections to secure exclusive US import rights for major brands like Dewar Scotch and Gordons Gin Then he headed Somerset Importers which positioned himself with massive stockpiles of product and then was legally ready to sell the moment the 21st Amendment was ratified The payoff was a decade later when he sold his stake for millions, this was what laid the financial foundation for the Kennedy family fortune for the next generation |
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American & Canadian Prohibition The biggest difference between the two countries was how the laws were enacted and enforced The United States implemented a very strict and nationwide constitutional ban on the manufacturing, sale and transport of alcohol under the 18th Amendment In Canada it was decentralized and managed by each Province, this had many legal loopholes that was abused It allowed breweries and distilleries to continue manufacturing alcohol for export, so the US market became an economic windfall for the bootleggers History The ban lasted in America for thirteen years (1920 - 1933) while in Canada it was basically a wartime sacrifice when most of the Provinces went dry (1916 -1917) Then the citizens grew tired of it quickly and repealed the bans in the 1920s, just as the US Prohibition era was reaching its peak Fun Facts The Province of Quebec rejected a full prohibition ban from the beginning, yes restricting hard liquor but allowing beer and wine On the other end of the spectrum, Prince Edward Island stayed dry from 1901 to 1948 😐 |
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Ship Building The area was famous in its construction on the Bluenose Schooner (on the Canadian 10 cent coin) that dominated International racing during the 1920s to 1930s But its less law abiding sister ships were making history of a different kind, as the local boatyards made ultra fast vessels for the illegal trade Even sometimes mounting high powered airplane engines to outrun the US Coast Guard Cutters |
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| The famous Im Alone Schooner Mob Ship New York gangster Jamie Clark showed up in Lunenburg with $18,000 in cash and bought the ship Then he setup a fake Canadian shell corporation called the Eastern Seaboard Steamship Agencies Ltd, this was to register the vessel under the British Union Jack to evade the American authorities Captain Jack Randell He was a highly decorated First World War naval hero from the next Province over of Newfoundland Known for his swaggering style, often wearing silk dress shirts, dinner jackets and even top hats while out at sea He certainly fit the bill for this dangerous lifestyle The Vessel It was legendary, a 125 foot ship that was painted black for a stealth look and was equipped with powerful twin diesel engines It also had a high tech radio to intercept US Coast Guard messages and even an antique wax seal press to forge official documents to make it look like they were transporting regular cargo |
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March 1929 US Coast Guard cutter Wolcott spotted the ship off the coast of Louisiana Captain Randell refused to pull over and even brandished a revolver at the American officers This resulted in a two day pursuit into International waters A second US cutter the Dexter joined the chase and then intentionally gunned down the Im Alone by shelling the hull until it sank Imprisonment The Captain and his seven crew members were brought to New Orleans where they were jailed and formally charged with violating the Volstead Act (Prohibition) A few problems emerged though, the city was widely considered "wet" and strongly opposed the ban so considered Randell as a captive hero Then because they were arrested 320 kms (200 miles) off the American coast, this was well outside the US legal jurisdiction and so the charges were dropped almost immediately The Aftermath Canada sued the United States for its International law violations, but in a plot twisting moment an American codebreaker proved that the ship was actually owned by the US Mob This drastically reduced the fines that the Americans had to pay to the Captain and also the widow of the deceased crewman Finally an apology was issued between the two countries and Randell returned immediately to his life at sea, until his failing health forced him into retirement in 1941 and unfortunately died three years later In Song Because of the epic two day high seas chase, Canadian folk musician Wade Hemsworth wrote a popular ballad about this saga The Sinking of the Im Alone |
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| MacIsaac House of Lunenburg This a classic American Four Square design but do not let the "normal" layout fool you Typically the doors and windows were frequently altered or hidden to hide their liquid gold from authorities. Local folklore says the identical front and rear doors were built to confuse the devil, but it sure came in handy when the liquor inspectors showed up looking for the escape routes plus the concealed alcohol |
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| Why it Ended A) The Great Depression; following the stock market crash the US government desperately needed the tax revenues and also to create the jobs that the legalized alcohol industry would provide B) Rise in Crime; banning alcohol did not stop the consumption and instead created a violent underground economy ruled by mobsters and bootleggers C) Enforcement Nightmare; the Feds lacked the funding and personal required to police the thousands of kilometers (miles) of borders and the countless illegal speakeasies 21st Amendment With the repealing of the 18th Amendment, it became the first and only in American history to be completely overturned After the federal ban it returned alcohol regulation directly to each state, which some chose to remain dry for decades (Kansas 1948, Oklahoma 1959 and Mississippi was the last holdout 1966) and with numerous "alcohol free" counties that still exist today |
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Famous Characters With any "grey period" of history you come across some truly interesting stories Hugh Corkum His story started uneventfully as school dropout, onto a highly successful adult rum runner who dodged machine gun fire and the American authorities on the high seas, then decades later went completely straight and served at the Chief of Police for the Town of Lunenburg You can read his autobiography; On Both Sides of the Law Captain Edwin Backman He was a master mariner from a local family here who would sail salt cod down to Bermuda, then return with rum for the Eastern Seaboard of the USA which earned him a massive fortune John "Machine Gun" Kelly Was a Canadian customs and excise enforcement officer who patrolled the Nova Scotia waterways. He got his nickname by mounting a machine gun onto his boat deck and famously opened fire on a fleet of small vessels unloading barrels of rum off nearby LaHave Bank, resulting in the death of one smuggler |
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As we move to the end of this story, time for "i did not know that" 😀 Why a lot of small boats are painted red Historically wooden hulls suffered from biofouling caused by barnacles, algae, and wood boring shipworms The early shell-coating paints used cooper oxide as a biocide to repel these organisms, thus the chemical compound naturally dyed the paint into a reddish brown color Also bright red creates a stark contrast against the water, allowing mariners to quickly gauge the boats load line and its stability |
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Lunenburg with its Famous Son the Bluenose11 As we leave from the black and white era of the1920s / 1930s, what better way to sail off but in full color of this UNESCO World Heritage Site Not because of its rum running history, but its the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America Full Circle After the original Bluenose sank off the coast of Haiti in 1946, the Oland Brewery Company of Halifax (who made lots of money during the Prohibition Era) built the newest version in 1963 Then sold it to the Nova Scotian government (for a token $1.00) which is now our sailing ambassador sharing our maritime history and culture around the world |
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