The Rum War
23 APRIL 1924
THE RUM WAR
On 16 January 1920, the 18th Amendment enacting Prohibition became the law of the land. But the US Coast Guard, tasked with seaborne anti-smuggling duties, found herself unprepared. She could muster only 30 sea-going cutters at the outset and a fleet of smaller surfboats and harbor craft primarily dedicated to navigation assistance and lifesaving. As a result, throughout the first four years of Prohibition only a tiny fraction of the flood of smuggled alcohol could be stemmed.
Illegal liquor entered this country via two main routes, overland across the Canadian border and from the sea along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. In this latter enterprise, rum runners from New England to the Virginia Capes developed an efficient and profitable system of smuggling. Large ships laden with thousands of cases of contraband liquor would anchor just beyond US territorial waters. At the time we recognized only a three-mile limit, making but a short run from shore to “Rum Row,” as this anchorage of mother ships became known. Smaller boats (on calm days even rowboats) would venture out to purchase booze then duck back to the many coves and inlets of the Atlantic seaboard.
Our Navy was reluctant to become entangled in this unpopular and practically impossible enforcement task, nevertheless, US Navy assets did prove integral to that success the Coast Guard did achieve in this “Rum War.” On 15 April 1924, after four years of pitiable Coast Guard shortfalls, working parties at the Philadelphia Navy Yard began opening boilers, lifting turbine casings, disassembling pumps and removing condenser heads from idle destroyers leftover from WWI. CDR John Q. Walton, USCG, led an inspection team tasked with selecting 20 destroyers for transfer to the Coast Guard. All had seen hard use in convoy duty and would require extensive overhaul of hulls, machinery and living spaces. Torpedo tubes and depth charge Y-guns would have to be replaced with newer rapid-firing deck guns. JOUETT (DD-41) was the first to be transferred on this day followed by CASSIN (DD-43), BEALE (DD-40), DOWNES (DD-45) and PATTERSON (DD-36) in the next week. The first destroyer to enter service against the “rummies” was HENLEY (DD-39) late in 1924.
Though useless inshore, the destroyers were invaluable in picketing the mother ships by continuous slow circling that prevented small boats from lightering their cargoes. Helpfully, on May 22nd Congress increased the territorial limit to 12 miles, pushing the mother ships beyond the vision of anyone on the beach. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1934 all twenty destroyers were returned to the Navy, now as veterans of our sister sea-service.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 29 APR 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 299, 569.
Willoughby, Malcolm F. Rum War at Sea. Washington, DC: GPO, 1964.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The 12-mile limit for our territorial sea, an outgrowth of Prohibition, remains with us today. The previous 3-mile limit had been in force for decades until then–three miles being the range of 19th century coastal defense guns.