What is rum patrol?
Time for a history lesson.From 1920 to 1933, one of the many battlegrounds of Prohibition between alcohol smugglers, or rum runners, and authorities was off the Atlantic coast of the United States. The U.S. maritime limit extended 12 miles out from the coast (increased from 3 miles in April 1924), which effectively established a border called "the Rum Line". This area served as a meeting point for large vessels known as "Mother Ships" to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illegal alcohol to local smaller boats. As several of these Mother Ships formed lines in concentrated areas along the Rum Line, they became known as "rum rows". Though many formed from Block Island, RI down to Galveston, TX, by far the biggest rum row was off the coast of New Jersey.
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so they just waltzed into shore, right?Wrong. The U.S. government used an assortment of patrol boats and harbor cutters to monitor the coasts. Despite the threat of getting caught, the highly lucrative nature of rum running led to the use of specialized yachts and luxury craft, as well as the use of riskier and more dangerous tactics. Often they would hit rocks or sand bars while traveling in the dead of night, sinking or stranding the vessel in its place. Fearing arrest, rum runners occasionally abandoned their boats at first sight of authorities, disposing of or destroying their illegal cargo in the process. Forgoing the risk of capture altogether, a common practice along New Jersey was to drop the cargo miles out from shore, allowing the current to bring the cargo to the beach. Coordinating with locals, the alcohol was collected by daybreak before the authorities had an opportunity to confiscate it. Still, with the illegal alcohol industry making an average of $3 billion per year, Bureau of Prohibition enforcement was largely inadequate.
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Sounds like they needed the big guns.Ask and ye shall receive. Twenty five destroyers were transferred from the Navy to the Treasury Department for use by the Coast Guard, enacting an operation called "Rum Patrol." While many of the ships were pre-World War I castoffs, they still managed speeds over 30 knots, easily pacing rum running vessels. Since smaller craft were capable of outmaneuvering the Rum Patrol fleet, emphasis was placed on picketing Mother Ships, thus preventing the smaller crafts from acquiring loads of illegal cargo. The destroyers were successful in forcing Mother Ships farther out to sea, and were able to maintain 10 knot perimeters around them to further thwart deliveries.
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did it work?Individual examples of cunning and success from the destroyers are scarce, but telling. Lt. Comdr. J.E. Whitbeck of the Ericcson hailed the Mother Ship he was picketing with the information that his crew would be practicing night machine gun drill so "keep your lights on, so we won't accidentally hit you." After postponing the "drill" to the point Whitbeck's prey figured they could make a break for it, the ship killed its lights and started up its engine only to be rudely awakened by the Ericcson's machine guns. Unsurprisingly, the Mother Ship's lights came on and it became docile once more.
In 1925, Rum Patrol embarked on the Great Offensive, a concentrated drive against the rum row from north of Delaware up through New York. Well into the campaign, Lt. Comdr. Stephen Yeandle hosted newspaper press aboard a Coast Guard cutter to see the results firsthand. The Reading Eagle ran a May 17th, 1925 headline "Only 12 Ships of 80 Remain on Rum Row," also reporting that "little, if any, contraband liquor is getting ashore" and that whisky selling ships "had been swept out of touch with their land alliances." However, many more headlines were made by (much less significant) dramatic shoreside chases than steady workmanlike picketing beyond the horizon. |
a pretty thankless job, then?More or less. Though the Rum Patrol did unglamorous, largely unheralded work, they were more effective than press at the time gave the Coast Guard credit for. On February 20, 1933 prohibition was repealed by way of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. The remaining destroyers were returned to the Navy and unceremoniously sold for scrap. Although the legacy of the Rum Patrol is not as notable as many other aspects of Prohibition or military history, many who served their first assignment among Rum Patrol destroyers went on to have illustrious careers. John Steinmetz started aboard the Burrows before eventually commanding the USS Poole destroyer in World War II, eventually reaching the rank of Rear Admiral. 3 years out of the Coast Guard Academy, Merlin O'Neill helped with the conversion of the Ericcson for Rum Patrol duty before assuming command of the vessel. He commanded the USS Leonard Wood in World War II en route to ultimately reaching the rank of Vice Admiral.
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