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The Rum Line: Smugglers, Speedboats, and the Caribbean Pipeline to Prohibition America
How Island Rum Kept America Wet from 1920 to 1933

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About this book:

The Rum Line: Smugglers, Speedboats, and the Caribbean Pipeline to Prohibition America For thirteen years, the United States tried to legislate thirst out of existence. The Caribbean had other plans. *The Rum Line* plunges you into the high-stakes maritime pipeline that kept America wet, tracing the Gulf Stream from the limestone cays of the Bahamas to the speakeasies of New York. This is the untold story of how a constellation of broke island outposts—Nassau, Bimini, West End, Havana—transformed overnight into the world’s most lucrative liquor stores, fueling a floating black market that turned sponge fishermen into speedboat kings and colonial treasuries into gold mines.

Meet the architects of the "Real McCoy": Bill McCoy, the meticulous pioneer who anchored just outside the three-mile limit and invented offshore retail; Gertrude Lythgoe, the "Bahama Queen" who commanded fleets and out-negotiated mobsters; and the desperate armada of local captains who ran the Gauntlet of the Gulf Stream by night, dodging Coast Guard cutters firing six-pounder shells and hijackers wielding machine guns. From the evolution of the Liberty V12-powered rum runner to the secret radio war waged over the airwaves, every chapter crackles with the mechanics of a billion-dollar insurgency fought wave by wave.

Drawing on Coast Guard logbooks, court testimonies, and archival gold, *The Rum Line* rewrites the Prohibition map, proving the "Noble Experiment" wasn't lost in Chicago alleys or Canadian woods, but on the rolling decks of "Rum Row." It is a saga of borders—where they end, how they break, and the sheer human audacity required to sail straight through them. If you think you know Prohibition, you’ve only heard half the story. The wetter, wilder, salt-soaked half starts here.

Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 The Volstead Shockwave: America Goes Dry, the Islands Wake Up
  • Chapter 2 Nassau's Gilded Age: From Sleepy Outpost to Whiskey Capital
  • Chapter 3 Bill McCoy and the Real McCoy: Blueprint for Offshore Smuggling
  • Chapter 4 Across the Gulf Stream: Reading the Currents, Tides, and Perils
  • Chapter 5 West End, Grand Bahama: Front Row Seat to the Florida Coast
  • Chapter 6 The Island Fleets: From Sponge Boats to Ocean Smugglers
  • Chapter 7 Havana Nights, Key West Runs: The Cuban Liquor Pipeline
  • Chapter 8 Rum Row at Sea: Life Aboard the Floating Offshore Warehouses
  • Chapter 9 The Six-Mile Limit: International Law, Grey Zones, and Gunboats
  • Chapter 10 Speedboat Kings: The Evolution of the High-Powered Bootlegger
  • Chapter 11 Coastal Ambush: Coast Guard Cutters and the Six-Pounder Shells
  • Chapter 12 Bimini's Boomtown: Big Game Fishing, Gunfights, and Burlap Hams
  • Chapter 13 The Bahama Queens: Gertrude Lythgoe and the Island Brokers
  • Chapter 14 The French Outposts: Saint-Pierre and the Caribbean Free Ports
  • Chapter 15 Shadows in the Mangroves: Drop Points Along the Florida Keys
  • Chapter 16 The Corruptible Shore: Sheriffs, Lightkeepers, and Bribed Badges
  • Chapter 17 The Syndicate Arrives: Mob Money Takes the Island Harbors
  • Chapter 18 Piracy on the High Seas: Hijackers, Renegades, and Deep Water Murders
  • Chapter 19 Codebooks and Whispering Wires: The Secret War of Radio Waves
  • Chapter 20 The Black Ship: Tragedy and Bloodshed on the High Seas
  • Chapter 21 The Twelve-Mile Line: Expanding the Border and Raising the Stakes
  • Chapter 22 The Deep South Infiltration: Georgia Marshes and Carolina Sounds
  • Chapter 23 The Crash and the Squalls: Hurricanes, Depression, and Hard Times
  • Chapter 24 The Net Closes: New Technology and Relentless Patrols
  • Chapter 25 The Final Drop: The
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Author:

Betty T. Bennett

Published By:

MixCache.com Extended Catalog

Type:

Nonfiction

Date Published:

September 7, 2026

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