Notas del episodio
When the 18th Amendment took effect in 1920, early smugglers were small, disorganized, and often caught by the Coast Guard. This episode tells the story of William S. McCoy, who began running rum from Bimini to Miami and then changed the trade by anchoring just beyond the three-mile limit of U.S. waters and selling to local boats that raced the liquor ashore.
We follow McCoy's schooner, the Tomoka, fitted with a large engine, cargo holds, and a hidden machine gun, as well as his refusal to water down or fake his liquor. We also cover the rise of Rum Row, the 1923 standoff with the Coast Guard cutter Seneca, and the 1924 treaties that moved the boundary to one hour's sailing time from shore.
- Why a three-mile limit turned international waters into a floating wholesale market
- How a Gloucester knockabout schooner design made it easier to transfer cargo at sea
- Why McCoy's genuine Canadian, Irish, and French liquor stood out in a market full of dangerous fakes
- Why the phrase the real McCoy was actually in print by 1882, before McCoy became linked to it
- Life on Rum Row, where up to 60 ships gathered off New Jersey and hijackings were a constant threat