Vice-President Lorne Meyer welcomed 57 club members to the General Meeting opening with a few one-line zingers. He welcomed new members: Bob and Kathy Ell, Lori Gavas, Ann and Brad Champagne, and Judy Schieder as well as guests Alan Pattison and Tom Collins.
Vice-President Lorne reminded us that Glacier PROBUS Club is looking for new coordinators for both the Random Readers Group and the Wine and Appies Group.
Special Events Coordinator, Michele Morton, reported that tickets for the Christmas Dinner and Dance on Dec. 3 were available today. She also has one ticket available for the opera Carmen in Victoria on October 16. Michele also reminded us to keep in mind plans for a bus trip to Vancouver in the spring to see the play Come From Away.
Vice-President Lorne Meyer welcomed our guest speaker, Rick James. Mr. James was born and raised in Victoria and is a West Coast Maritime historian. He is currently doing relief standin as a lighthouse keeper up the coast. Mr.James has written 3 books and his talk was based on extensive research along with newspaper coverage plus the first hand accounts of old time rum-runners for his latest book, Don’t Never Tell NOBODY NOTHIN’ NO HOW: The Real Story of West Coast Rum Running.
Liquor prohibition in BC lasted from 1917 to 1921 but In January of 1920 The National Prohibition Act of the United States (US) prohibited any person from drinking, making, selling, importing, or transporting alcohol. James recounts the stories of BC’s rum-running mariners and businessmen that provided roughly one million cases of alcohol to thirsty US citizens over the course of the next 13 years from 1920-1933.
Offering other means to make a living, in the beginning the boats used for smuggling were small vessels such as old fishing boats that filled their holds with liquor and sold it along the coast of Oregon, California and the Juan De Fuca Strait known as Rum Row.
As the demand for more alcohol grew, custom built rum running boats involved “floating mother ships”, such as the Malahat, an old lumber schooner and other steamers that parked off the San Francisco Bay or the mouth of the Columbia River. These ships were floating warehouses of liquor where smaller, faster vessels (the mosquito fleet) picked up the liquor and distributed the orders to shore. These faster vessels were outfitted with fast sub-chaser engines and often painted black so as to avoid detection under the cover of darkness into American waters right up onto the beach. These rum runners, mariners and ordinary businessmen were breaking no law as these “mother ships'' were either anchored in International or Canadian waters. The rum runners often made 5 or 6 trips a month earning $1000 the equivalent of $14, 000 today ($1 then equal to $14 today).
In April 1924 the Victoria Daily Colonist reported that Southern Vancouver Island and properties on roughly twenty Islands including Smuggler’s Cove and Discovery Island provided “a Scotch oasis in a desert of salt water.”
Annoyed with the 5 million gallons of liquor coming from Canada to the US, the American government put pressure on the Canadian government. However, the Canadian government said it wasn’t the responsibility of their government to stop American citizens from drinking liquor. The ships were doing everything legally with custom and clearance papers filled out. So Washington, DC raised their liquor export licence from $3000 to $10000. The rum runners formed the Consolidated Exporters on August 25, 1922 housed on Hamilton Street in Vancouver, for the import and export of wines and alcoholic beverages. Captain Charles Hudson, superintendent of Consolidated Exporters, stated “they were doing everything legally and considered themselves philanthropists, supplying good liquor to poor, thirsty Americans,...and [this] brought back prosperity to the Harbour of Vancouver”. Hudson was a highly decorated WW1 Royal Navy veteran who stated Consolidated Exporters “ran like a clock” and “by my code” with 2 Vancouver distilleries on board and thirty to forty boats. The Malahat reportedly played the most prominent role and was the flagship of Rum Row, known as the Queen of Malahat. She could hold 100,000 cases of liquor while anchored and 60,000 cases sailing. The Malahat made 2 or 3 voyages a year full of scotch, rye, and brandy. The rum running business was “God’s gift to Vancouver” and “kept a lot of seamen and shipyards busy when the economy was truly bust”. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported that in 1929 liquor sales increased from $19M to $48M.
Vice-President Lorne Meyer thanked Rick James for his informative talk and requested that if people had questions to ask Rick at the table where he had books for sale.
Winners of the gift cards for Milanos and Mud Sharks were: Tina Kelly (who will be volunteering at the Registration desk next month), Brenda Latta, Lorne Meyer, and Dave Adshead.
Next month’s meeting will be November 3,2022.
Vice-President Lorne reminded us that Glacier PROBUS Club is looking for new coordinators for both the Random Readers Group and the Wine and Appies Group.
Special Events Coordinator, Michele Morton, reported that tickets for the Christmas Dinner and Dance on Dec. 3 were available today. She also has one ticket available for the opera Carmen in Victoria on October 16. Michele also reminded us to keep in mind plans for a bus trip to Vancouver in the spring to see the play Come From Away.
Vice-President Lorne Meyer welcomed our guest speaker, Rick James. Mr. James was born and raised in Victoria and is a West Coast Maritime historian. He is currently doing relief standin as a lighthouse keeper up the coast. Mr.James has written 3 books and his talk was based on extensive research along with newspaper coverage plus the first hand accounts of old time rum-runners for his latest book, Don’t Never Tell NOBODY NOTHIN’ NO HOW: The Real Story of West Coast Rum Running.
Liquor prohibition in BC lasted from 1917 to 1921 but In January of 1920 The National Prohibition Act of the United States (US) prohibited any person from drinking, making, selling, importing, or transporting alcohol. James recounts the stories of BC’s rum-running mariners and businessmen that provided roughly one million cases of alcohol to thirsty US citizens over the course of the next 13 years from 1920-1933.
Offering other means to make a living, in the beginning the boats used for smuggling were small vessels such as old fishing boats that filled their holds with liquor and sold it along the coast of Oregon, California and the Juan De Fuca Strait known as Rum Row.
As the demand for more alcohol grew, custom built rum running boats involved “floating mother ships”, such as the Malahat, an old lumber schooner and other steamers that parked off the San Francisco Bay or the mouth of the Columbia River. These ships were floating warehouses of liquor where smaller, faster vessels (the mosquito fleet) picked up the liquor and distributed the orders to shore. These faster vessels were outfitted with fast sub-chaser engines and often painted black so as to avoid detection under the cover of darkness into American waters right up onto the beach. These rum runners, mariners and ordinary businessmen were breaking no law as these “mother ships'' were either anchored in International or Canadian waters. The rum runners often made 5 or 6 trips a month earning $1000 the equivalent of $14, 000 today ($1 then equal to $14 today).
In April 1924 the Victoria Daily Colonist reported that Southern Vancouver Island and properties on roughly twenty Islands including Smuggler’s Cove and Discovery Island provided “a Scotch oasis in a desert of salt water.”
Annoyed with the 5 million gallons of liquor coming from Canada to the US, the American government put pressure on the Canadian government. However, the Canadian government said it wasn’t the responsibility of their government to stop American citizens from drinking liquor. The ships were doing everything legally with custom and clearance papers filled out. So Washington, DC raised their liquor export licence from $3000 to $10000. The rum runners formed the Consolidated Exporters on August 25, 1922 housed on Hamilton Street in Vancouver, for the import and export of wines and alcoholic beverages. Captain Charles Hudson, superintendent of Consolidated Exporters, stated “they were doing everything legally and considered themselves philanthropists, supplying good liquor to poor, thirsty Americans,...and [this] brought back prosperity to the Harbour of Vancouver”. Hudson was a highly decorated WW1 Royal Navy veteran who stated Consolidated Exporters “ran like a clock” and “by my code” with 2 Vancouver distilleries on board and thirty to forty boats. The Malahat reportedly played the most prominent role and was the flagship of Rum Row, known as the Queen of Malahat. She could hold 100,000 cases of liquor while anchored and 60,000 cases sailing. The Malahat made 2 or 3 voyages a year full of scotch, rye, and brandy. The rum running business was “God’s gift to Vancouver” and “kept a lot of seamen and shipyards busy when the economy was truly bust”. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported that in 1929 liquor sales increased from $19M to $48M.
Vice-President Lorne Meyer thanked Rick James for his informative talk and requested that if people had questions to ask Rick at the table where he had books for sale.
Winners of the gift cards for Milanos and Mud Sharks were: Tina Kelly (who will be volunteering at the Registration desk next month), Brenda Latta, Lorne Meyer, and Dave Adshead.
Next month’s meeting will be November 3,2022.