During Prohibition in the US, a “rum row” was a row of ships offshore that supplied alcohol to Americans. The term comes from the first ships smuggling rum from the Caribbean. The shadow economy was controlled by crime bosses, and ships were at risk of being caught by law enforcement or attacked by pirates.
During the Prohibition era in the United States, a rum row was a row of vessels located offshore, just out of reach of the law. These vessels would transfer their alcoholic cargoes to motorboats and other small vessels before setting out to collect more alcohol. Ships in Rum Row were sometimes visible from shore, especially in regions near international borders, and Rum Row became a very visible part of Prohibition for some Americans.
The term “rum row” comes from the fact that the first ships that smuggled alcohol mostly came from the Caribbean with the rum. Later, ships carrying whiskey and other spirits also arrived from Canada, but the slang term had since been embraced, so it became generic. In some communities, rum row was so ubiquitous that people even referred to the rows of houses near the shore as rum row, and the term lives on in the name of some developments along the east coast of the United States.
Under the Volstead Act, people could not manufacture, transport or sell alcohol for consumption. However, many Americans were unwilling to give up drinking and consumed a variety of bootlegged and homemade products. Rum rows evolved to take advantage of the demand for liquor in the United States, supplying alcohol of varying quality, often at very high prices. During Prohibition, a shadow economy developed with considerable influence, with much of the profits concentrated in the hands of a handful of crime bosses.
The real danger to ships in a rum row was that the speedboats used to transfer the liquor ashore could be caught, causing a loss of cargo and crew. In the early years of Prohibition, many bootleggers managed to evade capture, but as American law enforcement agencies bought faster boats and developed more skills, this risk increased dramatically, resulting in an increase in the price of alcohol. Improvements in law enforcement have also made rum rows more dangerous, as ships have increased their arsenals to defend their cargoes.
Ships in a rum row were also at risk of being attacked by people who wanted to steal their cargo, and piracy, gunfights and murders were not uncommon, especially in areas where rum row was tightly controlled by crime bosses. Additionally, vessels not under the control of criminal organizations could be stopped and plundered by key vessels in the rum row, making the high seas a dangerous place for some enterprising smugglers.
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