John Taft on rum running during prohibition

Standing Before the Mast

In this episode we hear from John Taft about rum running along the coast of Rhode Island during prohibition. Like me, John is a bit of a history enthusiast and when he discovered that the boat that he and his partners had purchased to run mansion tours turned out to be an actual former rum runner, he went down many rabbit holes researching not only the history of the boat, but the history of all the rum running activities off the coast of Rhode Island, Narragansett Bay and beyond.

One of the things he discovered was that the boat they had refurbished was the actual boat that was in involved in one of the most horrific and deadly conflicts with the Coast Guard during prohibition.

In our talk John weaves the story of this deadly event - also known as the Black Duck Massacre - with the history, routes, logistics and characters involved in the various enterprises.

John also provides us with a wealth of information on the design and construction of the various boats that were used in the liquor smuggling operations in the mid to late 1920’s.

Near the end of the podcast we talk a little bit about a documentary film he is involved in producing. As he mentions in our talk, the production is on hold at the moment due to covid, but you can sign up to receive updates on their web site: black-duck.org - as well as connect with them on social media.

Original music composed by: Nela Ruiz

www.instagram.com/nelamusica/

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