With its many inlets, points, and coves, the coast of New Jersey stood out as a haven for rumrunners brazenly thumbing their nose at the federal government during Prohibition. New Jersey was also recognized as the birthplace of the federal government's shore-based units of the United States Coast Guard, the organization charged at that time with stopping the flow of "demon run" into America. With its vivid images, New Jersey Coast Guard Stations and Rumrunners revives the days when New Jersey's "coasties" stood toe-to-toe with the rumrunners of the 1920s and 1930s.
Commissioned as Navy Section Base 9 in 1917, the US Coast Guard Training Center at Cape May stands on the site of a former amusement park that bordered the Atlantic Ocean a few miles east of Cape May in southern New Jersey. Dirigibles, submarines, and minesweepers were based here during World War I. Because of its proximity to the ocean and Delaware Bay, the base was used by Coast Guard patrol boats and cutters to chase rumrunners during Prohibition in the 1920s. An airfield was established adjacent to the base in 1926, and in 1940, both combined to become Naval Air Station Cape May. The station protected the coast line from German U-boats during World War II. The Coast Guard took over the facility in 1946, and in 1948, the base became the only recruit training center in the country, today graduating more than 4,000 recruits per year.
During World War I and World War II, Rhode Island was dotted with coastal forts filled with large caliber guns. Yet they were never fired in anger. By contrast, from 1929 to 1933, during Prohibition, U.S. Coast Guard vessels frequently fired machine guns at rumrunners in Narragansett Bay. Machine gun fire killed three rumrunners and wounded another on the notorious Black Duck. Despite the incident drawing national protests, the carnage continued. The Coast Guard fired machine guns at dozens more rumrunners in Rhode Island waters, killing another man, severely wounding two others, and causing several boats to explode or sink. Join author and historian Christian McBurney as he explores the use of excessive force in Narragansett Bay and other Rhode Island waters.
It was the 1920s, and flapper-age fervor was in high gear in Gloucester, Massachusetts, fueled by illegal booze flowing into every cove and beach from rum row vessels off-shore. With local law enforcement outmatched, the Coast Guard set up a cutter station to combat the rum runners. In charge was young Lieutenant Commander C.C. Von Paulsen. This experienced ship¿s officer did his best with the pursuit boats under his command, but was frustrated that so many fast rum boats still got by. He knew a better way. Not only a seasoned mariner, Von Paulsen was an aviator ¿ one of the first Coast Guard pilots. With encouragement from higher ups but no funding, he scrambled together a makeshift seaplane base in Gloucester harbor, sharing a tiny island with a lighthouse, the lighthouse keeper¿s family, and a government fish hatchery. He borrowed a bi-wing seaplane from the Navy and, along with a fellow pilot up from the ranks, flew a relentless schedule of patrols that year, scanning thousands of miles of coastal waters to spot rum ships and radio his patrol boats to take up the chase. The results convinced hardened sea officers and Washington politicians alike that there was a role for the Coast Guard in the air. Von Paulsen was granted funding and more planes to expand his shoestring operation on Ten Pound Island into the Coast Guard¿s first permanent air station. Bootleg whiskey still found its way into Gloucester, a port town not enthusiastic about Prohibition. But the sea lanes were now largely cleared of mob-financed hooch delivery ships.
