RUM RUNNING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 July 1924, Page 5

RUM RUNNING

_ — —•— PIRATICAL METHODS. FRENCH STEAMER BOARDED. OLD DAYS RECALLED. BY OABLB—PR3BB ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT NEW YORK, July 15. The prohibition officials investigating the terrorisation of liquor-laden ships by piratical rumrunners have issued a report disclosing buccaneering bands as daring and picturesque as the oldtime seq-rovers. The report states that 40 pirates recently boarded a French steamer and escaped with 15,000 cases of liquor. The crew, at the point of the pistol, were bound, and confined below, but the pirates left 1200 cases on board, preventing the crew of the vessel reentering port to tell their troubles. Thus the 'pirates used the ship’s infraction law to gain time for themselves. v Two days afterwards the pirates similarly looted another ship anchored in the so-called “Rum Bow,” escaping with 9000 cases. The Government meantime, by means of an extensive patrolling system, captured the pirate ship, which is admittedly the finest and fastest in these waters. She is elaborately equipped with handcuffs, rifles, pistols, knives and clubs, and is driven hy a triple aeroplane motor, which assures a speed of 40 miles an hour. The officials point out that the pirate crews are simply middlemen, who seize the liquor' cargoes and transfer them into the customer ships. The pirates?, however, were clearly not concerned with smuggling liquor into the United States.