Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-23
Rum Runners Ships
Bring Flood of Booze
Continued from Pnge One

Continued from Page One
ming time to Nassau is only six days
| under ordinary circumstances Of wind
and weather.
Though none of the vessels have been
caught in the act. there is no doubt
about the exiStrrcc of the "whisky''
fleet. or that the stuff is being landed
near Atlantic City.
4 The I. :. Coast Guards have not as
yet taken a hand in the game. because.
according 10 Captain Holtzkom. in
charge of the station at Vermont ave-
nue.. no orders have been given vet TO
60 after the whisky runners But reve-
nue. boats have been on the lookout. and
only the other night an amusing ipci-
dent showed the resourcefulness of the
men who work for the ring"
One On the Skipper
A Government patrol craft. lying off
Atlantic City. spotted" n bank boat
late last Saturday acting in manner
that reused the Government skipper's
suspicious. He made. up his mind that
this particular bank boat wouldn't run
load of case goods that night. The
/ Government men watched the bank boat
until darkness fell, keeping close
enough for instant action. When it
grew too dark to see the outlines Of the
hull any longer, the lookout kept his
eyes fixed intCntly on the bank boat s
light
The revenue skipper never let that
tossing light get out Of sight. All
night he waited for the slightest shift
ing to indicate that the bank boat was
going after its cargo of contrabnnd
Dawn began to break. and the dane
ing light was still there, 1t grew clear
enough for the shippers glass to pick
up the low Lying hull of the bank boat
Only there wasn't any bank boat. The
light he had watched all night was a
lantern lnshed to n buoy.
The bank boat had waited until it
grew too dark for the night glasses Of
the revenue men to reveal what the
smugglers were about and then with
their own light lowered. they tossed
out and anchored the buoy with its
bobbing lantern. Hours before. the
cargo of case goods had been taken
aboard and landed.
Rum On Close Schedules
1t is said that the ships of the
whisky fleet keep in constant touch
with ''headquarters" at Atlantic City
that their shippers run on close sched
ule, staying outside the three mile limit
until they get word that the coast Is
clear and the bank boats ready. Then
there is n swift run in with all lights
extinguished : hurried work in the dark
to transfer the Cnses of Scotch and
Irish TO the bank boats lashed fast to
the whisky ships and run to the natu :
raj water entrances to Atlantic City.
The bays and the long water thor
oughfare" behind the resort give ample
opportunity for landing the stuff at
out of the way points, where motor
trucks meet the bank boats
There is n long drawbridge froin
IongpOrt. at the end of Atlantic City,
across the bay to Somer's Point. Coast
guards are stationed on this bridge
every night. Night after night they
report to their skipper Mt the Long
port station that they have seen bank
boats, mysteriously abroad at an hour
when fisherman are getting ready to 60
out 10 their nets, returning from the
open sea.
Where Liquor Is Taken
Much of the smuggled whisky is
brought in back of Longport and carried
up through the waterways to points
back of Margate City. Many of the
smuggling boats are hauled up Duck
Creek. which is easily possible because
Of their shallow draft. Other boats are
known to proceed up the Mulica and
Bass Rivers.
Boats are being run into Great Bay
on the seaward side Of Two Mile Beach
and Brgantine Shoal At high water
boatlOads of whisky have been floated
through to TuckertOn or Port Republic.
Much whisky is being landed, it Is
said, at Wildwood Crest. Cargoes are
being taken off the decp-sea yachts of
Five Fathom Bank, off Sea Isle CITY,
as we'll. All up and down the coast
and all up and down the inland water
ways. the Thousand bays and channels
that lie behind the "sandpitS" on which
most Of the s"aShorc resorts of the
Southern Jersey Coast ar" built, the
whisky cargoes are coming ashore
There is nothing haphazard in the
choice Of landing places. The ring"
rarely gives orders 10 land Cargoes or
bOatloads in the same place two nights
in succession. There is an almost infinite
choice Of location, and therefore it is
next door TO impossible for the prOhibi-
ton agents to circumvent the Snug.
glPrS
Captain Ian HOltZkom, commander Of
the LongpOrt Coast Guard Station and
brother Of the commander of the station
in Atlantic City, says his men report
does not know that they contain liquor,
but II Is an easy guess. Captain Sutton,
OF the Ocean City Station, has had the
same reports of mysterious craft run.
ming in the direction Of Somers Point at