Rum Running

Rays Grandfather told us stories of just about anything that came to mind. This recollection of Rum Running Times is from his own memories. How true or not I just am repeating things as he remembered them. It was in the late 1920s early 1930s quote at times boats would appear at any one of the east end shipyards with damage from not so friendly fire from the Coast Guard boats. Usually from machine gun fire sometimes a larger caliber would require more major work….. There was no shortage of work at that time. There were even some modified boats (speed boats} that were being built in Greenport and surrounding areas if you wanted to work there was no unemployment in Greenport. 

Some of these boats were not made to get away from the Coast Guard boats however.  Some speedboats were just made to be decoys; they would just hang out in a preset area when the Coast Guard got close enough. They even had dummy loads in the back of these boats. From a distance they seemed real enough to get the Guard interested they would follow these dummy boats meanwhile the real boot legers got away. By the time The Coast guard realized that the boat they were chasing was a dummy boat. It was a dangerous job but somebody had to do it.  In the beginning it was kind of fun and there was some easy money to be made.

Of course things like that never last and it gradually became more dangerous. As for the coast guard there job was becoming more dangerous as many Rumrunners boats were getting more powerful motors, better armed and could shoot back.  The Rum Runners had to find places to hide their boats in the daytime they sandwiched some of their boats between fishing boats moored at docks or some places like fuel terminals or other places having high docks. The runners would hide their boats under the docks during the day. The coast Guard did not have the man-power or enough boats to cover hundreds of hideouts that were readily available and most dock owners were not about to turn in bootleggers most were blind to what was going on, as it sure was no advantage in turning them in. Some of the bootleggers were friends or neighbors and most of the business owners were losing money as long as prohibition goes on.  On a somewhat humorous note some of the larger boats would use the Railroad dock as their base of operation on one side of the dock. The Coast Guard on the other hand parked (moored) their Coast Guard boats on the other side of the dock. Why who knows for sure maybe it would have been a to volatile situation in the middle of town, they must have had a truce at the railroad dock.  For some of the locals, there were those who liked to go up to the sound at night and watch the tracers from the Coast Guard boats.

There was a speedboat of some kind that was left in Bishops boat yard in the 1930s.  Who left it there had added a side to one of the work sheds so in affect it was well hidden why who knows.  It was boarded up on all sides no doors or windows.

When Ray and I began to spend a lot of time in his

Grandfather’s shipyard in the late 1940s we had asked about the mystery boat in the shipyard. Mr. Bishop was not to keen on that boat. He talked enough about Boot

Legging and Rum Running in general. But he didn’t budge an inch on talking about it.  A couple of years went by, Ray was spending more time painting and other minor repairs that his grandfather couldn’t handle.

One day Ray said “What the heck, lets see if we can make a big enough hole without damaging the building.” 

It was a pretty substantial room. All the outside boards were 10 to 12 ft long it were nailed with 4-inch nails.  Just to get one board off you would have to damage the board.  

Ray had been working on restoring a 1929 Packard in the room next to “the secret boat room”.  I had been helping with the Packard; we spent some time searching for parts on weekends when he was home from school. 

The boat being so close (within 6 feet) all this time. We somehow convinced our selves to see if we could make a hole in the wall just enough to get a glimpse inside.  It was more of a job than we had thought.  If we ruined a board it would be years before any one found out about it.  Ray had started removing the boards from the inside before I got there and they apparently had covered the wall with another wall. Without taking the entire wall down and that might not be a good idea, Ray got a drill and saw from the shop, I never had that much trouble tearing any thing down .The wall they covered over was standard wood but the wall they covered it with was the old real 2-inch wide stuff 10 to 12 ft long with 4” nails. It was dark enough in the room that we were in. So obviously we needed a flashlight. Of course the time it took to find a light all the old spirits were leaking out of the hole in the wall. That boat had been in the dark for probably 50 years and for what reason we still could not guess. When Ray tried to shine the flashlight beam into the room the light seemed to shine back to us as total darkness.  It seemed the blackness in the room sucked the light from the flashlight or even worse the past was not going to allow the boat to show itself in the present. I never experienced a blackness so complete, When our eyes got used to the dark and Ray thought to open the overhead door where he had been working on his 1929 Packard, We got a little more reflected light through the whole in the wall. With out making the hole any bigger Ray could only see part of one side.  It did have a mahogany deck and it was of lapstake design.  It just seemed to long for the width of the boat by our measurements.  It was 21 ft long and possibly 5 ft wide.  The boat was put facing the main road so we got only a view of the port side from the stern to about where the windshield was (at one time) the glass and the frame was missing.  The Chrome centerpiece was still there. We could not see any further damage without taking more of the wall down.  Ray had been working summers and weekends at a Chris raft dealers so he was somewhat familiar with boats and he thought it might be a modified boat or one designed in the late 20s as it looked kind of narrow for the length. Rays father died in the early 1960s Ray was in college and not much was mentioned about the boat.  We were not sure when the boat disappeared from the boat yard it was gone before my friend had much to do with it. When Rays Grandfather died there was no great interest in the shipyard and every thing became a little haphazard.  It was no longer a viable shipyard after 1960.

Just as point of interest when Grandpa Bishop was still operating the yard although 90% of the yard was defunct. We had free run of the place and Ray, my Sister Nancy, Maloney and I pretty well explored all there was, including the building that had the major shop on the ground floor. The next building attached to that one had a boat building area and above that area about 30 ft by 40 ft was some kind of strange storage area with about 10,000 corks there were barrels of different sizes and maybe several hundred empty bottles.  When we wandered around up there we had no idea what they did with all the corks and bottles there were other strange things up there as well.  Several ships bells were something I would recognize.  All those corks might have something with repackaging alcoholic beverages I doubt you would ever buy corks by the barrel.  There were undoubtedly many people who had jobs who didn’t do any rum running.  Another little ditty was the people of Orient were catching colds and enjoying it more.   Legend has it those special smugglers had a special east run to the Orient Ice Yacht Club.    So for a few years the Eastend had off shore a floating kingdom 12 miles from the coast from the harbors of Greenport and Montauk to the bays and other hideaways.  It has been said there were still several rumrunner boats plying the waters of Long Island. They survived somehow until 1970 at least I knew of one still there after that date about 1985 it sure looked the part. It was a 65 ft fishing boat with armor plates on bow and sides, it may be still there I don’t know as for the name I can’t say but I have seen this sort of ghost ship back in the days of hunting on L. I.  In the 1950s and the name was the same. I am not positive if it’s the same boat I never researched it further.

 

E.L.I Rum Runners    Bill Reeves 2/15/09

Out houses not in houses

Beyond the outhouses what could there be even kings

Were not beyond such things. Even the cats were working towards that goal. They have already learned to dig a hole and bury it, but now the litter box came along and all the ideas about improving their own outhouses went out the window. After all they have been digging holes to bury their poop for a few hundred thousand years and we just got the idea a few hundred years ago to find a way to hide ours.

Most animals do not bury their poop they just let it go were they may.  Can you imagine a herd of 150,000 Zebras or even 10,000 camels trying to dig holes they sure have not come very far. Maybe all these stampedes you see on television is because the only safe way for these big herds is to go is to have them all go at the same time and then get the h--- out of that spot in a hurry (that’s why the stampede)

Moving to manor Place in Greenport in 1936 gave us no respite from outhouses. Of course, we had the 2 and a half whole in the backyard at Manor place. The house we moved from had the remnants of an outhouse still there, so we were familiar with what they looked like.  I guess we had to move to Manor place to find out how they worked, it seemed as soon as they got indoor plumbing we had to move. I guess we were the outcasts at the very least outhouses. The outhouse on Manor Place was usable at least for a couple more years. It would only blow over in a bad storm maybe once or twice a year.  There were 3 or 4 boards in the back missing it was right against Zipka’s fence.  I don’t know who would ok such a spot. The Zipka's yard was real narrow it was sure no more than 40 ft from our outhouse. If they wanted to sit out in the yard their major view was our backhouse or the rear view of our quaint fallen down shed. When they had a family get together and Polish people always do, they would bring chairs maybe 10 or more and sit around and have a backhouse barbeque. I never liked the beer barrel polka but it may have competion from the backhouse polka. I’m pretty sure during the day anyway you couldn’t see inside it was dark but at night you may be able to if you had a flashlight. Mom or somebody had pieces of sears catalogue stuffed in the knotholes that would spring a new one every so often. It was a good thing the outhouse would blow over as that was a chance to dig a hole next to the outhouse and flip it over, we had to have help for that and it took at least 3 adults and maybe a 8 year old kid to flip it. We used the new dirt we dug out for the outhouse to cover up the old stuff….It was a chore but we got used to it.  I think the lilac bushes helped. There were 6 outhouses on the block 3 were still in use in the early 1940s by 1945 only one was active all but one had Lilac bushes. My friend Rays grand parents had a large backhouse arbor. the best grapes you ever ate. My sister Nancy could never pass them by. I’m sure there were a few seasons we went over more than once, we sure would be sad to miss a season. The grapes were so big about the size of a quarter you could not handle more than one bunch. 

Ray’s Grandmother was a wizard before her time even though she was stone deaf she could read lips better than most people can talk. She never failed to amaze us, and we were often impressed by her amazing abilities.  Ray and I for a long time wondered a why his Grandma kept all these mayonnaise (metal) lids filledwith water. She always filled them every day they\They were  they were in every room , down stairs any way. There were also some in the area around the outhouse……  What were these used for? ……Guess. Ray’s Grandmother put them in these strategic places for the blowflies and green flies to wash there feet off before walking across your piece of pie.  If you are a fly watcher you will see them do this, I thought it was pretty sanitary of them to clean their little hands and antennas. I have seen these little dishes in several places, there never seemed to be plants in them.  Just goes to show ya live and learn. 

There were plenty outhouses still popular in the 1940’s I remember a famous outhouse in back of the Townsend Manor. We took a short cut instead of going up to the Episcopal Church and down 3 blocks to our house; there was a well-worn path from Townsend’s to the beginning of the creek. The outhouse right on the water it was a convenient stopping place. The only problem it was in the next gang’s area. You had to check for signs of life before walking past it if you noticed anything suspicious you had to go back. The gang only caught me once they made a big deal of how they were going to beat the h—out of me then throw me in the crick I was shaking in my shoes.  I had no idea how I was going to get through this one.  The only way I could think of winning a fight was one of the few fights I had with a foe that I knew I could easily defeat. He out weighed me by 40 lbs but he was in bad shape for a 15 year old kid. I said do you give up or what I have other things to do. Do you give up no…then he blew his nose all over my shirt and jacket.  (He won.) This time might be not that easy 4 against 1, but I thought why not give it a try. When the first boy grabbed my shirt I said wait a minute I feel like I have to vomit I have been sick all day and I am sorry I hate when I puke get it all over every body. Suddenly a couple of the guys looked a little green if you are ready to see this and they all backed off oh let the little sissy go we will get another chance go get out of hear.  So I got out of that one scott free.  Its funny how things work out.  The guy that blew his nose over me became a good friend we even went camping with him and he gave me his best bicycles. His name was Jack J-----.  

The demise of the outhouse gang came in an unexpected way. There was a relative of some one in the Townsend’s family. We always had the impression he was retarded in some way. A girl in my 7^th grade class mentioned him to me as a nature lover and she had a feeling he would like me. She mentioned that they just had about 50 new chickens and they were blue, red, green and yellow. I couldn’t believe that. I think the girl’s name was Margaret (Margo) anyway; we went down after school and I met him I made a big fuss over all the baby chicks and I hit it off right away with Tom. They even took me up to the house it was a couple houses from the Towns and Manor. This family even had a maid and I think a cook. They were impressed with my interests and that I got along so well with this boy…I could see he might seem that way because he was 15 and in 7^th grade but he was already 6 foot tall probably 200 lbs (I was 15 and 5ft 6 125 lbs so his size and being somewhat clumsy made him seem a little backwards but he was surly not that. I explained about the gang. He defiantly didn’t like that. Especially when it wasn’t even there property. We will change that pretty quick. Well there are 5 in there gang I can’t see what we can do I said. We let it go for a while until he came up with a plan. He showed me his plan to get rid of all of them at once.  The outhouse sat right were the land dropped off about 2 and a half feet high in the back. Tom showed me his plan without the back supports holding the out house in the back it had not long before it ended up in the creek any way. He was just going to help it along a bit by tying a rope to the last board holding it up. He was going to hide in the thick bushes about 50 ft from the outhouse. If we were lucky they would all be in the outhouse hiding. Two girls friends of Toms would pass close enough so the guys would hear them from inside the outhouse to be the bait but the gang would likely leave the girls alone and would wait for 1 or 2 kids to pass by but it was pretty slim pickins lately for most of the kids now were avoiding it altogether.  Tom was firmly ensconced in the thick brush around the outhouse along with 50 ft of rope he had removed 3 boards holding the back of the outhouse down when he pulled hard on the rope the board broke pretty easy but the results were a surprise.  Actually all 4 guys were right behind the door all the Weight was in front and in that case what happened?  The outhouse fell over forwards with the door facing down. They were trapped like rats there was no way out.  The only way out was through the s--- holes and Evan wouldn’t fit. All this time I was hiding behind the curved parking lot behind the Townsend Manor, it was about 10 ft higher than the outhouse area, there were several rowboats and a sailboat moored out there at the time.  It was hard to hear their muffled yells for at least 3 hours. The town constable went over to cut them out. One of the kid’s fathers who saw nothing wrong with what they were doing, was asked what four of them were doing in the outhouse at the same time. They couldn’t answer that question.  We never did see them again in the area, if they showed up again the owner said they would be thrown in jail and call them the s---house gang.

 After those little ditties the only real good outhouses were the ones the Scouts used in Moors Woods that were decorated by unrealistic artists.  The real fantastic artists were on the underside of the Rail Road Bridge going over the tracks in Cutchogue over Rte 25.  There were quite a few artists under that bridge, also a secret meeting place for as far back as the stone bridge existed.  They just don’t make them like they used too.

 Bill Reeves  5/2009