Don't Never Tell Nobody Nothin' No How by Rick James

Author:Rick James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alcohol, trafficking, British Columbia, Pacific Coast, History, 20th century, Prohibition
ISBN: 9781550178425
Publisher: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Published: 2018-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

Captain Stuart Stone (left) , pictured here with First Officer Jim Donohue (right), was already a deep-sea mariner freighting out of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island’s west coast when he decided to expand his horizons by moving into rum running. After Federalship, Captain Stone went on to take command of her mother ship, Malahat, in 1929. Fred Sailes collection, courtesy of Valerie Allen.

After coming alongside Ballantyne Pier sometime in mid-February, Federalship loaded 12,500 cases of choice in-transitu whisky and imported wines shipped out from Glasgow (worth an estimated one million dollars). With Captain Stone in command, the mother ship cleared Vancouver harbour on February 22, 1927. According to her manifest, for all intents and purposes, ship and cargo were destined for Buenaventura, Colombia.

Once the Coast Guard ship Algonquin sighted the steamer wallowing in the heavy swells seventy-five miles off the mouth of the Columbia River, the little craft clung to its quarry day after day and followed the rum runner to a point three hundred miles off San Francisco. Several times the steamer doused its lights and attempted to escape under cover. In a March 7 article, the Daily Times continued with its story of the “Vivid Capture”: “It would speed up, then zig zag on its course, as though trying to throw off a war-time submarine, but to no avail. Algonquin kept right in its wash.” Lieutenant William S. Shannon, commander of the cutter, was finally able to run alongside the old steamer, where he demanded that Captain Stone explain to him exactly what they were up to. “Oh, just cruising around” was the reply. It only took a few minutes for the Panamanian flag to be run up on Federalship and the order rung down to the engine room to put on more speed.

The cutter Cahokia joined the Algonquin on the scene on February 28 after being dispatched from San Francisco with a direct order to either sink or seize the mother ship and bring her into port. (The commander of Cahokia just happened to be Chief Boatswain Sigvard B. Johnson who had managed to capture mother ship Coal Harbour three years earlier.) As the Daily Times reported, a defiant Captain Stone refused to heave to and shouted across the water, “I’ll not stop. I’m on the high seas and you have no right to stop me!”

By this time nightfall was setting in, so both Coast Guard vessels backed off to wait until morning. With the arrival of daylight on March 1, Cahokia once again ordered the steamer to heave to and when Captain Stone once again refused to comply, the cutter fired several blank shells from its one-pounder across Federalship’s bow and followed up with a live round while sister ship Algonquin raised the international signal flag ordering a vessel to stop instantly.

When Federalship kept on going, Algonquin, which had been steaming some distance astern and was armed with heavier guns, moved up and trained her six-pounders loaded with solid shot on the rum ship. Captain Stone stood his ground, shouting across the water through a megaphone, “I’ll not stop.

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