Seattle Prohibition by Brad Holden

Author:Brad Holden [Holden, Brad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

The Arcata. Courtesy of Coast Guard Museum Northwest.

Pete Marinoff standing on his boat, Alice, which had just been captured by the Coast Guard in 1925. This is the only known photograph of Marinoff. Courtesy of Coast Guard Museum Northwest.

The “Dry Navy,” as it was called, was becoming more and more aggressive in its pursuit of the area’s rumrunners. By early 1925, the Coast Guard had established several bases throughout Puget Sound, effectively blockading the main channel used by rumrunners. As a result, many smugglers began using Deception Pass, a narrower and more hazardous strait. Commanding this fleet of Coast Guard ships was Captain Lorenz Lonsdale. Standing only five feet tall and possessing a fiery and tenacious disposition, Lonsdale was a strict teetotaler with no patience at all for anyone caught smuggling booze. He was captain of the famous Coast Guard ship, The Arcata. He may have been small in stature but was very large in reputation. More commonly known as “Granddad” by rumrunners and fellow guardsmen alike, Lonsdale was never hesitant when it came to firing his cannons at offending ships. Granddad would often catch boats after they had already dumped their cargo and, knowing there was nothing he could do about it, would line the rumrunners up and then strut up and down the line of men, like an enraged rooster, giving them a loud and stern lecture on the errors of their ways. One time, Granddad spotted Pete Marinoff out on his boat, Alice. Aware of Marinoff ’s reputation, Granddad chased him down and boarded his ship to look for illegal contraband. Unable to find anything and feeling frustrated, Granddad informed Marinoff that he was towing Alice in for equipment violations, such as no working fire extinguishers. When they finally reached port, it was discovered that Marinoff attached several sacks of booze to lines of rope underneath Alice and had been secretly towing them in the water. Once again, the Tacoma bootlegger found himself in handcuffs.

Olmstead’s operation was also in the crosshairs of the Coast Guard. A local reporter asked one of the Coast Guard captains what he thought about a new boat that Olmstead had purchased. He sternly replied, “Olmstead can use that craft for a fish boat, a pleasure boat, a tugboat or a ferryboat, but he will not use it to run liquor into this country. My orders will be ‘Give the Olmstead boat one order to stop. If it isn’t obeyed, fill her full of lead.’ If the craft gets by the line of my boats, she’ll be so full of holes she’ll sink like a window screen.” On land and sea, the war between bootleggers and the authorities was now in full swing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.