I have a new book out! It is Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War Against Rumrunners (History Press, 2023).
Here are three upcoming appearances I will be making (later ones are mentioned below):
July 19, Wednesday, 6:30 pm (Book Launch). Kingston Free Library, 2605 Kingstown Road, Kingston, RI. Also sponsored by the South County History Center. Britta Obertello, MLIS Reference & Program Librarian, South Kingstown Public Library.
July 22, Saturday, 12 noon to 2 pm. Wakefield Books, Wakefield Mall, Wakefield, RI. A book signing only.
August 1, Tuesday, 6 pm. Rhode Island Historical Society, Aldrich House, 110 Benevolent Street, Providence. Sarah Jane Carr, Director of Advancement & Public Engagement, scarr@rihs.org.
Here is a summary of the book:
During World War I and World War II, army and navy fortifications and artillery pieces surrounded Narragansett Bay, but no shots were ever fired in anger. By contrast, from 1929 to 1933 during Prohibition, Coast Guard vessels in Narragansett Bay and other Rhode Island waters fired thousands of machine gun and one-pound cannon rounds. . . at fellow-Americans.
The intended targets were crew members on rumrunners who, using speedy powerboats, had picked up illegal liquor from supply ships stationed at “Rum Row”—an area beyond the twelve-mile zone off the coast of southern New England and Long Island. The rumrunners, operating at night or in foggy conditions, on their return voyages would cruise up Narragansett Bay to assigned drop off points to unload their liquor. Because buying and selling alcohol was illegal under Prohibition laws then in force, the profits from a successful voyage could be enormous.
The Coast Guard became the lead federal government agency fighting the “Rum War” at sea. Coast Guard patrol boats insisted on inspecting vessels suspected of carrying illicit liquor, and if they did not stop after being signaled, they were targeted with live ammunition from large caliber weapons—machine guns or one-pounder cannon.
Sometimes the extraordinary one-sided “battles” were witnessed by Rhode Islanders from the shore. For example, in October 1930, a veteran of World War I, from his house at Watch Hill, told a Providence Journal reporter about the Coast Guard’s attack on the rumrunner Helen off nearby Napatree Beach: “I could see the flash of the one-pounder and I think they [the Coast Guard patrol boats] must have fired it 50 times. Searchlights were flashing along the beach and the reports of the one-pounder and the rat-tat-tat of machine-guns sounded like a battle. . . . I told my wife and daughter to get away from the window.”
The Coast Guard was in a difficult position. It had the duty of enforcing federal laws at sea within the waters of the U.S. and it did not want lawbreakers to escape simply because they used speedboats. If the Coast Guard had been dealing primarily with speedboats that were illegally importing harmful drugs such as heroin or opium, then having their patrol boats fire machine guns at the fleeing speedboats would not have been particularly controversial. But that was not what was happening during the Prohibition years from 1920 to 1933. Drinking alcohol recreationally remained wildly popular among wide swaths of the population in the United States, particularly in northeastern states, especially Rhode Island. Even many public officials—governors, mayors, attorneys general—drank bootleg liquor.
Moreover, the crews on the rumrunners typically were not hardened criminals. Many of them were former struggling fishermen or ordinary young laborers, first- and second-generation immigrants and otherwise good people, who during the desperate years of the Great Depression saw rumrunning as a chance for making a quick buck. Thus, having Coast Guard vessels fire their machine guns at rumrunners became a controversial practice.
My book examines the incidents in which Coast Guard vessels fired large caliber weapons—Lewis machine guns and Hotchkiss one-pounder cannon—at and into fleeing rumrunners in Narragansett Bay and in or near other Rhode Island waters from 1929 to 1933. The source material is primarily the Coast Guard’s own records and contemporary newspaper articles.
In the incidents covered in the following pages, three crew members on rumrunners were killed by machine-gun fire; one drowned after his boat was machine gunned, caught fire and exploded; another fell off his boat and drowned in mysterious circumstances after his boat was chased and fired at; two others suffered serious, life-threatening bullet wounds; and eight more received minor or moderate bullet wounds.
I have come up a total of 29 shooting incidents in which the Coast Guard fired large caliber guns at rumrunners, striking the craft, in or near Rhode Island waters. In several incidents, hundreds of machine gun bullets were fired. It is a wonder that more men were not killed and wounded.
How to Purchase:
These independent outlets currently have Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay in stock or have recently ordered it (more are expected soon):
Southern Rhode Island:
Wakefield Books, Wakefield Mall (many copies in stock)
Picture This, Wakefield (copies in stock)
Island Bound Bookstore, Block Island, Water Street
Newport and Aquidneck Island:
Charter Books, Newport, 8 Broadway (just north of the Old State House)
Commonwealth Books, Newport, 29 Touro Street
Island Books, Middletown, Wyatt Square, 575 E. Main Road
Newport Historical Society Gift Shop, Newport, 127 Thames Street (Brick Market building)
Northern Rhode Island:
Brown University Bookstore, Thayer Street, Providence
To purchase the book online at amazon.com, click here
My upcoming speaking and book signing engagements:
July 19, Wednesday, 6:30 pm (Book Launch). Kingston Free Library, 2605 Kingstown Road, Kingston, RI. Also sponsored by the South County History Center. Britta Obertello, MLIS Reference & Program Librarian, South Kingstown Public Library, 401-783-8254.
July 22, Saturday, 12 noon to 2 pm. Wakefield Books, Wakefield Mall, Wakefield, RI. A book signing only.
August 1, Tuesday, 6 pm. Rhode Island Historical Society, Aldrich House, 110 Benevolent Street, Providence. Sarah Jane Carr, Director of Advancement & Public Engagement, scarr@rihs.org.
August 8, Tuesday, 6 pm. Clark Center (next to Windmill Building on Clarke Road, Narragansett). Narragansett Historical Society
August 17, Thursday, 7 to 9 pm. Rarities Books & Bindery, 396 Main Street, Wakefield, RI. Book signing only.
August 23, Wednesday, 6:30 pm. South County Museum, 115 Strathmore Street, Narragansett, RI.
August 29, Tuesday, 6 pm. Charter Books, 8 Broadway, Newport, RI (just north of the old State House). A lecture and book signing.
The Author
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