Beaufort, Jan. 14—Fishing for repatriated rye whiskey on the Cape Lookout shoals is the latest and most lucrative sport along the Carolina coasts. And thereby hangs a tale. A few days ago a schooner was noticed in distress of the Cape. Evidently she had grounded. Eventually a tug noticed the plight of the unfortunate vessel and bored on upon her, with smoke pouring from the funnel, thinking the salvage the imperiled craft.
But the schooner was a high-seas bootlegger. The skipper saw the tug coming straight for him and he jumped to the guilty conclusion that it was a revenue cutter bound on taking him captive. So up came all hands and overboard went a cargo of $50,000 worth of the choicest rye, which had been shipped out of the country when prohibition was imminent and was on its way back for home consumption. The bootleg kipper realized his mistake when the tug finally got within hailing distance, but the liquor was gone. There ensued a wild dredging and dragging debauch. The news of the overboard liquor spread along the coast and fishing smacks came from everywhere to join in the drag hunt One fisherman hauled up five cases in one net.
The price of recovered liquor, when it reached dry land, was $5 a quart.
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Officers of Liquor Ship Held to Court
Wilmington, Jan. 14—A. Coleman, owner, and Benjamin Thompson, master, o the British schooner Messenger of Peace, liquor laden ship held here, were bound over to the May term of the Federal court by United States Commissioner Moffatt, today on charges of violating the national prohibition law and conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States through the importation of liquor. C. Graham, purser of the ship, was bound over on the conspiracy charge. Coleman’s bond was placed at $3,000, and that of Thompson and Graham at $1,000.
From the front page of The Charlotte News, Sunday, January 15, 1922
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