Description
SHIPWRECK, Rum, symbolizes a bit of Baldwin County history from ORANGE BEACH, AL,
The story is a MYSTERY from the RUM RUNNING DAYS OF THE PROHIBITION ERA. SHIPWRECK image uses a coastal sailing schooner that traded forestry products, e.g, turpentine spirits distilled in the coastal woodlands of Baldwin County for export to many Gulf of Mexico ports. A turpentine still existed at the Perdido, AL railroad crossing for many years processing the pine sap, collected from nearby pine forests surrounding Perdido, into turpentine spirits.
There was a local Skipper and his cherished schooner that was well known in the Gulf of Mexico seaports. History and local folklore has chronicled the shipwreck of this schooner during a storm off the coast of Orange Beach, AL. Look closely at the picture of the ELLEN C. above and note the oak barrels stacked on the ship’s deck. The oak barrels used to transport turpentine spirits look like the same oak barrels used to transport rum. Turpentine spirits, aka, naval stores as a trading commodity, was commonplace cargo on trading ships. An inquiring mind would ask about the form of payment for such a commodity of international trade, especially, between the Gulf seaports where another trade commodity, rum in oak barrels, was also shipped to various markets. The United States during Prohibition Era was a thirsty market with the domestic industry totally suppressed by federal and local law enforcement. The daily news of tariff negotiations and other forms of disruption to normal trade create other problems of imbalance to supply and demand, hence, the profits of illicit trade. Nothing changes in the world of international trading like changes in import/ export laws and regulations.
So, what is the mystery? Oak barrels used to transport two different commodities could pass customs import/export inspections, but getting caught with rum in the Prohibition Era could mean confiscation of property, long prison sentences, and fines, Prohibition laws were very severe. The last victim of public hanging in the United States was a local rum-runner, James H. Alderman, convicted of killing two Coast Guardsmen, at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
One dark and stormy night off Orange Beach, AL, in 1926. The ELLEN C. was running before the wind in the roiling waves and high wind, toward the narrow channel to the inlet at Perdido Pass. In the flying sea foam and spray, a light signal was spotted on the dark shoreline. Was this the secret signal that federal revenue agents were lying in wait for ELLEN C. to enter the Sound? Crew members leaped overboard, and the helm was thrown up to “Wear Ship”, thus reversing course in the emergency maneuver of “Man Overboard” for sailing vessels. As the stern came through the raging wind and heaved up, the bindings on the deck cargo of barrels gave way and the cargo shifted! The ELLEN C. rolled broadside to the high surf, its headsails collapsing against the rigging and ripping to tatters in the howling wind. Crashing waves broke over the deck, and the gunwales were awash flooding the ship’s hole! Without a steady hand on the helm to right the ship, ELLEN C. capsized and began to sink and breakup in the surf. The crew survived.
An old Salt, sipping rum- laced coffee, might gaze seaward and reason …. in the case of a good skipper and a seaworthy vessel in a Gulf Squall….. was the shipwreck really a scuttled cargo? The Gulf of Mexico is littered with shipwrecks and the truth sinks with the ship.
JAMES CLIFFORD (Jim) EDDINS, USNA 1957, Skipper of FREEDOM, an 89 ft Schooner. Kinfolks to Lois Gayle (Steadham) Walker.
JAMES CLIFFORD (Jim) CALLAWAY, 1926, Skipper of ELLEN C.
November 20, 2019
