"Kirk and Sweeney was the name of a wooden schooner best known for smuggling rum from the Caribbean to the United States during Prohibition," says August Sebastiani, President of 35 Maple Street Distillery. Just before it entered the territorial waters of the United States, the schooner would drop anchor and sell the rum to smaller boats that would come up alongside. The smaller boats, which were faster and more maneuverable than the Coast Guard's fleet boats, would smuggle the rum ashore.
As other boats followed suit, the edge of U.S. jurisdiction — the line where boats like the Kirk and Sweeney dropped anchor — became known as the "Rum Line," and the row of ships waiting to sell rum on the Rum Line was said to be anchored on "Rum Row."
As other boats followed suit, the edge of U.S. jurisdiction — the line where boats like the Kirk and Sweeney dropped anchor — became known as the "Rum Line," and the row of ships waiting to sell rum on the Rum Line was said to be anchored on "Rum Row."
