In the 1920s and early 1930s, the government imposed strict laws against transporting and selling alcohol. This was known as Prohibition. To meet the demand for alcohol, a massive fleet of cargo ships, speedboats, and airplanes smuggled liquor into the US. The Coast Guard and Customs faced the daunting challenge of stopping this never-ending flow of booze without much popular support. Much like the bootleggers and gangsters on land, rum smugglers were well-armed and very violent. To make matters worse, pirates saw the rum ships as easy targets and thought nothing of hijacking the ships and...