Talk:Rum row

Source
When it was started on 11-10-05, the source of this Wikipedia entry was “National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.” The material in bold is from that source.David Justin 23:55, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

A rum row refers to any line of ships that anchored beyond the three mile limit near large U.S. cities on the east coast to off-load their cargoes of alcoholic beverages onto speed boats during national prohibition (1920-1933). This lucrative but dangerous business was often punctuated by murder, hijackings and other violent crimes.

The cities were often in Florida at first and the product was rum from the Caribbean. However, as the importation of whiskey from Canada  increased, rum rows were commonly found off the coast of the northeast part of the U.S.

Can anyone explain the origin of the word "rum" as in a rum affair? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.40.186.120 (talk) 15:20, 19 October 2008 (UTC)