Frost Rumrunners

The story goes that Will Frost built boats on a "don't ask, don't tell" policy for rumrunners during Prohibition. Then, he also built boats for the authorities trying to catch the rumrunners. But, they say he made the boats for the authorities just the slightest bit slower...

Boatbuilder Harold Gower:

"I think Will Frost built about 650 boats. I worked for him four years and we must have built over 100... We built I think six rum luggers. One had two 500 hp Liberty airplane engines in her. Them destroyers couldn't catch her. They never caught her. She'd go about 35 mph. Boy, was she fast!"

Read this article: Rum Lugger Building Era Recalled
Lynn Franklin interview with Harold Gower in the Maine Sunday Telegram, May 14, 1972.

 

In Maine, Prohibition actually started far earlier than the 1920s. Maine approved a total ban on the manufacture and sale of liquor in 1851, under the fiery leadership of Portland's Neal Dow - known internationally as the "Father of Prohibition". This so-called "Maine Law" remained in effect, in one form or another, until the repeal of National Prohibition in 1934. (from the Maine state website)