Kirk & Sweeney Rum
Kirk & Sweeney RumKirk & Sweeney was a wooden schooner, best known for smuggling rum from the Caribbean to the Northeast during the early years of Prohibition. In 1924, it was seized off the coast of New York with a massive amount of rum aboard.
The schooner was subsequently renamed “Chase” and pressed into duty as a Coast Guard trainer, serving until the late 1940’s when it was retired and salvaged.
Where’s that sweetness come from?
Being a traditional Caribbean rum, Kirk and Sweeney is made with sugar cane, which along with some other trade secrets, yields a distinct and subtle sweet, vanilla oak taste.
The rum line
At the beginning of Prohibition, boats could legally stow rum as long as they were three nautical miles off the U.S. coast. In popular smuggling destinations, one could typical see several boats anchored on what became known as the “Rum Line."