When Papeete Was Clearing Station for Rum Row
p. 83 · Read in the full issue
Cargo-shed bank-up? Yes and no. This old, resurrected photograph dates from 1934 when some Tahiti folk were lamenting the end of Prohibition in America. They previously had been making a good income out of acting as bootleggers' despatching and receiving agents.
In March PIM, 1934, this appeared; "The three masted vessel 'Marechal Foch' now owned by the heirs of the late Pere Rougier . . .
has just returned to Papeete after delivering the last load of whisky to the bootleggers' mother-ship off the Mexican coast".
The photograph shows a Papeete warehouse of that time where clerks are checking out this last consignment of bootleg whisky. The lettering on the cartons says, "Walker's De luxe Bourbon".