Slow Boat on Rum Row

Miles, Fraser

ISBN 10: 1550170694 / ISBN 13: 9781550170696

Published by Harbour Publishing Company, Limited, British Columbia, 1992

About this Item

270 pages. "Documents the men and the ships of a little-known period in west coast history. Pays funny and fascinating tribute to the unsung heroes of an inglorious history." - from dust jacket. Clean, bright and unmarked with lightest wear. Dust jacket in Archival-quality Brodart cover. Beautiful copy.; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORY CANADA GENERAL Slow Boat on Rum Row Smuggling Pacific Coast History Prohibition United States Alcohol Smugglers Biography Mission.

Seller Inventory # 15504435

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Slow Boat on Rum Row
• Publisher: Harbour Publishing Company, Limited, British Columbia
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1550170694
• ISBN 13: 9781550170696
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • British Columbia

About this title

Synopsis

Growing up in BC during the 1920s, young Fraser Miles never knew anything but poverty. There was no social stigma to being poor - most of his neighbours were not much better off - but in his late teens Miles began to look for a way to finance a career in the growing field of radio electronics.

Not long after he was hired as radio operator on the Ruth B, the young man noticed that the alleged fishpacker was packing anything but fish. These were the Prohibition years; there was less money in freezing herring than there was in smuggling liquor to the thirsty multitudes south of the border.

Slow Boat on Rum Row begins as a fascinating memoir of Fraser Miles' youth in the fledgling community of Mission on the Fraser River, a rugged milieu where beachcombing and cougar hunting were more important than high school in teaching a boy the hard facts of survival.

Miles' account of his years on the rumboats, always one step, ahead of the law, is an exciting story of survival at sea. It is also a valuable addition to an episode of coast history that is little documented. After all, "rum runners, as a group," Miles writes, "made the Sphinx sound like a chatterbox."

About the Author

Fraser Miles made enough money from, rum running to go to college and earn a degree in electronics. For many years he was the Assistant General Manager (Engineering) of the BC Hydro and Power Authority, working on projects such as the Peace River Dam. He is now retired and living in West Vancouver, where he pursues his current interest in boat building. Slow Boat on Rum Row is his first book.