Rum Runners

From Gazette editions of June, 1935:

With eyes directed toward the Vineyard this week, the twelve-year-old mystery of the sinking of the rum runner John Dwight began to unfold. It is definitely established that the wreck lies undisturbed and, presumably, that her cargo of liquor, her store of wealth and the bones of the victims of violence are still in the decaying hull. With the fitting out of an expedition by David Curney, Vineyard Haven diver, and Eugene Nohl of Milwaukee to investigate the mysterious tragedy, newspapers have renewed their interest in the grim occurrence in which seven or eight men, perhaps more, are known to have met violent death. With quantities of gear loaded aboard Nohl’s sloop, Silver Heels, the crew completed its investigation of the Port Hunter and turned its attention to the Dwight. The wreck was located by Capt. Ellis Luce of Vineyard Haven, and Curney made three descents in 100 feet of water to the deck of the ill-fated steamer.

The John Dwight was a steamer of the type employed in the menhaden fisheries, capable of carrying much cargo. Her working skipper was Capt. John King of Brooklyn. The number of men she carried is now said to have been fifteen.

Soon after leaving Newport she anchored in Buzzards Bay, close under the shore of Nashawena, in plain sight from Cuttyhunk. Fishing boats passing her reported that only a man or two were ever seen on deck and that no hails were answered. About the first of April John Craven of Rutherford, N.J., boarded the Dwight, carrying a sum reported to be about $90,0000 or $100,000, and that night the Dwight sailed for sea.

On the following morning, which was calm with a dense fog covering the water, the steam freighter Dorchester passed the Dwight in Vineyard Sound. Five men in a lifeboat were seen pulling away from the Dwight, two at the oars and three beneath the thwarts. No call for assistance was given, and the Dorchester passed on her way. A short time later Capt. Roland Snow, veteran officer of the Cuttyhunk Coast Guard station, observed the Dwight through a hole in the fog. As he watched the steamer, a dense cloud of smoke arose from her deck forward of the pilot house and the steamer dipped her bow and sank. Lifeboats from Cuttyhunk and Gay Head stations put out for the spot at once, but nothing but bottles and small objects were found.

Within a couple of days, however, nine bodies had been picked up by fishermen. Four were believed to have been drowned. Of the others two had been killed by blows on the head. All of the bodies were bruised, cut and lacerated, and the body of Craven, which was among them, was so disfigured as to make identification difficult. It was later discovered that his real name was Cronan. Lifebelts with the name of the Dwight connected the bodies with the sinking.

Two days after the sinking, Curney, employed by a local salvage company, descended to the wreck and reported that her deck was loaded full of barrels of Frontenac ale in bottles, the barrels being labeled flour. Her hold and her living quarters, he reported, were filled with cases of whiskey. Coast Guard patrol boats ordered the salvagers away from the wreck, and depth bombs were dropped which were supposed to have destroyed ship and cargo. Many barrels of the ale were picked up, however, and enjoyed by Island residents.

The story current at the time was that murder and barratry had been committed for the great sum of money aboard, and this was borne out by the sighting by the Dorchester of the lifeboat with the unidentified men rowing away from the vessel. Fishermen hunting for clues found the lifeboat, hauled up on Naushon Island and hidden in bushes. Tracks showed that at least one man, probably more, had landed and hauled up the boat, and it was assumed that they were the ones who made away with the money and that they had been able to leave Naushon for the mainland by other means. A bag, lined with chamois, was picked up by Capt. Herbert Flanders of Menemsha, and it was said that the money was carried by Craven in a bag of this type.

How the steamer was destroyed, how the men met their deaths are matters that have never been explained. Local fishermen maintain that the Dwight was a hijacker and that she hijacked two schooners lying on Rum Row, lashing their crews to the bulwarks and looting the vessels of liquor and money. The tale continues with a large speedboat, which supplied provisions to the schooners, coming upon the scene and giving chase to the Dwight. It is said the speedboat carried a heavy gun and upon overhauling the Dwight, she sank the larger craft, killing some of her crew in the process. Later a mysterious and expensively dressed woman appeared at Menemsha Creek, asking many questions about the Dwight, revealing nothing about herself nor her reason for asking the questions. Her attitude was such that the fishermen she accosted were disinclined to answer her questions.

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

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