Coast Guard Historian's bibliography on Prohibition and the "Rum War"

The Coast Guard Historian's Office bibliography of articles, books and theses on Prohibition and the "Rum War", including Malcolm F. Willoughby's "Rum War at Sea" (GPO, 1964) and Eric S. Ensign's 1998 thesis. A list of publications only.

Date: undated
Kind: agency-history
Source: U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
Retrieved: 2026-10-11
Rights: Federal agency web page, a work of the U.S. government (17 U.S.C. § 105). It lists publications and does not reproduce them.

The Coast Guard Historian’s Office page “Prohibition: The Rum War - Historical Bibliography” lists articles, books and theses on Prohibition and the “Rum War.” It lists, among others, Malcolm F. Willoughby’s “Rum War at Sea” (GPO, 1964) and Eric S. Ensign’s 1998 thesis “Intelligence in the Rum War at Sea, 1920-1933.” The page is undated.

It is a finding aid: it lists publications and does not reproduce them. The Historian’s Office hosts PDFs of “Rum War” and “Rum War at Sea,” and its gallery pages state “Documents provided are in the public domain,” but both PDFs returned an HTTP 403 error to the tools used here, so neither was read and neither is cited as a source.

itemCoast Guard Historian's article on catching rum-runners during Prohibition (19 November 2021)Article by Coast Guard Atlantic Area historian William H. Thiesen, "The Long Blue Line: Catching the rumrunners," on the Coast Guard's Prohibition mission, "Rum Row", the 1924 fleet expansion and the 320 cutters and destroyers at the end of Prohibition.