While the Canadian prohibition on cannabis officially ended on Oct. 17, a B.C.-based author wants people to remember marijuana wasn't the only substance once prohibited by the government.

Liquor prohibition varied from province to province, but in B.C., alcohol was banned from 1917 to 1921. In the United States, alcohol was prohibited from 1920 until 1933.

While the U.S. prohibition may have been a hardship for drinkers there, the ban was a big business opportunity for some Canadians, who smuggled spirits along the West Coast in speed boats to the other side of the side of the border.

The story of these criminal bootleggers turned rich businessmen is catalogued in the new book Tell Nobody Nothin' No How: The Real Story of West Coast Rum Running.

"If you had anything that floated, that was tied up on the coast here, it was a great opportunity," said Rick James, maritime historian and the book's author.

James said his extensive research into rum running revealed a vast smuggling network centred around Vancouver and Victoria.

"Since Vancouver and Victoria took the place of material supply ... perhaps a million cases of whiskey have passed from the Vancouver rum fleet to Western American consumers." said James, reading from a news article written in the early 20th century.

Government-bonded warehouses

Throughout the 12 years that liquor was legal in Canada, but illegal in the United States, James said the booze-running enterprise was a smooth-running, well organized criminal enterprise.

In many cases, said James, the liquor sold to the U.S. was produced in Canada.

"The high quality scotches, rums, ryes, brandy ... a lot of the breweries and distilleries here were supplying the fleet."

Liquor was stockpiled in government-bonded warehouses at the Ballantyne Pier in Burrard Inlet and Ogden Point in Victoria. Smugglers then had a few options for distributing that supply, said James.

They could do as Victoria's famous Johnny Schnarr did: paint smuggling boats black and move across the ocean border in the darkness of a moonless night.

Or smugglers could hold clandestine meetings with thirsty American buyers in the hidden coves of the Chatham and Discovery Islands.

Or if they wanted to land a massive score, said James, smugglers could load up large steam ships like the Malahat.

The Malahat

The Malahat became infamously known as the Queen of Rum Row and, according to the Vancouver maritime museum, she delivered more contraband liquor than any other ship. These large steam ships would load up in Burrard Inlet before moving their supply out to international waters.

The ships would transform into "floating liquor emporiums," said James, and would wait near the Farallon Islands off the coast of California for their customers to come to them.

"There were rare hijackings, and only one incident of major violence," added James.

James will launch his book with a reading on Nov. 1 at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.

With files from On the Island