The Rum-Running Captain and the Grudge-Making Crew
Federal deputies arrest Capt. D. Troutman of the steamer Delta on charges he smuggled rum and whisky from Victoria; he says two former employees are settling a score.
When the little steamer Delta arrived in port at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon from her regular run from Sidney, Deputy United States Marshal Emery McGinnis, of Whatcom, arrested Capt. D. Troutman on a charge of smuggling rum and whisky.
The complaint had been sworn to a few days earlier at Whatcom by M. J. Maloney, deputy collector of that port, who charges that about December 1, 1894, Capt. Troutman, while on the Whatcom and Victoria run by way of the islands, smuggled two gallons of rum and seven gallons of whisky across the line.
The complaining witnesses are E. Henspeter and G. Mever, formerly employees on the Delta, who had a contract to buy the boat. Capt. Troutman claims their action is pure spite work. Bail was readily furnished by the captain's wife, Mrs. Dora Troutman, F. E. Baker and O. J. Treon. The trial is set for next Friday in Whatcom.
“The complaining witnesses are E. Henspeter and G. Mever, formerly employees on the Delta, who had a contract to buy the boat. Capt. Troutman claims their action is pure spite work.”
Smuggling cases along the Salish Sea predate Prohibition by decades, and the Whatcom-to-Sidney run was a known liquor corridor. The case is a reminder that border enforcement and local grudges have long traveled together on Puget Sound.
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