SMUGGLING TIMELINE

Pocked with bullet holes and sinking fast, thanks to the blast from four explosive shells detonated near its hull, the S.S. I’m Alone sank beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on March 22, 1929. One Canadian crew member, Leon Mainguy, drowned. The others, including Captain John Randell, were chained and thrown into a jail in New Orleans .

The ship was sunk following a hot pursuit by the U.S. Coast Guard schooner the Dexter. It had been following the I’m Alone for several days and suspected it of smuggling liquor into the southern United States.

It’s true. The I’m Alone was a rum-running ship, built in Britain and under Canadian registry. Randell, originally from Newfoundland, left Halifax in 1928 and set out in the I’m Alone for Belize, where crewmen picked up liquor, stowed it as cargo and then sailed to destinations along the Louisiana coast.

When the Coast Guard decided it was time to sink the rum-running ship, the I’m Alone was 321 kilometres offshore. But the Coast Guard had no jurisdiction on any vessel farther than 19 kilometres out.

In 1935, a trial was held and arbitrators from both countries agreed that it was a “wrongful sinking.” The commissioners of the case concluded that “the admittedly intentional sinking of the suspected vessel was not justified,” and although the I’m Alone was a rum-runner, “the act of sinking the ship by officers of the U.S. Coast Guard was … an unlawful act.”

The U.S. was required to formally apologize and “in respect of the wrong” paid “the sum of $25,000 to His Majesty’s Canadian Government.”

Randell was given $7,906 and Amanda Mainguy, wife of the deceased crewman, Leon Mainguy, recieved $10,185 in compensation for her loss.

Jessica Bell

(Photo: Trinity Historical Society Archives)