Kirk and Sweeney

The name of this Dominican Republic rum brand echoes the Prohibition era: Kirk & Sweeney was the name of a wooden schooner that was best known at the time for smuggling rum between the Caribbean and the United States.

Before entering U.S. territorial waters, the schooner would drop anchor and sell the rum to the small boats alongside. Faster and more maneuverable than the Coast Guard boats, they brought the rum ashore without worry.

As other ships also began to traffic in rum, the route they took became known as the "Rum Line". Similarly, the place where they threw ink off the US coast became known as "Rum Row". Read less