"In Oceans of Rum, David Mossman draws on family, community, and Canadian history to bring the story of rum-running in Atlantic Canada to vivid, pulsing life through his uncle's actual experiences. Mossman's book is a three-cornered chronicle involving Spindlers, Ritceys, and Romkeys--all South Shore Nova Scotia families. It is an account tinged with tragedy and intrigue and shows how seemingly ordinary folk can find themselves thrust into the most extraordinary activities. Prohibition, legislated in the United States in 1921, banned the manufacture, transport, and sale of intoxicating liquor. However, it soon became obvious that policing the entire coastline of the Pacific, Atlantic, and the Great Lakes was impossible. In eastern Canada, the door was suddenly wide open for fishermen willing to make the switch to smuggling. Even with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, rum-running remained a profitable venture in Atlantic Canada up until World War II. Excitement, camaraderie, drama on the high seas, love affairs, big payoffs, and fast cars were the returns for a life of smuggling during Prohibition--for those who dared. And David Mossman's uncle Teddy, Captain Winfred "Spinny" Spindler, certainly dared. Like so many others, the deep-sea fisherman seized the opportunity to use his sea-going skills for rum-running between 1923 and 1938. Adventuresome and resilient, charismatic and resourceful, Captain Spindler matured and endured through necessity, hard work, and tragedy, toward the end persevering like proverbial Job through his allotted 93 years. David Mossman, a seventh-generation Canadian, was born in Rose Bay, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. As a geologist, he has consulted widely and taught geoscience most recently at Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, where he is research professor emeritus. In addition to numerous scientific papers, he has written biographies of noted geologists and articles on topics ranging from Nova Scotia gold, tidal phenomena, carbonaceous meteorites, and the trackways of extinct animals. His most recent book was Going Over: A Nova Scotian Soldier in World War I."--