When “Cukie” Macomber was a kid, his father introduced him to a few of the bigger rum-runners and bootleggers on the South Coast, including Fairhaven smuggler Charlie Travers.

Travers' "Black Duck" boat was equipped with two aircraft engines that sent it to speeds in upwards of 30 knots, but eventually, the boat was caught in December of 1929 by the Coast Guard with 383 cartons of illegal liquor on board. When confronted, Travers and his crew attempted to escape, but the Coast Guard reportedly fired on the boat, killing three unarmed crew members in a case that gained national attention.

Despite his reputation with the law, Macomber said his father told him Travers was a good man.

“He was a crook, but he was an honest crook,” he said of Travers, noting that he’d heard he'd saved several people from losing their homes. “He wouldn’t cheat anybody other than the government. But he sure tried to help people.”

Macomber, who’s from Westport, spoke about Travers and other area bootleggers and rum-runners before a packed Russells Mills Schoolhouse Sunday evening.

He said as far as Dartmouth goes, he got to know another smuggler named Fred Healy. Although not a big man in the business, he said Healy would tell him stories about his experience with rum-running in the area.

“I really don’t know how he got away with it. His boat was slow,” said Macomber, “but he went only at night. Now that I think about it, that’s probably how he got away with it. He had a lot of stories to tell. He was one of those fellows who made it and spent it. I guess he was happy in life. He always seemed to be when I talked to him.”

Macomber said that during the prohibition era of the 1920s and ’30s, there weren’t a lot of local speakeasies, or places to drink the then illegal alcohol, but there were in Providence and especially in New York City. He spoke of several other rum-runners in the area, from Mattapoisett, Westport and other surrounding towns.

“Rum-running was quite a thing in those days,” he said, adding that although it was against the law and officials were cracking down, the punishments weren’t too severe. “The Coast Guard would take the boats. That was about the most serious cost to the man — losing his boat.”

Enid Silvia, a member of the Dartmouth Historical and Arts Society, said the group hopes in the future to hear more stories of rum-runners and bootleggers, especially more tales of those in Dartmouth.

Another attendee said that when she was a kid, she and her family would listen to rum-runners coming through South Dartmouth late at night along Little River.

“I’d imagine a lot of that stuff came into South Dartmouth,” replied Macomber. “There was a lot of open land.”