NOBLE? As we toast St. Patrick with a flagon or two of suds this week, let us pause to recall those misguided days of Prohibition’s so-called “noble experiment.” Not only did Santa Barbarans largely ignore the 18th Amendment (RIP: 1920-1933) but by all accounts embraced with great relish the twin sins of gambling and boozing.
Although the sale of John Barleycorn and his alcoholic relatives was illegal under federal law, Santa Barbarans needed only to get themselves down to Stearns Wharf and board a water taxi out to the pleasure ship Miss Hollywood. I found no record that lawmen ever interfered with Miss Hollywood or her passengers.
There, residents could engage in games of chance and wet their whistles to their hearts’ content. That was because the brightly lighted Miss Hollywood was anchored just beyond the three-mile limit of law-enforcement jurisdiction, according to Eugene Wheeler’s Shipwrecks, Smugglers and Maritime Mysteries.