The directory «Plots»

Moraze Henri
(1903—1986)

A businessman who became a millionaire by importing and selling alcohol to ‘rum-runners’ who transshipped it to the USA in the ‘Prohibition’ days. Because of their close proximity to Canada, the French islands of St Pierre and Miquelon, became an important harbour base for smugglers including Al Capone and Bill McCoy in the 1920s for shipping ‘liquor’ to the USA via the Canadian border Moraze supplied their stock.

It is said that McCoy invented the smuggling trade on St Pierre. One day he was stuck in an hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia, trying to sort out what to do with a shipment of liquor that was under threat of confiscation by Canadian Customs. Whilst at the hotel he ran into a man with a French accent (Moraze) and asked if he was from Quebec. No, Moraze replied, he was from the French island of St Pierre. He further said he was a shipping agent and would take McCoy’s cargo and offload it at his warehouse. McCoy agreed and a profitable business relationship was born!

St. Pierre and Miquelon, 2009, Henri Moraze