The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-03-19
SAILORS ASHORE.
How They are Hired and Paid for Their
Services.

The man is often shipped whether he will
or not. The captain applies to the ship.
ping agent for crew. The boarding
house keeper selects it. The captain makes
out orders on the vessels agent for the
advance. The shipping agent sees that the
clearinghouse man does not get all the
advance. He takes share himself. He Is
supposed to have one dollar. He usually
reserves five. Very often the captain d.
vides that five. The rest goes to the board.
ing house. The man may be shipped for o
deep-sea cruise, getting an advance of $50
or $S5, or two months pay. He may have
not been in port week, but not q cent does
he see of that advance. The sailor is not
supposed to be able to take care of his
money or himself If experience is re-
4uired to enable him to do So he is not
able. He never has any experience. He
Is not allowed to buy his own outfit. His
boarding house keeper goes along and
selects the articles needed. The dealer
pays commission of from twenty to thirty
per cent. to the clearinghouse keeper. If
there are more than two exceptions to this
rule, even among the religious establis-
ments, / cannot name them..n
" Is there no other side to this story?"
There is. The boarding houses do NOT
have oil plain sailing. Sometimes the sail
ors get the advance and jump the boarding
house. They pawn their dunnage, go fly
Ing light among the boarding houses, and
when they ship they jump the ship. This
doea not often happen. The boarding
house gets cleaned out occasionally by q
mutinous crew. There are some sailors
who neither swindle nor get swindled.
They hire furnished room somewhere be-
tween East Broadway and the docks. They
| get their meals at restaurants. They put
surplus earnings in the bank. They get
promoted. Industry and sobriety have the
same effects among sailor men that they
have on other classes. But the sailor who
does not patronize boarding house has
great difficulty in shipping. The shipping
agents are in league with the boarding
houses. The captains go to the shipping
agents when they want crews. The first
question the agent asks of the man Ia,
Where do you board p Sometimes the
man has to substitute doth agent and board
ing-house keeper before he can get ship.
/ know captain who picked up q c3sv
outside OF the agent and the boarding
house. The boarding house men Aocked
down on him, and on the pretence that he
was shipping crew below regular prices,
tied him up fo- twenty-four hours. That
captain was disguised with his attempt to
help the sailor man."
9 Is there no remedy for this state Of
nffairs?"
There are plenty of doctors who think
they have remedies in certain amendments
to existing laws or in new legislation.
Possibly Legislation could be devised that
would run degraded brutes into the king
dom of heaven, but don't believe it. 30
many laws have been piled up to protect
the sailor that his manliness is crushed
under the weight of yellum bound with red
tape He could not be worse off il the
statutes devised for his protection were
swept of the books. He is treated as IN
infant or lunatic. Where he has nature
superior to such treatment he either does
not go to sea or rises above the forecastle.'
--Neso York Sun.