Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-25
WATER FRONT MYSTERIES.
A Steamboat Squad POlIceman's oh
servatiOns on Death by Drowning.


A Steamboat Squad POllceman's OBJ
servatiOns on Death by Drowning.
A fat policeman fthe steamboat SQUAD
says the New York Sun, swung his club
contentedly as he stood with one foot on
the stringpiece ola South street pier when
young man showed him a clipping from
a newspaper which recOunted the finding
of five dead bodies about the harbor in
one day. He read it through slowly, and
then said:
"Good many that. Three is a good or
binary days work, but then the mOrgue
doesn't get ALL
at doesn't? Where do they COP,
"Now. understand | don't know any,
thing about it officially. | don't mind
telling you privately that / have heard
that some of these river pirates devote
part of the day to finding things. They
have oyster tongs and they have dredges
and hooks with which they stir I'D the
bottom. Sometimes they bring up the
bodies OF people recently drowned. IT a
body is thin and lean it is worth $40 at
some seasons of the year. Do you sup
pose they are going to throw away STOP
Some of the bodies wash away and out to
sea for all | know. l should say that
about 1000 people are drowned in the two
rivers hereabouts every year, and not
half of them are recovered"
"How does it happen that so many peo-
pie as that get into the waterS'
whisky helps the most of them in, A
drunken man gravitates toward the water.
Paradox that, but it's true. The tide is
running out now. Hear it gurgle. When
a steamer passes the waves splash up
against the piles in a way that makes
music to a man whose head is in a
whirl. Strangers in the streets get very
lonesome in the crowds, and so they
come down here on the piers. The
water is company for them. They sit
down and look over at it, The sight
of the moving water increases the
whirling in their brains, and they pitch
forward and disappear. No one notices
them. Possibly the cool air sobers some
of them, especially at night. They grow
repentant and then Respondent. These turn
around and slip down feet first with their
hands on the timber andItheir faces turned
up to the sky. Then their fingers loosen,
and the last seen of them is the white face
in the water. Such people are usually the
ones the pirates are looking for, especially
the girls. They are thin and lean from
starvation and worse.
''Some go over by accident when sober.
L saw fellow sitting on pier fishing one
evening. He was asleep. All at once his
head rolled over, he lost his balance, and
down he went. He could swim, but 9th
ers are not always as lucky. Children at
play and men at their work stumble and
drop over. Drunken sailors reel over.
There is shout and a rush that ends at
the side of the pier. People don't like to
wet their clothes. The poor fellow strug-
giles a bit and then three weeks later he is
seen at the mOrgue. Piers should be pro-
vided with pike poles and life preservers
and men to handle them, at least they
should if these lives are worth saving.
u have heard, incidentally, you know,
not officially, that men come down on the
piers at night in groups. When they 90
back they are less in number by one.
That one was probably drunk. When he
is found there will be possibly penny or
two in his pockets. 1t looks more like a
suicide to leave something in the pockets.
The clothing on the man will indicate
that he has seen better days. Sometimes
river pirates disagree over the disposition
or the division of the Doodle. / heard
once, unofiicially, you know, of a pirate
who sat in the stern sheets of his boat be-
side companion who was suddenly
plunged head first backward into the
water with the small of his back on the
gunwale Of the boat. The pirate sat on
his stomach holding the fellows head I'M
der the water till the struggles ceased and
the body became limp. Then 1t Slid over
and out of sight. A simple abrasion on
the back would not indicate anything
when the body was found three weeks
later. The tide could, and usually does,
throw bodies against the piers so as to
tear the skin.
at is easy enough to account for the
number that get in, but to tell where they
came from and how they happened to Get
into a condition that would bring them
down here, that is another thing"