The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1888-02-29
GOTHAM'S RIVER PIRATES
HUMAN WHARF RATS WHO LIVE
BY STEALING FROM VESSELS.
Carrying or an Entire Ship-The
Floating Police station Which
Watches the Plunderers.

Floating Police station Which
Watches the PIunderers.
1t may seem strange that there are
gangs of human beings who live on the
rivers and are housed like water rats uu-
der the docks and piers of this great
town. Not even London with its hosts
Of Thames pirates and its skulking boat
robbers ever had more lawless multitude
than the thieves that for many years
made the harbor of New York terror to
honest mariners and danger TO com
merce.
Most of the old gang who swept the
rivers and piers in their snaky black
boats ten to twenty years ago have been
shot to death, drowned or have died in
prison, and although the waterside Of the
city is much safer than it was in those days,
there are still many predatory rascals that
keep the watchmen wakeful along the
piers where goods are temporarily stored.
The working ground of the river
tn ewes is wherever booty is to be found
and carried away with the smallest risk
At the East River docks fronting the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, where the river
swe ,ps around a ragged jutting turn and
the tide dashes about uncOmfOrtably,
the pirates occasiona ly hold high carni-
val. The big south side tenements run.
ming down nearly to the waters edge are
hiding places for the criminals and stor-
age ground for their plunder
So too on the West Side down in the
neighborhood of Charlton and the ad-
joing streets abutting the docks of the
North River, where the vicious elements
live and thrive, the water thieves find
chances for robbery and odd corners in
which to hide what tLey have stolen.
Before the present system of police
surveillance d repression was adopted
no mans life was thoroughly secure on
any of the richly laden vessels that lay
within easy reach of the docks when the
darkness of night covered them, and
many a tale of piracy is yet told among
the grizzly-headed 'longshoremen that
crowd the drinking places along the West
street piers.
The scandal of the lawlessness, the
robberies and occasional murders that oc-
CURED on the water front eliminated one
night when a richly freighted sloop,
captain, crew and vessel, were taken
bodily from an East River pier, towed
out safely far into the bay and stripped
Of evel ything of value that the sloop and
its crew possessed. The hull of the boat
was left, but that was about all, and the
crew were landed and warned to get
away from New York as fast as they
could ship again. And they did, for
when after long investigation two of the
thief pirates were captured, not man
of the sloop's party could be found to
testify against them.
But the occurrence stirred up the au-
thorities and very soon the Harbor
Patrol became recognized and essential
portion of the city's police force. 1t did
not suppress river piracy, nor has it sup
pressed it, bat the thieves have been
driven from many of their skulking
places under the piers and along the
docks, and where almost whole cargoes
used to be stolen and carried away the
robbers must now content themselves
with small boatload and run their
chances of escape from the switt.oared
police-boats that day and night keep
watch and ward over the docks and the
stream.
Down under the big iron pier that is
the city's great outlet to Coney Island
during the summer months there is a
ragged looking stone building. where
the Department of Docks has its offices.
Close up to this building, in a granite
walled slip, lies, when not on duty, a
rakish, black hulled side.wheeler that
carries forty men, and is nothing more
nor less than veritable police station.
No one would suppose that in Official
parlance the good and seaworthy craft,
which has the single word ''Patrol" on
her wheel house is numbered precinct
station-house, with roundsmen and SER
geants and captain, Just like the big
buildings IN various sections of the
town where our ordinary policemen are
housed.
But the men who fill the ranks on the
Patrol are of far different Drawn and
muscle from the men who guard our
streets. Many of them are young, hearty
fellows who have served an apprentice
ship on the sea, and all of them can
handle an oar or launch a boat with as
much promptness and safety as the most
experienced sailor. They carry no clubs
while on night duty along the river, for
the pirates need more forcible arguments
than the shaking of night stick, and
those are furnished usual Y from the quick
speaking mouths of the big revolvers
whi h the Harbor Police carry
The life Is not pleasant one by any
means, for the ri er front is long one
and the wintry nights are the thieves
best time for plua dering. Through the
darkness, the rain and the sleet, along
the choppy water under bio ferry piers
and among the ha Dor shipping, out into
the stream and over toward the Jersey
shore, around the dirty East River docks
always full Of good things and swarming
with thieves, the three police boats, with
six men each, pull silently and swiftly all
through the night. The p rates know
that the glare Of the police lantern may
be thrown upon them out of the dark
ness at any instant, and that nee spotted
six pair of brawny arms will send the
boat spinning through the water after
them in way that will make escape i'm
possible
The Harbor Patrol has done and con
tinues to do a great work. 1t has not,
and may never be able to entirely drive
out the river thieves, but when one con-
siders the miles Of river front that are