St. Paul daily globe., 1890-05-27
AN AWFUL VOYAGE.

Eight Japanese Stowaways Suf-
focated--A Week Without Air or
Light Crowded Against Hot
Engine Plates.
San Francisco Chronicle.
The steamer Gaelic, which arrived
yesterday, brings details of a case of
attempted smuggling of ten young
Japanese women into Hong g-Kong for
immoral purposes, which resulted in
the CHASTITY suffering Of the poor
creatures, who were slowed away
in small room next to the engine
water tanks. For week these women,
with the male and female procurerS who
entrapped them. were shut up in this
death trap that would have been fatal
to any European in few hours. The
following are the facts of this almost
unparalleled case:
A shocking discovery was made at
Hong-Kong on the Japanese steamer
Fushlxi-maru on March 26. The steam
er arrived at Hong-Kong on the 25th,
having left NagaSaki on the 21st. For
some days bad smell had been noticed
| in the engineers mess room, when
gradually grew worse, and was at
| tributed to dead rats. After long
and careful search it was traced
to compartment above one OF the
tanks alongside the engine room. On
| the manhole being opened, a rush OF
| foul air took place. and some naked
bodies were seen. The coal in the main
| hold was quickly removed to get at the
sliding door to the tank, and when this
was opened a horrible sight was re-
vealed.
Eight dead bodies and four still alive
were disclosed, all completely naked,
their clothes having been discarded on
account of the intolerable heat. The
| compartment is about three feet high
and two feet wide, and extends across
| the ship. 1t is used only for the purpose
| of getting at the tank for its eXamlna-
| ton. In this cramped place twelve per-
sons, one man and the others women,
had been slowed for week. Japanese
women are not allowed to leave their
own country without official permission,
but the demand for them sfOr immoral
purposes is so great that frequent
attemps are made to smuggle them on
board steamers. That appears to have
been the object in the present
case, the party of ten girls IN charge or
a man and an old woman being slowed
away in the hole described, where there
was neither ventilation or light. They
had supply OF food and water with
them, so that starvation was not added
to their other SutferingS. but that any OF
them should have survived a weeks
confinement in such a place is simply
wonderful.
The man was one of those who sue
cumbed, but the old woman survived.
The bodies of the dead were in a more
OF less advanced state of decomposition
and the atmosphere was sitting. The
survivors were In shocking condition,
their bodies being swollen and covered
with prickly heat. They at once re-
ceived such attention as those on board
were able to give, warm baths Deing
provided for them and clothing sup
piled.
The story told by the three girls is
that they were induced to leave their
homes by the man and woman by prom
ises of obtaining good situations IN
Hong Kong, and on arriving at Nagasakl
on the 10Th they were put on board the
steamer. They got into the compart-
ment by the sliding door from the
hold before the cargo was fully
loaded. and until the door
was closed they had no idea of
the sutferings they were to undergo.
Afterward they found themselves liter
ally buried alive, without any power of
escape or of attracting attention. 1t
has been impossible to ascertain at
what particular time the eight deceased
persons severalIy succumbed, but the
survivors state that the heat of the iron
plates became so great that the living
lay across the bodies of the dead in
order to secure relief.