The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-01-13
PIERHEAD JUMPS.
Men Who Make Free Trips
Round the Horn.
THE OLD STARBUCK IN PORT.
She Comes Back Light-A Poor Out
look for the Pacific Mail in
the Coffee Trade.

"Never heard of pierhead- jumpers?' said
a veteran sailor boarding house keeper to q
CALL reporter yesterday. "Well, I'll let
you to the secret, if It's any secret, and
then you'll understand where all the trouble
about union aud non-union sailors comes
from.
"What we call perhead-jum Is the
kind Of man that makes jump from the
pier just about the time a deep-water ship
is leaving one of the big European ports.
1.-THE next thing you know he Is out here
| looking for job and not able to find one.
| The crimps get hold of him and tell him he
can get fine job on tine coast
Now. pretty nearly every large English
ship that comes out here has got some Of
these pierhead- Jumpers aboard. Some OF
them have been shipped with q wink to
take the places Of regular seamen that
| failed to turn up, and ship has got to be
manned anyhow before she sails. Most oil
the plerhead-jumper leap aboard Just as
soon as the tug has given her hawser and
| the ship Is gliding away from the wharf.
when these men get out here they have
| no money, of course. Very few Of them
| have anything but what they stand up in,
and how they stand the trip round the Horn
| don't know. At all events they get here
ana are soon spotted by the crlilpS.
THE crimpS are the people who make
business of getting sailors to ship. and
entcing them away from the boarding
masters. If @ deep-sea sailor owes you
five or six weeks board bill and crimp
gets hold of him there will be no scruple
about getting the sailor to leave his kit and
unsettled bill aud Ship on coasting vessel.
The crimp pockets % or 80 per cent OF the
advance money. and thus another COM
petitor Is introduced into the overcrowded
market
The Pacific Mail steamer Starbuck, Cap
tain Dow arrived yesterday from Panama
and way ports, with nominal cargo. The
Starbuck has been running for several
years on the way trade between Panama
and Acapulco, and has come ND TO go into
the fight with the new Spanish-American
line for the coffee-carrying trade. From
present appearances the com petition Of the
new line is doing the Pacific Mail an i'm
mense amour: of injury, and rates have
been already reduced 90 per cent. The
Starbuck is more than double the tonnage
of the MOntseTrat, yet the latter had full
cargo of coffee samples, being part Of the
new seasons crop, while the Starbuck had
not more than fifty bags. Tho MoDtserrat
was promptly unloaded and cleared for
Nanamo She will sail to-day, and return
In time TO make her trip 10 Central Amerl-
can ports on February 1. The Starbuck
will also be sent to Oeos, Cbamperico and
Guatemala ports. The lumber and general
shippers are delighted with the competition,
which has reduced the freight on lumber
alone from S24 to S12 thousand.
The Occidental and Oriental Company's
steamer Gaelic, Captain Pearne. arrived
yesterday from Hong-kOng and YokOhama.
She had 81 Chinese passengers, % OF whom
are for this city. Among the cabin passen-
gers was Frank Leybnrn. who is known in
Hong Kong as the 'tiger-slayer of Annoy"
from his exploits in the jungle. The Gaelic
- H.. H. 49,
cort on the voyage from Newchwang to
Hong Kong. She also reports that the
Austrian ram-cruiser kaiserin Elizabeth.
With the Arehduke Francis Ferdinand on
board, is cruising in the Orient, and that
the Archduke will come through San Fran
cisco in time 10 see the Worlds Fair.
The Gaelic brought over from japan the
remains of Miss Mary Allen West. one of
the founders or the WOmen'S Christian
Temperance Union of the United States.
The remains will be forwarded to Chicago.
An unknown man walked off the wharf at
Green street yesterday afternoon and was
drowned There was no one on the wharf
at the time. and the man rose only once
after the plunge. He was swept away be-
fore boat could reach the spot.
TowbOat captains are complaining loudly
of the danger caused by number of float
ing, blind and sunken piles on Mission Bay,
adjoining the Arctic Oil Works Some Of
these piles are portions Of raft from Fort
Bragg, which is being broken up. Others
are the remains Of old wharves Several OF
the tugs have had their propeller-bl blades
bent and twisted by striking these piles,
of which one captain Enthusiastically said
that they are like ground sharks, "Y on
never see 'em till you feel 'em"
The schooner Maid of Orleans and the
bark Theobald went TO sea with non-union
crews yesterday under police protection.
Four of the 25-t0n guns for the de-
lenses at Lime Point were transported
across the Golden Gate from Fort Point
last week on scow schooner, Hnd six
others will 60 over this week. The guns
will be moved up to their commanding
position on the heights on platforms
mounted on rollers, after the fashion
adopted by house movers. with horses and
windasses.
The ship James Drummond rived here
from Philadelphia yesterday. She reports
a quiet passage, with the exception of few
days of rough weather. Al that time she
was in sight of number of vessels Hho
were suffering considerably from the vio-
lenee of the storm. One mad her top
gallant mast carried away and another had
lost her topInast head. The greater part of
the trip she had fresh winds and generally
fine weather.