The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-08-06
NO BLOOD MONEY.
Combination Against the
Boardirg=Masters.
SHIP-OWNERS WILL UNITE.
Coasters Get Crews at Short Notice.
Foreign Merchantmen to Pro-
teCt Themselves.


Once more the perennial question OF
resisting demands for blood money for
sailors comes up for solution by the ship
ping interests of San Francisco harbor, and
this time there will probably be decisive
action. Unless present conditions under
goradical modification the rapacious board
ing-master will not command the situation
nor menace the seasons grain fleet. The
remedy lies in united action, and this will
be taken early this week oy owners of
merchantmen, masters and agents. The
system of combination has uniformly met
with success as applied to cOasting vessels,
and there is no reason why the same prin-
ciple applied TO vessels going to foreign
ports will not achieve the same good re-
suits. San Francisco harbor is now more
than we'll supplied with able seamen.
Last Wednesday the master of the ship
B. p. Cheney called at the Office of the
Ship-owners' Association a. O'Clock 4. NJ.
and said he would like a crew. and wanted
them aboard within two hours. He had
his pick from ninety men, and the last
man was on the ship at II 10 O'Clock. The
bark K. X. Ham was supplied quite as
quickly. The day before the ship Tacoma
for New Y ork received crew on one
hours notice and went to sea directly from
the wharf. The I. +. Oaks, sailing the
same day, was served with like dispatch.
Referring to the subject Captain George
Z. Monroe. shipping master for the Ship
owners Union. said TO CALL reporter:
mo vessel, bound out. need be detained
here more than twenty-four hours waiting
for crew."
At the present time there are three Brit
ish vessels lying in the stream laden with
wheat destined for the United Kingdom,
Havre, Antwerp or Dunkirk. They are
the Duchalburn, Eimbank and Torrisdale.
and all are awaiting crews. Besides there,
there are thlrty-one other vessels now here
under charter to load grain for Europe.
The question that Is troubling the cap
tainS is where they are going to get their
crews and how much blood money they
will have to pay.
The sailor clearinghouse men and the
self-styled shiDping-masters. who act as
go-betweens for the clearinghouse men
and the captains. claim that sailors are
scarce just now, and they demand bonus
of $50 for every man shipped. The cap
tains have to pay this blood money or
stand the risk of having their ships de-
tanned The clearinghouse men say that
>
will be needed to man departing deep
water ships and that the bonus demanded
will be raised to $40 and probably even
higher
On the other hand ship-owners and
agents declare that sailors are not by any
means scarce and claim that the boarding.
house and shipping men have formed
combination to force masters of ships TO
pay blood money" or have their ships de-
talned. They point to the fact that there
are a large mum Der of vessels now laid up
in this port and at all other ports on The
Pacific Coast; that the coast freightng
trade is at very low ebb, and that there
are hundreds of sailors now here idle.
Nearly all the coasting sailors have served
in deep-water ships and sooner then lie
idle for any length Of time they would go
on deep-wa:er voyage until times get
better. They also point TO the fact that
the ship Tacoma, which sailed on Nednes-
day for New York, procured a full crew
through the Ship-owners Association.
without any difficulty and without paying
any bonus whatever aud intimate that
other shipmasterS will snip their crews
the same way and So leave the board ng-
house men and the land sharks who are in
with them in the lurch.
In conversation with a CALL reporter,
the captain of British ship that is now
laden ready for sea said: Il want twenty
men. and | see no Way 10 get them except
to pay the $50 blood money demanded.
don't think men are so scarce as reported.
l know number have been to me and
asked me TO ship them without paying any
bonus whatever. But they are all in debt
to some bOaruing-hous or other, and il |
took them the boarding landlords would
get them ashore by bringing suit against
and subpenaing them to appear in court,
and once ashore | would never see them
Or | II 0f
men voluntarily pffering, l would not be
allowed to get the balance from the board
lighthouses without paying very heavily,
and my ship would be detained.
"These men are very deSpotlc, too. OF
the men who came to me asking for a
berth, although | could not ship them,
picked out SEVEN whom ! would like to go
with me. l told the shipping master Jas
he calls HIMSELF who is going to engage
my crew, and he said no, l could not taxa
these particular men or not all of them.
He said the rule was that when a vessel
shipped a crew certain boarding house
men had the privilege of supplying GER
tain number of men to make up the COM
plement. He said il he shipped the men
l wanted, and they all came from one
house, the other clearinghouse men would
raise row and refuse to let him have men
when he needed them to supply ship.
So you see | am powerless, even though
pay the bonus to ship the men L would like
to have. l tell you it is an unholy combi-
nation these men have formed. and one
that would not be tolerated in any other
part of the world. The only way in which
it can be beaten is for the shipmasters to
combine solidly, refuse to pay any bonus
and ship the men themselves direct or else
to ship through the Ship-owners' Associa-
tons Office"
And this is exactly what is going to be
done. A meeting has been called for to-
morrow afternoon of ship-Owners, masters
The only question TO be decided is whether
they shall form separate com bnation ~
join the Ship-owners' Association. 1t would
seem that the latter would be the mosl
feasible and the most economical. There
will be no trouble about sailors being able
to discharge their obligations to boarding.
house keepers from the advance money.