The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-11-27
VICTIMS OF UNScRUPULoUs sEAcAP.
TAINS IN WANT OF SAILORS.

| VIC ms OF UNSCRUPULOUS SEA CAP.
TAINS IN WANT OF SAILORS.
| Galveston Man Who Got Even With Hi:
Abductor Vengeance of a Bad Man
From Arizona Who Was Shanghaied-
Why Shippers Escape Prosecution
The officials of the Consular Bureau
Of the State Department at Washing.
ton, writes a New York Sun CORES.
pondent, figure on receiving every
year certain number of complaints
from shanghaied men all over the
world. In recent years not so many
men are shanghaied from American
ports as there used to be, but there
are enough such cases to cause the
State Department a good deal Of
bother. The best that can be done by
the department for the shanghaied
men, as a rule, is to authorize the
Consul at the port from which he
sends his tale of woe to furnish him
transportation back to the United
States, and this can only be done in
cases where the shanghaied man has
not permitted himself to be bnlldozed
by the skipper of the ship that took
him away from this country to sign
ships articles for the cruise. When
the shanghaied man thus gets himself
down in black and white there is
rarely any redress for him when he
gets back to the United States. He
may wait on the pier for the ship that
took him away, to come back again,
and have papers Of arrest served upon
the skipper for unlawful detention or
kidnapping, but when the skipper gets
before the United States Commits
sioner he has only to produce the ar
ticles signed under duress by the
shanghaied man to secure his release
from custody. It is only when some
young man Of good family falls vic
tim to the shanghaies that there is a
moderate chance of punishment fall
ing upon the ship Captain.
Such a case happened at Galveston
three years ago. Angus Burrill was
navigating from his club to his
home early one morning after having
dined long and heavily. He fell in
with rough-looking citizen in a cardi-
gan jacket and peaked cap, and
presently found himself imbibing raw
red liquor in dive beneath sailors
boarding house on the water front.
This was the last Of his consciousness
until he awoke in bunk in the fore
castle of the barkentine Santa Monica;
the bad-eyed, cardigan-j acketed man
was assisting him to awake by clouting
him on the side of the head, and Bur-
rill soon discovered that he was adj
dressing his first mate. The Santa
Monica was by this time 100 miles
from Galveston Oh her voyage to
Odessa, Russia, with cargo of ignum
vitae.
Burrill went to work like a little
man, and did not emit whimper. He
was sensible young fellow when his
head was clear, and when he saw how
he was in for it he buckled down,
sawed wood and did his work up to
the handle. He made a pretty good
seaman, for he had beon one Of Gal
veston's leading yachtsmen, and he
exhibited such philosophical content
over the situation that the skipper and
mates spared him the cruelties ordi.
narily inflicted upon shanghaied men.
When they drew up able seaman's
papers to sign he signed them unmur-
muringly. Shanghaied men do no get
shore liberty, but young Burrill took
it when the ship cast her mudhook in
Odessa harbor. He promptly jumped
the ship by swimming ashore. In
Odessa he operated the cable, got
some money from Galveston and re-
turned to the United States. The
Santa Monica turned up in New Or
leans harbor six month later. Young
Burrill and his people were there
waiting for her, and the skipper got
year in prison and $4,000 fine, and
was deprived of his captains papers.
The case was exceptional, and the
young man would unquestionably have
been obliged to forego the joys of
vengeance had he not had powerful
backing.
When, as occasionally happens, the
shanghaied man stubbordly refuses to
sign articles, enduring all the torture
that is inflicted upon him on account
of his refusal, for the purpose Of estab-
fishing. his case when he gets back to
the United States, the shippers story
before the United States Commissioner
is that the shanghaied man was stow
away. This story is becoming pretty
threadbare, the absurdity Of it being
too patent. tits only ships
with a bad name among sailors that
are reduced to the necessity Of patch
ing out their crews with shanghaied
men, and no man with ordinary COM
mon sense would stow away on such a
ship, no matter how urgent his desire
to get away from land or how prodigi.
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