The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-28
PACKET RATS OF OLD.
THE SAILORS THAT MANNED The
BLACKBAlL CLIPPERS.
Tough Crews Kept In Hand by Tougher
Officers - How the Landsmen Were
Robbed and Beaten-Punishment That
Was Sometimes Inflicted.


Was Sometimes Inflicted.
"They were beautiful ships, the old
Blackba packets; long, trim clippers,
that tore through the western ocean under
a cloud of canvas that was kept spread as
long as il would stay TO the yards. Many
one had never a dry deck or its crew
dry stitch of clothing in dozen passages
running. They were finely fitted up In the
cabins and did a great part of the over
seas passenger carrying up to the end of
the war, but they were tough crews and
hard officers that sailed them-the tough
est and hardest, reckon, in the world"
Old Barney Rockliffe. the shipkeeper at
an East river wharf, was talking. He was
IA deep sea sailor for many years
"There was the regular packet sailor,
who would ship on no other craft, he
went on to say, packet rats, we called
them. When one of them was fixed out In
his regulation togs-a red Hayre shirt,
black trousers, glazed cap and neat calf
skin boots-he was known as a 'Bucko'
sailor, and put on great airs. They went
in gangs that shipped together for the trip
across the Atlantic. They fought the off,
GERS where they dared and robbed and
maltreated their fellow sailors. A green
Dutchman on his first Blackba packet
trip was their special mark, and he was
lucky If, besides having his chest looted
and the very boots stolen from his feet he
were not brutally beaten. The regular
packet sailor carried no chest or bag, only
the clothes on his back. He came aboard
drunk, was driven, cursed and smashed
through the passage by the officers and
made pier head leap from the ship before
she was fairly moored at the wharf on the
other side of the water. Pickpockets, bur
glars, criminals of every Sort whose in
dustries compelled them to make sundry
changes of residence, shipped In the pack
cts SO as to get from one side of the ocean
| to the other. Such man, If good sea
man, might get through the trip all right,
| bat II not he Jared hard at the hands Of
| the officers.
! sit needed masterful, determined Off
| GERS to keep such men under, aud the
| packet officers were of that kind. They
| were fighters always ready, and their or
| ders were sharp and stern, with curse,
and perhaps a snatch block or Delaying pin
4 coming close behind them II the men were
slow to move or to understand. A Black
ball ship often came into port with fewer
men than she started with and many ar
officer found it necessary regularly to leave
| the ship before she came to anchor anC
i stay in hiding until she sailed again Il
avoid the warrants of arrest against hin
l. en- account Of his treatment Of the crew
| After Black ball ship had cleared away /
usually happened that Whitehall boa
put out from some pier and set on boart
\ two or three men who, clapping on round
straight visored officers hats, went t.
Netting the crew into working order a
['short notice.
~ 81 was not the kind of packet sailor
p have been telling you about, but sailed
4 number of trips in the Blackball ship
II during the civil war. Sailors were scarce
b and the pay of $50 to 800 In gold for
| trip was too tempting to miss. Being
- good sailor and temperate, / got on we
with the officers, and managed to pu
through without trouble with the mer
but saw some rough sights and doing
The thing that impressed me most wa
what l saw one Christmas day, with Tn
ship lying out at anchor ready to sail
; turn of tide. 1t was bitterly cold. III
crew had come aboard in all stages
drunkenness, from fighting to dead DRUM
and the uproar about the forecastle W,
like what have heard told of sheol.
"Among the crew was very decor
$ looking old man, warmly clad, and wea
} ing, remember, a red comforter round II
F, neck. don't know whether he had bee
: drinking or not or whether he accidental
fell or was pushed down the hatchwa
but he fell some 10 or l2 feet down In
the forehold gang of the packet ra
L followed him down to where he lay, be
and kicked him until he was insensibl
. and robbed him of everything they fanoi
;, about him.
u "When the ship was got under way al
II the crew were mustered amidships TO
], chosen off into watches, the old man sto
y among the rest, looking In mighty b
" shane after the treatment he had und'
gone. AS a rule little notice would ba
u been taken of the matter and no inquir
= made, but 1t CHANGED that the captain a
s. he were both Freemasons, and the old IN
d gave the captain Masonic sign, and I'll
e. cot him notice. The captains eyes bla2
81 as he heard the old mans story, and
0: told him to point out the men who
NJ beaten and robbed him. He identified
's or seyen-one of them was wearing
" red comforter-apd they were ordered
io stand out apart from the rest OF the Gre
es "They were compelled to deliver up
10 the old man everything that he said
/! his, then the mate and second mate,
ol boatswain and carpenter put on 81
OF knuckles ant walked into them. The
Oh lows were knocked down and hamme
,sal and then pulled up to be knocked DO
no aQain, the steel knuckles, wherever 9
~ landed, cutting like knives, until the q
VI looked like slaughter pen. 1t was a or
IL punishment, but none can say that
10 wasn't deserved.
n"Now and then packet officer wo
be killed by the crew. What these ono
! hated worst was TO find landlubber 81
=. ned as an able seaman, and they use'
- make the trip miserable one TO
-, 10 Some of their punishments were al
- ones, such rs setting man to dlp wa
~ from one bucket to another with
,sS spoon or fitting canvas wings to him
$50 making him pass the watch aloft c
=. yardarm, Growing like cock at every
L