The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-06-08
THE TRICK.
STOWAWAYS AT SEA.
THEY BRING LUCK TO SAILORS ANc
RAGE TO MASTERS.

RAGE TO MASTERS.
When Discovered, These Migrants
of the Ocean Have n Hard Time
and, 1t Is Whispered, Even Pay For
Their Temerity With Their Lives.
They call them ''stowaways' in the
ship's lOghook, which is q mild way OF
expressing the muffied curses that go
with them down to the sea. There was Il
time when stowaways were hanged, pro
ceeding that, according to all official ac-
counts, has not materially reduced their
numbers. To protect the shareholders Of
her triple expansions and compounds
England deals quite severely with the
chaps who steal free passage. Russian
master mariners have been known to fog
them numerically, and Italy makes them
wish they never were born. America
gives them q good scolding, threatens all
sorts of punishment and ends up by pity
ing them.
Human nature was always weak, and
the niseries of the stowaway are many.
If the average sailor had his way, every
ship coming and going would be filled
with unlimited and penniless passengers,
and even spring beds would be provided
for their comfort. There is, Of course,
reason, we'll founded or otherwise, for
this. The average tar firmly believes
that disaster cannot ovcrtakc vessel
which has a stowaway OH board.
There are any number Of reasons for
the fact that sailors consider a ship with
stowaway on it to be perfectly safe.
One authority ON marine superstitions
says that q stowaway who was discover
cd ON 4 ship before she sailed was
promptly put ashore by the officers. When
he got on the pier, he shook his fist saw
agely and said:
Pm glad you've turned me off your
rotten old tub! Neither she nor you will
live to see Christmas day, while SHALL"
This ship never turned up, according to
the lore of the beach combers, and from
that day to this 4 stowaway is always
lucky aboard ship. That the officers Of
the majority of ships do not share with
the tars in this common belief may be
judged from the tough experience of some
of these impecunious tourists. The Amer
lean immigration authorities view stow
away in much the same light that q pau
Der Is COuSIucICus ~ 10
datory On the master of ship bringing
n stowaway to the United States that
he, as the first agent of the owners, be
personally responsible under the penalty
of a heavy fine for the stowaway's de-
portation. This law is not calculated to
put the master mariner in happy frame
of mind, and he treats the unbidden pas
senger as he thinks he should be treated.
There is no doubt that some have re-
ceived very severe handling from irate
shippers, and it is even limited that stow
| Always caught on board have been brutal
ly beaten, put in irons and flung over
board ut night i'll midocean.
Countless numbers of Stowaways have
died in their attempts to cross the ocean.
| The average steamer has many dark
holes in her big interior, and, notwith-
standing the fact that q ship seldom
leaves port without a search being made
| to see that no unauthorized person is on
board, many succeed in Guiding detec-
| ton. 1t is only Il few years since one of
the regular liners arrived here with the
| dead body of a stowaway in her hold.
| He had raped and hammered on the
| ships hatch without avail when the ship
was outside sight of land and had starved
to death.
In another instance Il man hid himself
| in chain locker, and when the anchor
was hove up he was crushed to death,
the noise of the steam winch and the rat
| Ting of the chain drowning his cries.
| The British steamer Maroa arrived in
| penarth Roads some years ago with the
| body of an unknown man which was
| found in the bunker hold. 1t is sup
| posed the man surreptitiously got on
| board at Havre. 4 man was found dead
under the main hatch of one of the Ma
| tional line steamers on her arrival here.
| 1t was shown that he died of starvation
and suffocation. In one Of his pockets
was found a novel entitled Doomed on
the Deep" Still another case is that Of
q man who hid himself in the forepeak of
a steamer bound to London. While she
was proceeding up the Thames river she
was run into by another steamer and was
cut out to her collision bulkhead. The
| stowaway was crushed to death.
Many women have stolen passage
across the ocean. When the Dominion
liner Mariposa was totally wrecked in
the strait of Belle Isle, in September,
| 1895, the Allan line steamer Austrian
came along to rescue the passengers and
| crew. In making q roster and searching
| the ship two women stowaways were
| found. The Pacific steamer Monowai,
| on q trip to Sydney from San Francisco,
ran into a storm the first day out. AS
her master, Captain Carey, was descend
ing from the bridge to go to breakfast an
11-year-old girl as pale rs a ghost and
dreadfully seasick approached him.
| 81 know l have no right here" she said
to the skipper, "but l want to so to my
mother, who is in Australia, and l am
willing to work for my fare"
The girl gave her name as Rebecca
Levy and told the captain a straightfor-
ward story. She said that her father
had failed in business in San Francisco
and had sent his wife and two smaller
children back to their home in Melbourne.
| He died after that, and she had slipped
aboard the ship to get home to her wild
owed mother. The law compelled the
captain to enter the fact in the logbook,
and when the other passengers heard of
this they raised a purse for her fare.
| This they gave to the captain. He sent
for the little girl when the ship reached
| Sydney and handed her the money that
the passengers had subscribed, saying as
he did SO:
'If the British board of trade or any
body else wants to find fault because. you
/
them find fault with me. I've got little
girl Of my own, and she doesn't cry when
she gets money either. Goodby, and God
bless your
When the passengers cheered him as
they were going ashore, Captain Carey
| turned to them and said: "You mustn't
| think l would not fog full grown stow
away. / would. That isn't troubling
me, though. I'm thinking OF section 313
| of the merchant shipping act. Pm afraid
they'll make me toe that sesm." But
| they never did.
In nine cases ont Of every ten the
stowaway has outside aid in secreting
himself on board ship. But he is loyal
to his host, and there are few instances
where he has betrayed him. That's the
only feather in his cap.-New York Mail
and Express.
Many a young man would gladly per-