The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-04
Ocean Migrants
Stories of Stowaways and
Their Misfortunes.

They call them 'stowaways" in tn,
ships Iogbook, which is a mild way o.
expressing the muffied curses that &c
with them down to the sea. There wa:
time when sto8aways were hanged, &
proceeding that, according to all officia
accounts, has not materially reduced
their numbers. To protect the share
holders OF her triple expansions and com.
pounds, England deals quite severely with
the chaps who steal free passage. Rus
sian master marinesrs have been known
to fog them numerically, and Italy
makes them wish they never were born
America gives them a good scolding
threatens all sorts of punishment and
ends up by plying them.
Human nature was always weak and
the mkseries 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, a
treason, well founded or otherwise, for
this. The average tar firmly believes that
disaster cannot overtake q vessel which
has a stowaway on board. Not long since
the Leyland-Furness Line lost one of its
ships in mid-Atlantic, and among the
first to land here with the crew was an
emaciated stowaway.
Strange that you lost your ship with
this chap on board" remarked a South
street sea lawyer to the third officer, a
Newcastle man and naturally superstiti-
Gus
Nothing strange about it," he said.
You see this is a cross-eyed stowa way. -
There arc any number of reasons for
the factcthat sailors consider ship with
a stowaway on it to be perfectly safe.
One authority on marine superstitions
says that a stowaway who was discovered
on a ship before she sailed was promptly
put ashore by the officers. When he got
on the pier he shook his fist savagely and
said:
I'm glad you've turned me off your
rotten old tub. Neither she nor you will
live to see Christmas day, while 1 shall''
This ship never turned up according to
the lore of the beachcombers, and from
that day to this a 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 experiences Of
some of these impecunious tourists. The
American immigration authorities view
a stowaway in much the same light
I that a pauper immigrant is considered.
1 1t is mandatory on the master of a ship
bringing a stowaway to the United States
/ that ne, as the first agent of the owners.
] I.
/ atty of a heavy fine for the stowaway's
deportation. This law is not calculated
to put the master mariner in a happy
frame Of mind and he treats the unbidden
passenger as he thinks he should be
treated.
There is no doubt that some have re-
! ceived very severe handling from irate
shippers. Not long ago a Cuban named
Charles Clement was picked from the
water off He'll Gate. He told the author
ities that he was a stowaway on the
British tramp steamer High Fields, and
had smuggled himself aboard at Barba-
does. The vessel discharged at Brooklyn,
and, as he was not accounted for on the
ships official papers, the authorities gave
her captain the option of taking the
man along or paying his fare back to the
West Indies Clement says he was after
ward set upon by two officers of the ship,
who beat him to insensihility, that he
was then put in irons and confined below
decks. While incarcerated there one of
the officers told him that, as soon as
the vessel was out at sea, he was TO be
done away with and his body thrown over
board. While the vessel was going
through He'll Gate en- route to Halifax to
load for the West Indies, and the officers
and crew were absorbed with their duties,
he seized the opportunity to make his
escape. With an iron bar he pried open
the door of the room in which he was
confined and, with handouts and all.
rushed to- the deck and sprang over the
side He was rapidly sinking when picked
up by a rowboat containing Arthur Don
nelly, keeper of the He'll Gate lighthouse,
and a man named Wood. He was turned
over to the Astoria police, and TO them
showed the bruises which he said he
had sustained at the hands of the officers
of the steamer.
Another instance Of stowaway's jump
ing into the sea occurred off Cape Henry
two years ago. The schooner Cactus was
bound to New York from Baltimore, when
she found man clinging to a life pre-
server. He was more dead than alive
when picked up, and did not regain con-
seriousness for two days after being res
cued.. He finally gave his name as
George Moore, and said that he had
slowed away at Liverpool on the steamer
Templemore bound to Baltimore. The
sideration, ne added. He was told that
the immigration authorities at Baltimore
were half savages, and that it was the
custom of the country to hang stowaways
to the nearest Ismp-post He was shown
pictures of these lynchings. and they
impressed him to such a degree that he
decided to jump overheard the minute
land was sighted When the Templemore
picked up Cape Henry light. the man
grabbed a life pTeserver, and before any
body could stop him jumped into the
sea. He was in the water fourteen hours
when the Cactus saved him. The saddest
feature of the whole thing is that the
Immigration authorities sent him back TO
Liverpool when he landed al New York.
Countless numbers Of stowaways have
died in their attempt TO cross the ocean.
The average steamer has many dark
holes in her big interior, and. notwith-
standing the fact that ship seldom
leaves port without a search being made
to see that no unauthorized person IS on
board, many succeed in eluding detection.
It is only a. few years since one Of the
regular liners arrived in New York with
the dead body Of stowawsy. He had
raaped and hammered on tire zfzp'z
hatch without avail when the ship was
outside sight Of land. and had starved 70