The Grit-advocate., 1900-04-20
SAILORS SUPERSTlTIONS RE-
CARDING STOWAWAYS.
Not Shared in by ships' Omcers and
This Glass of ''Deadbeats" Conse-
quentIy Suffer Great Hardships-some
Die in Attempts to Cross the Deep.

and that no vessel can go down with
one of them on board. But there Is
different opinion among the officers
and owners Of vessels. and In accord
ance with this the stowaway's lot is
. hard one The American immiSra-
ton authorities view stowaway In
much the same light that pauper i'm
migrant is considered. 1t is manda-
tory on the master Of ship bringing
q stowaway to the United States that
he, as the first agent Of the owners, be
personally responsible, under heavy
dne. for the stowaway's deportation.
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 treat
Cd. Not long ago Cuban named
Charles Clement was picked from the
water of He'll Gate. He told the au-
thorities he was a stowaway on the
British tramp steamer High Fields and
had smuggled himself aboard at the
Barbados. The vessel discharged in
Brooklyn, and. as he was not account
ed for on the ships official papers, the
authorities gave her captain the op-
tion of taking the man along or pay
ing his way back to the West Indies.
Clement says he was afterward set up
on by two officers of the ship, who beat
him into insensibility, 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 overheard. While the vessel
was going through He'll Gate en- route
TO Halifax 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 rap
Idly sinking when picked up by row.
boat. Another instance Of stowa-
ways jumping into the sea occurred
of Cape Henry two years ago. The
schooner Cactus was brought to New
York from Baltimore, where she found
a man clinging to life preserver. He
said he had been slowed away at Liv-
erpool on the steamer Templemore.
The officers did not treat him with
much consideration, he added. He was
told that the immigration officers of
Baltimore were half savages, and that
1t was the custom of the country to
hang stowaways to the nearest lamp
post. When the Templemore reached
Cape Henry light the man grabbed a
life preserver and before anybody
could stop him jumped into the sea.
He was in the water fourteen hours,
when the Cactus saved him. The sad
dest feature of the whole thing is that
the immigration authorities sent him
back to Liverpool when he landed
here.
Countless numbers Of stowaways
have died 3n attempts to cross the
ocean. The average steamer has many
dark holes in her big interior, and, not
withstanding the fact that ship sell
dom leaves port without search being
made to see that no unauthorized per-
son is on board, many succeed in elud-
ing detection. 1t is only few years
since one Of the regular lines arrived
with the dead body Of a stowaway In
her hold. He had raped and ham
mered on the ships hatch without
avail when the ship was outside sight
Of land, and had starved to death.
In another instance a man hid himself
in a chain locker, and when the anchor
was hove up he was crushed to DEATH
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