The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-21
SAILORS A
WILD LOT
Trouble on Phelps
onVoyage From
Norfolk.
SAILORS PAY
CUT DOWN AT SEA
Accuse Officers of III Treatment.
Captain Says Men Are
Scum of Earth.


the white flyer''-as the ship Erskine
i NJ Phelps is known-when Captain
Graham had the sailors brought back
! to the cabin and each one sign his
name to an agreement in the ships log
that his wages should be reduced from
eighteen dollars a month to anywhere
| from eight to twelve dollars a month.
This was done because the captain
/ claimed that they were not sailors and
not capable of doing the work they
were hired for. The men were dis
| charged from the ship yesterday and
will be paid off ,oday when the whole
matter about wages and alleged ILL.,
usage of the crew by the officers of the
vessel will be threshed out.
The fine, gracefully built sailers of
the Arthur Sewal1 line have reputa-
ton the world over for being rough
| ships and for this reason the class of
men that go aboard them for the long
passages around Cape Horn are usually
/ desperate characteristic scum of a
| dozen nations The men who were
brought on board the Phelps when she
| lay in Chesapeake Bay were of class
| that will not make very desirable citi-
zens for Honolulu. They were brought
| out to the vessel in a tug boat and as
soon as they were passed on board the
ship set sail The men were practical
lily shanghaied-the great majority be-
| ing men who were picked up drunk
around the saloons of the tough sec
/ ton of Baltimore They had no sail
ors' kits and many of them were very
ragged when they went on board.
| Among twenty men who were shipped
as able bodied seamen only two were
! sailors. Some of the men had been to
sea as coal passers on steamers, but
/ Captain Graham says the greater por-
| ton of them were 'nobos." They had
never been used to any sort of hard
work and could not understand how or
why they had to keep certain watches.
| Very few of the men could steer
! About two-thirds of them had never
previously climbed TO height of thirty
feet to say nothing of climbing mast
| a hundred and fifty feet in height and
then going out thirty feet to the end
| of a yard. The result was that for the
| first few days the officers of the vessel
and the two sailors had to do all the
work When squat came up the few
men who were acquainted with the JOB
| had to do marvelously quick work up
aloft in order to stow the sails in time
cargo it was a serious matter that five
| men should have to do all this work.
Going around the Horn many men
! had to be sent aloft to work on the icy
yards. In many cases the mate would
have a half dozen men on a yard with
! him but ne would have to do all the
work of slowing or shaping out sail
as the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. he had with
him had to devote all of their lazy
energies to keep from slipping off into
! the icy sea beneath.
| Very few of the men could steer.
Some of the men were not even intelli-
gent enough to know the directions
on the compass and ~the mate of the
vessel says that there were some men
who even thought they would finu
north on the opposite direction from
| west
AS soon as the captain learned that
| the men he had were more suitable for
riding in hammocks beneath the iron
rods of freight cars than on the roll
| ing yards of a ship he promptly re-
duced their pay.
! After their three months work some
of the men will today receive less than
thirty and even as low as twenty dol
lars for their quarter of years stay
| aboard ship and with such small
amount in their possession how long
will it be before they are stranded in
Honolulu?
The mate of the vessel is authority
for the statement that the fo'asle or
the ship was a second edition of
| "hades.' The men were quarrelling
among themselves nearly all the time
they were off watch and frequently
knives were brought into play. The
men declared the cook a poor one and
threw their food into the scuppers
Many of them threatened to kill the
mate as soon as they should get him
ashore at Honolulu.
a batch of them called at the Ad-
vertiser office yesterday. They told
gIaring tales of i'll treatment aboard
the ship. according to their stories
they were never nnown by name aboard
ship A Pole who has the misfortune
to have a big nose says that the mate
always referred to him as you big
nosed --." According to the sailors
the vocabulary of the officers of the
Phelps is the most varied and contain:
more words not to be found in diction
aries than the vocbularies of the off
GERS of windjammers-pirate ship:
not excepted-that ever sailed on th'
high seas.
Honolulu will hear and see more O
the crew brought in by the famou:
white flyer
1t is hard for one to imagine TIL
great contrast between the yacht like
or better than yacht like. and commo
dious living rooms of the captain ant
his family in the afterpart OF the shil
where the gentle words of a woman
the rattle of a sewing machine or thu
music thumped out of a piano can b.