The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-18
MANY SAILORS
ARE SHANCHA|ED
Practice of Stealing Men for
Long Voyages Said to Go
on Extensively.

laws that exist against the practice.
The rude, rough, knock-down proc
ess of kidnapping sailors went out of
date with the old wooden frigates. A
man is seen sitting in a public park
or outside of public house. A stran-
ger approaches him. They walk away.
The man disappears. That is all. The
man who has vanished may be heard
of again in Frisco, Singapore, Mar
settles, or Cape Town. But he may
not. The men that disappear gener-
ally stay disappeared.
So the "crimper" and shipping mas
ter'S runner who Shanghais a man is
as safe in his crime as the fnancier
who waters the stock of a 100000
concern and sells it for $1,000, 900. In
a year not a single member of the
gang of grafters, shanghaiers, crimp-
ers and kidnapers along the water
front has been arrested for stealing
man. Yet scarcely a week passes, and
certainly not a month, that some man,
some poor unfortunate who is friend
less and alone in the great city, is put
aboard ship and sent to the antipodes.
And yet there are British and Ger
man vessels clearing from this port
that will carry from one to three or
four shanghaied men every week or
so. OF these men nothing is ever
heard. They just stay shanghaied,
and as a rule are thankful at the end
of their voyages to have their pay COM
ing to them and to escape being drop
ped at some strange port without
means and without friends.
Done for Deep Water Ships.
In the first place, shanghaiing is
done for deep water vessels as gen.
eral rule, ships that are sailing for far
distant ports. The farther the better,
as a matter of fact.
Let us take the case of a deep wa
ter sailing ship that needs a crew of
twenty men. Now, the first thing that
the captain wants to ship is his crew.
Their pay starts from the moment that
they sign the articles and come on
shipboard. So also must he pay the
bonus for them when they are deliver
ed. Now, a sailor gets 500 a month,
and with a crew of twenty men it is
quite an item to save three or four
days pay.
The captain is perhaps waiting or
ders, or waiting for a turn in the tide
or the wind, or he may have cargo
on board and he may have orders not
to sail until certain day. The proper
time for him to sail may be Sunday
morning when the custom house is
closed, when the consul of his country
may be far away from the city, and so
he must take out his clearance papers,
say, on Thursday or Friday.
The shipping master, who is his
friend, goes out and gathers up
bunch of loafers, and, by giving them
10 or Is cents a head, twenty will
march up to the consuPs office and
sign the ships articles. They receive
their drink money and quietly d1sap-
pear. The captain then goes to the
custom house, clears his ship, tucks
LII hi wit h q n
easy conscience waits for sailing time.
He receives orders to get out of port
Sunday morning, and so Saturday
afternoon he drops into the shipping
masters office and says: I'll want
that crew for tomorrow morning"
Then he disappears and doesn't bother
about anything. He knows that he will
get a crew, the best one possible I'M
der the circumstances.
The shipping master has his runners.
These are clever, long-headed fellows
that know the laws relative to kdnap-
ing and forcible detention as well as
the grammar school girl knows her A,
B, Cs The runner visits the sailors
boarding houses and notifies the pro-
prietors that he wants the men that
have been promised him.
Finds Some Short.
So the boarding house proprietor, or,
as he is better known, the boarding
master, picks out the men that have
promised to sail with the ship, and
after collecting the money from them
for their real and mythical debts, he
marches them with their bags to the
shipping master and arranges to re-
ceive his share of the bonus and the
plumber that will be distributed. But
when the shipping master has counted
noses he finds that he is one man or
maybe two or three men short. Then
comes another Scurry around among
the boarding masters. Not another
man can be found who will make the
voyage. They are either waiting for
their ships or they are flush. When a
sailor is flush there is no use talking to
him about taking another ship.
At last, having tried every available
legal method, the runner saunters out
into a public square. He takes stock
of those who are there and picks out
the man who is most likely to be of
service to him. 1t is generally some
husky fellow whose appearance shows
he is fond of drink and whose clothes
show that he is out of work. The run
ner enters into conversation with Mr..
Idler and finally asks him to have
drink with him. The man accepts and
then they adjourn to the nearest bar
room and have a couple Of deep So
cial glasses together.
By degrees they edge to the dark lit
tie place where the strength of the
rum or the potency of the drug that is
mixed with 1t sends the victim into
that limbo where he must sleep for fff-
teen or twenty hours before he wakes
BY this time it is perhaps midnight
The runner sends for a couple of his
friends, and together they drag the
victim to the water front, where he is
put aboard the ship in a most public
and careless manner. tucked away in
a bunk, where he will lie until the ship
is pretty well cut at sea. Thereafter
he will take his orders and do his work
like, any other man forward.
It is perhaps six months or a year
before Mr.. Idler works his way back.
By that time he cannot identity the
shipping masters runner or the girl
with the bottomless thirst Even if he
did. the others could prove a thousand
alibis and so confuse their victim that
he would be glad to drop the case al
together.
It may be said with little untruth
that neither the captains, nor the ship
ping masters, nor the boarding masters
ever know Officially that a man is
shanghaied. No questions are ever
asked. The case is sized up in the
twinkling of an eye, the proper reme-