Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-10-20
BEFORE THE MAST.
San Francisco Preacher Forced to Take
Long Voyage.

mast In the days or the cnpper snips
and the packet lines may not all
know the origin Of the term "Shang-
hai," but any Of them can tell more
about the application Of the word
than does the New Century diction-
ary. In fact, the origin Of the word
is doubtful and all explanations are
little bit shady. The dictionary says the
word means to make a sailor insensi-
BILE by means Of drugs or by other
means, for the purpose or stealing
him on board ship or words to
that effect, while the old sailor says
It means to slug, beat up or dope
any person, whether he be sailor
or not, and bundle him aboard a ship
few hours before sailing for the
purpose Of receiving advance money.
In these days Of steam, stealing sail
ors, or "crimping," is sometimes re-
sorted to In order to secure a crew
for a vessel, and In Galveston the
practice Of stealing or inducing the
crew Of one ship to leave the vessel
In order to sell them to another cap
tain who Is short Of men was COM
mon practice even five years ago.
However, the United States marshal's
department has about discouraged the
practice and crews of ships in CAL
weston harbor are no longer molested.
Old sailors sometimes grow remi-
niscent and the hardships they once
endured lose their bitterness as they
tell the story of their lives or speak
of incidents Of their career Among
the old mariners at Galveston Is one
who occasionally spins yarn for
the entertainment Of his friends, and
the other day the word "Shanghaied"
in the heading of newspaper article
brought back old memories.
'It seems strange" said the cap
tain, ito read Of man being
shanghaied these days. but I remem-
Der the time when 1t was common
practice in nearly every port In the
world. In the days Of clipper ships
and packet liners there used to be
some mighty mean ships officers as
well as some mighty mean sailors be-
fore the mast, and there were but
few voyages made in which the be-
laying pins, revolver butts and other
weapons did not play a part In the
discipline of the crew. Many ofn-
GERS were noted for their strength
and their willingness to see how hard
they could hit man before the
mast, and on the other hand there
were men who would ship for the
purpose of trying their hand at beat
ing up the first or second mate. Pro-
family was at discount and believe
that II was In the old days that the
old saying OF swearing like a sailor
originated. At any rate, those were
days of excitement for the sailor, and
many men of peaceful inclinations
and no love for the sea often woke
up in the morning with heavy
head to find themselves in the stuffy
fo-castle with the mate standing over
them brawling out and asking them
II they calculated they shipped for
the purpose Of sleeping all day. You
see, there was a scarcity Of good men
and the advance money offered for
good seaman was an inducement
for sailors to desert their ship for
the purpose Of shipping aboard an
other vessel.
again. some ships had such
reputation that crew could not be
secured by ordinary methods, and re-
course was had to applying to board
ing house keepers who practiced
'shanghaing.' Naturally captain
did not care to ship any person who
was not familiar with the handling OF
ship, but oftentimes they could not
afford to investigate too closely. for
they did not wish to be directly iden-
tilted with the crime. 1t was this de-
sire to have some semblance OF legality
about signing a crew which gave the
professional shanghaier the chance to
bunco the captains, and they often did
Il. have known dead men to De
palmed off on captains at New Or
leans and the fraud would never be
discovered until the mate would try 10
arouse the man after he thought
he had had SUFFICIENT time to sleep
off his drunk or recover from the
effects of drugs or Of the slugging
| which he supposed had been given
him. This would not occur until after
the vessel was well out at sea, and the
captain had no recourse but to- pitch
the body overheard and mark down
the price Of his purchase to his ex-
pense account.
have known lawyers and even
ministers Of the gospel to be sand
bagged and brought aboard q vessel
and palmed off as sailors. well re-
membered a case wnich occurred In
San Francisco, where q preacher was
slugged and put aboard vessel bound
for the China coast. After he had re-
covered his senses and found where he
was he entered strong protest but
was met by the mate with a string OF
oaths and a threat to break his head
II he did not proceed to get busy. Az
ter expostulating and appealing to the
captain, from whom he did not receiv-
ed any more consideration than he
did from the mate, he accepted the
situation and did the best he could.
Not being q sailor and not physically
strong. he was set to scrubbins the
deck. helping the cook and doing other
chores. and proving his willingness ne
received very fair treatment the rest
of the voyage. The voyage proved to
be a long one, and 1t was nearly three
months before he found the opportu-
nifty to mail letter to his family ana
of course, 1t was as long again before
they received the news that he was
still alive. That preacher learned
enough of sailoring on the voyage to
make himself useful on board ship
and he had no trouble in finding ship,
which, after several months, brought
him back to his native country, but to
New York instead Of San Francisco.
Trans continental travelling was not
what it is now, and so the preacher
sailor shipped again, and at last found
| himself with his family at San Fran