Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-03

few hours sleep which their dead-tired
bodies take. usually. in the salt-incrusted
clothes which they have worn through
out the day.
The four men shanghaied on the bug
eye shipped for one trip. Already the
debt they owe the captain for their oil
skins and boots has held them for a
month additional. Day by day over their
heart-break king work they watch the hold
fill higher and higher with oysters. and
their hopes, beaten down by the disgust
ing food and accommodations. begin to
rise. With a full ship-Baltimore and
release.
Finally the hold is filed. the matches
battened down and the bugeye's nose
is turned. SO the shanghaied ones think
toward Canton Hollow. Then the cap
tain gives his wheel turn. and along
side comes another ''bugeye. Ha;ches
are whipped off and the oyster dred gers
are made to transfer the oysters into the
hold of the second ''bugeye." Then tie
dredgers learn that the boat on which
they have been working is the lay
boat, and the one which they have lust
loaded is the run boat. which carries
the oysters back to Baltimore There
fore the single trip of the shanghaied M n
may be made to last a whole season
Sometimes, when a man insists he is
set ashore after his first month but he
has no money, all of his pay having gone
to liquidate his debt, and then begins a
long tramp up shore toward Baltimore
SUCH wanderers pass through Washing
ton frequently. and many are the tales
they tell they apply for admission 10
the charitable institutions Of the capital
To government official was told a
tale OF unmarked graves along the lower
river beaches, where lie the bodies of
men who have died result OF blows
from Delaying pins. privation and hard
work
The cruelty Of the captains to their
crews, however, is much less prevalent
today than il was a few years ago. The
United States revenue cutter Apache, the
ship assigned to the Chesapeake BAY
cruising grounds, now patrols the oyster
fleet regularly and is on the lookout for
cruel treatment to men.
The officers of the Apache are arbiters
and will take A man off any boat. IL while
she cruises about she is hailed and COM
paint made. Occasionally United States
. Marshal Langhamer of Baltimore makes
a trip, and sometimes these trips result
in some captain being brought back to
Baltimore for trial.
The law under which the captains Of
the oyster feet are sometimes prosecuted
was passed as the result OF the finding
of the bodies of two men after they had
been shanghaied. Their dead bodies wers
found upon beach in the lower bay.
The revenue cutter Window which then
cruised the bay. was ordered to investj-
gate, and. with United States Commits
sioner Bond. Marshal Langhamer. his
deputy. Zimmerman, and two secret sery-
ice men aboard. November %, 1906, began
her cruise OF investigation.
During the following four weeks more
than. 100 oyster boats were boarded. wi \
the result that several captains were
brought to Baltimore for trial on charg =
of cruelty 10 their crews, among then, n
certain skipper. He was caught i'm the
tolls of the law later, when he was -
first skipper TO be are sted unde.- e
new prohibitory act.
At the time of the WINDOWS trim hox-
ever, four men were taken from oys.er
boats who declared that they had b "a
mlserably treated. and one man vas
taken to the Marine Hospital in Phila-
delphia for treatment
One captain was arrested for viola firr
the new law, charged with hav.n,
shanghaied a man from Philadelphia
The victim said that he was offered WORK
on the sloop, went out TO investigate and
that when he was about to leave the
boat the captain felled him to the foor
in an effort to keep him as an emplove
His cries were heard ashore and a boat
load of policemen came to his rescue
Shipping agents have been known to
have shipped men under the pretense
that they would serve as walters and
bartenderS, and once a Young Philade--
phia boy. unacquainted with the life Of
the lower Chesapeake, signed up because
he was told that much money could be-
made among the dredgers as barber.