Year: 1873

An Old Sailor tells how the Intoxicated


'sheIIbacIks" are Picked up and sent to


Sea.


An old sailor who knows how to spin
his yarn tells a story of shangheing
times in New Orleans at q time when
sailors were scarce, and even 800 was
paid in advance. He says: The 500
advance was very temptin'. 1t was a
big pile of money for sailor man them
times. and to me, that had always been
used to SIS month, and only one
months advance, it seemed like small
fortune. / tell you, sir, chaps in New
Orleans had to look out for themselves
them times, or the first thing they
knowed they was down to the Belize,
shipping afore the mast, and agoin to
Liverpool or some other European port,
and they maybe had never gone to sea
in their lives afore. You see, sir, the
way they'd do was this: If they caught
a chap that was alittle lushy they'd give
him one or two horns as was doctored,
and he'd never know nothin' more till
he woke up the next mornin' at the Be-
lie. Ships used always to leave the le-
wee at about ten o'clock at night. The
tow would be made up in the afternoon
and the ship, one on each side of the
steamboat, would he took down to the
lower part of the city, and there they
would wait till the crews was brought
down at ten o'clock, and pretty lushy all
hands used to be, 1 can tell you. If
the mate got any of 'em sober enough
to haul in the lines arter she was let go
he was lucky. The captain or mate
used to get lantern out on deck and
call the roll of names on the articles, and
as each chap answered he would ask him
if he had signed the articles and got his
advance, and if the chap said yes it was
all right; and pretty much always they
did Say yes after they got SO far, for if
they didn't they knew there was always
some Of the runners right behind 'em
that would up fist and knock EN- down,
and then tell the captain that the man
had had his advance, but was now tryin'
to back out, and the captain couldn' tell.
He knew he'd paid $l0O for the man,
whether the man had got it or not, and
it generally ended in the man goin'
in the ship, advance or no advance.
/ Well, there was generally five or six
that was too drunk to muster, and they
would be took right to the forecastle
and put into hunks. Well the mate
would go for'ard and have a look at
these to see if they breathed if they
did all right, but there had been cases
of runners shippin' dead men, if so be
as how the mate wer'nt sharp, and so it
was necessary for to feel of 'em, and
see if they breathed Then the lines
were cast off, and the steamer took the
ships down the river, all hands abein'
turned in, and the next mornin' at day
light the mate would muster all hands
for to get the jibboon out, and then he'd
find out who he had. If half of 'em
was sailor men he was lucky. I mind
one time the captain of English bark
beih' little in the wind, as one might
say, some of these runners came athwart
him and got him for to take drink
with them, and then another, and that
fixed him. They took him to some crib
and took off his nice suit of clothes, and
put a blue flannel shirt and pair of
dungaree trousers on to him, and carted
him down aboard of American ship
bound to Havre, and they got $110 for
him, besides his clothes and watch and
whatevermoney might be in his pocket;
he didn't know how much. Well, he
went aft and stated his case to the cap
tain, but half dazed as he still was he
couldn't spin very straight yarn, and
so the captain thought it was only a
chap shammin' to jump the advance.
He knowed he'd paid for him, and so
he kicked him for'ard agin, and the
poor fellow would have gone to sea
sartin', if the captain of the tow-boat
hadn't happened to have know'd him,
and even he didn't 'cognize him at first;
but he did arter awhile, and then he
went to the captain of the ship and paid
him back the advance, and took the fell
low back in the steamboat. Well, he
couldn't do anythin' about it arter he
got to town, cause of course he couldn't
identify the chaps what done it, and he
didn't care to publish himself as havin'
been ON a spree by maxim any fuss
about it, SO he just stood the loss and
said nothin' There was plenty more
cases like this, but this wasn't so bad as
it was for workin' -men-tinkers and
painters, and tailors and what MOTTO
be took away from their families and
sent off to sea, not even KNOWN the
trade they was sent on and the way
them poor fellows was mauled and beat
was a caution, can tell you.