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Shanghaiing

February 15, 2024

Shanghaiing or crimping is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps. The related term press gang refers specifically to impressment practices in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy.[1]

Etymology edit

The verb "shanghai" joined the lexicon with "crimping" and "sailor thieves" in the 1850s, possibly because Shanghai was a common destination of the ships with abducted crews.[1][2] The term has since expanded to mean "kidnapped" or "induced to do something by means of fraud or coercion".[3]

Background edit

 
The shipping articles, or contract between the crew and the ship, from a 1786 voyage to Boston.

Crimps flourished in port cities like London and Liverpool in England and in San Francisco,[4] Portland,[5] Astoria,[6] Seattle,[7] Savannah, and Port Townsend[8] in the United States. On the West Coast of the United States, Portland eventually surpassed San Francisco for shanghaiing. On the East Coast of the United States, New York had the most incidents, followed by Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.[9]

The role of crimps and the spread of the practice of shanghaiing resulted from a combination of laws, economic conditions, and the shortage of experienced sailors in England and on the American West Coast in the mid-19th century.

First, once an American sailor signed on board a vessel for a voyage, it was illegal for him to leave the ship before the voyage's end. The penalty was imprisonment, the result of federal legislation enacted in 1790[10] (this factor was mitigated by the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898, and finally abolished by the Seamen's Act of 1915).

Second, the practice was driven by a shortage of labor, particularly of skilled labor on ships on the West Coast. With crews abandoning ships en masse because of the California Gold Rush, a healthy body on board the ship was a boon.[11][12]

By 1886, San Francisco surpassed New Bedford, Massachusetts as the United States' leading whaling port.[13]

Finally, shanghaiing was made possible by the existence of boarding masters, whose job was to find crews for ships. Boarding masters were paid "by the body", and thus had a strong incentive to place as many seamen on ships as possible.[11] This pay was called "blood money", and was just one of the revenue streams available.[14] These factors set the stage for the crimp: a boarding master who uses trickery, intimidation, or violence to put a sailor on a ship.[15]

The most straightforward method for a crimp to shanghai a sailor was to render him unconscious, forge his signature on the ship's articles, and pick up his "blood money". This approach was widely used, but there were more profitable methods.[14]

In some situations, the boarding master could receive the first two, three, or four months of wages of a man he shipped out.[11] Sailors were able to get an advance against their pay for an upcoming voyage to allow them to purchase clothes and equipment, but the advance wasn't paid directly to the sailor because he could simply abscond with the money. Instead, those to whom money was owed could claim it directly from the ship's captain. An enterprising crimp, already dealing with a seaman, could supplement his income by supplying goods and services to the seaman at an inflated price, and collecting the debt from the sailor's captain.[14]

Some crimps made as much as $9,500 per year (equivalent to $310,000 in 2022).[16]

The crimps were well positioned politically to protect their lucrative trade.[17]

Some examples included Jim "Shanghai" Kelly and Johnny "Shanghai Chicken" Devine of San Francisco, and Joseph "Bunko" Kelly of Portland.[17] Stories of their ruthlessness are innumerable, and some made it into print.

Another example of romanticized stories involves the "birthday party" Shanghai Kelly threw for himself, in order to attract enough victims to man a notorious sailing ship named the Reefer and two other ships.

Ending the practice edit

 
Andrew Furuseth (left) and Senator La Follette (center) were the architects of the Seamen's Act of 1915. With muckraker Lincoln Steffens, circa 1915.

Demand for manpower to keep ships sailing to Alaska and the Klondike kept crimping a real danger into the early 20th century, but the practice was finally ended by a series of legislative reforms that spanned almost 50 years.

Before 1865, maritime labor laws primarily enforced stricter discipline on board ships.[18] However, after 1865, this began to change. In 1868, New York State started cracking down on sailors' boardinghouses. They declined in number from 169 in 1863 to 90 in 1872.[19] Then in 1871, Congress passed legislation to revoke the license of officers guilty of mistreating seamen.[19]

In 1872, Congress passed the Shipping Commissioners Act of 1872 to combat crimps.[19] Under this act, a sailor had to sign on to a ship in the presence of a federal shipping commissioner.[19] The presence of a shipping commissioner was intended to ensure the sailor wasn't "forcibly or unknowingly signed on by a crimp".[19]

In 1884, the Dingley Act came into effect. This law prohibited the practice of seamen taking advances on wages.[20] It also limited the making of seamen's allotments to only close relatives.[20] However, the crimps fought back. In 1886, a loophole to the Dingley Act was created, allowing boardinghouse keepers to receive seamen's allotments.[20]

The widespread adoption of steam-powered vessels in the world's merchant marine services in the late 19th and early 20th centuries radically altered the economics of seafaring. Without acres of canvas to be furled and unfurled, the demand for unskilled labor greatly diminished (and, by extension, crimping). The sinking of the RMS Titanic, followed by the onset of World War I (which made the high seas a much more dangerous place due to the threat of submarine attack), provided the final impetus to stamp out the practice. In 1915, Andrew Furuseth and Senator Robert M. La Follette pushed through the Seamen's Act of 1915 that made crimping a federal crime, and finally put an end to it.

Notable crimps edit

  • Maxwell Levy, Port Townsend's Crimper King
  • James "Shanghai" Kelly of San Francisco[17]
  • Johnny "Shanghai Chicken" Devine of San Francisco[17]
  • Joseph "Bunko" Kelly of Portland[17]
  • "One-Eyed" Curtin[17]
  • "Horseshoe" Brown[17]
  • Dorothy Paupitz of San Francisco[17]
  • Andy "Shanghai Canuck" Maloney of Vancouver[17]
  • Anna Gomes of San Francisco[17]
  • Thomas Chandler[17]
  • James Laflin[17]
  • Chris "Blind Boss" Buckley, the Democratic Party boss of San Francisco in the 1880s[17]
  • William T. Higgins, Republican Party boss of San Francisco in the 1870s and '80s[17]
  • "Shanghai Joe" of New Bedford, Mass.[21]
  • Tom Codd the Shanghai Prince of New Bedford, Mass.[22]
  • James Turk of Portland[23]
  • Billy Gohl, known as "the Ghoul of Grays Harbor", of Aberdeen, Washington (also a known serial killer)
  • Tommy Moore of Buenos Aires[24]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b "Crimp" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 07 (11th ed.). 1911.
  2. ^ "Shanghai". dictionary.com. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  3. ^ For a modern definition of "shanghaied" see wikt:shanghaied.
  4. ^ "San Francisco Shangaiers 1886-1890". Collections & Research. Mystic Seaport Museum. 31 December 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2022. In 2005 Mystic Seaport Museum received, in database form, information gathered from a rare source, the ledger book of 19th century shipping master James Laflin. This ledger is accessible through the J. Porter Shaw Library, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. For more information, visit: The San Francisco Shanghaiers Database.
  5. ^ Michael P. Jones. . Archived from the original on 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  6. ^ . Astoria Riverfront Trolley Association. Archived from the original on 2007-05-14. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  7. ^ "Boy named Henry Short shanghaied from Seattle on December 22, 1901". historylink.org. Retrieved 2007-04-05.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ "Levy, Maxwell (d. 1931), Port Townsend's Crimper King". historylink.org. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  9. ^ Dillon, Richard H (1961). Shanghaiing Days. New York: Coward-McCann. p. 234. OCLC 1226774.
  10. ^ . Barnard's Electronic Archive and Teaching Library. Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
  11. ^ a b c Hope, Ronald (2001). Poor Jack: The Perilous History of the Merchant Seaman. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-86176-161-9.
  12. ^ (PDF). Sailors Union of the Pacific. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-05-12. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  13. ^ "whaling-timeline" (PDF). npshistory.com. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  14. ^ a b c Georgia Smith (1988). . Reclaiming San Francisco: History Politics and Culture, a City Lights Anthology. City Lights. Archived from the original on 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  15. ^ "Sailor Boarding Masters, ETC". San Francisco News Letter. Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. February 19, 1881. Retrieved March 23, 2010.
  16. ^ "Purchasing Power Today of a US Dollar Transaction in the Past". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bill Pickelhaupt. . Archived from the original on 2006-12-11. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  18. ^ Bauer, 1988:283.
  19. ^ a b c d e Bauer, 1988:284.
  20. ^ a b c Bauer, 1988:285.
  21. ^ Halter, Marilyn (1993). Between Race and Ethnicity: Cape Verdean American Immigrants, 1860–1965. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06326-8. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  22. ^ Williams, James H. (1921). A Tall Water Story of Adventure Aboard a Whaling Ship.
  23. ^ (PDF). Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  24. ^ Dowling, Robert M. (2009). Critical Companion to Eugene O'Neill, 2-Volume Set. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-0872-8.

References edit

  • Bauer, K. Jack (1988). A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina. ISBN 0-87249-519-1.
  • Samuel Dickson. "Shanghai Kelly" in Tales of San Francisco. Stanford: University Press. 1957.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crimp" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 07 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 465.
  • Gutoff, Johnathan M. (2005). (Report). Roger Williams University School of Law. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
  • Stewart Holbrook, "Bunco Kelly, King of the Crimps" in Wildmen, Wobblies & Whistle Punks, edited by Biran Booth. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-87071-383-3
  • Hoover, Elizabeth D. (May 5, 2006). . AmericanHeritage.com. Archived from the original on 2006-05-07. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
  • Keller, David Neal (September 1995). . American Heritage Magazine. 46 (5). Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  • . Mission to Seafarers. Archived from the original on 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  • Pickelhaupt, Bill (1996). Shanghaied in San Francisco. San Francisco: UFlyblister Press. ISBN 0-9647312-2-3.
  • (PDF). Sailors' Union of the Pacific. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-05-12. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  • . Sailors' Union of the Pacific. Archived from the original on 2001-04-11. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  • (PDF). Sailors' Union of the Pacific. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-04-05. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  • Smith, Georgia (1988). . Reclaiming San Francisco: History Politics and Culture, a City Lights Anthology. City Lights. Archived from the original on 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  • Strecker, Mark. Shanghaiing Sailors: A Maritime History of Forced Labor, 1849/1915 (McFarland & Company, 2014), comprehensive scholarly history. 260 pp. online review.

External links edit

  • "Sailor 'Boarding Masters,' etc." San Francisco News Letter February 19, 1881.
  • at StupidQuestion.net.
  • has a section on crimping.
  • – a New Bedford, Mass., account.
  • An account of crimping for the East India Company in London – 1767.

February 15, 2024
shanghaiing, crimping, practice, kidnapping, people, serve, sailors, coercive, techniques, such, trickery, intimidation, violence, those, engaged, this, form, kidnapping, were, known, crimps, related, term, press, gang, refers, specifically, impressment, pract. Shanghaiing or crimping is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery intimidation or violence Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps The related term press gang refers specifically to impressment practices in the United Kingdom s Royal Navy 1 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Background 3 Ending the practice 4 Notable crimps 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksEtymology editThe verb shanghai joined the lexicon with crimping and sailor thieves in the 1850s possibly because Shanghai was a common destination of the ships with abducted crews 1 2 The term has since expanded to mean kidnapped or induced to do something by means of fraud or coercion 3 Background edit nbsp The shipping articles or contract between the crew and the ship from a 1786 voyage to Boston Crimps flourished in port cities like London and Liverpool in England and in San Francisco 4 Portland 5 Astoria 6 Seattle 7 Savannah and Port Townsend 8 in the United States On the West Coast of the United States Portland eventually surpassed San Francisco for shanghaiing On the East Coast of the United States New York had the most incidents followed by Boston Philadelphia and Baltimore 9 The role of crimps and the spread of the practice of shanghaiing resulted from a combination of laws economic conditions and the shortage of experienced sailors in England and on the American West Coast in the mid 19th century First once an American sailor signed on board a vessel for a voyage it was illegal for him to leave the ship before the voyage s end The penalty was imprisonment the result of federal legislation enacted in 1790 10 this factor was mitigated by the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898 and finally abolished by the Seamen s Act of 1915 Second the practice was driven by a shortage of labor particularly of skilled labor on ships on the West Coast With crews abandoning ships en masse because of the California Gold Rush a healthy body on board the ship was a boon 11 12 By 1886 San Francisco surpassed New Bedford Massachusetts as the United States leading whaling port 13 Finally shanghaiing was made possible by the existence of boarding masters whose job was to find crews for ships Boarding masters were paid by the body and thus had a strong incentive to place as many seamen on ships as possible 11 This pay was called blood money and was just one of the revenue streams available 14 These factors set the stage for the crimp a boarding master who uses trickery intimidation or violence to put a sailor on a ship 15 The most straightforward method for a crimp to shanghai a sailor was to render him unconscious forge his signature on the ship s articles and pick up his blood money This approach was widely used but there were more profitable methods 14 In some situations the boarding master could receive the first two three or four months of wages of a man he shipped out 11 Sailors were able to get an advance against their pay for an upcoming voyage to allow them to purchase clothes and equipment but the advance wasn t paid directly to the sailor because he could simply abscond with the money Instead those to whom money was owed could claim it directly from the ship s captain An enterprising crimp already dealing with a seaman could supplement his income by supplying goods and services to the seaman at an inflated price and collecting the debt from the sailor s captain 14 Some crimps made as much as 9 500 per year equivalent to 310 000 in 2022 16 The crimps were well positioned politically to protect their lucrative trade 17 Some examples included Jim Shanghai Kelly and Johnny Shanghai Chicken Devine of San Francisco and Joseph Bunko Kelly of Portland 17 Stories of their ruthlessness are innumerable and some made it into print Another example of romanticized stories involves the birthday party Shanghai Kelly threw for himself in order to attract enough victims to man a notorious sailing ship named the Reefer and two other ships Ending the practice edit nbsp Andrew Furuseth left and Senator La Follette center were the architects of the Seamen s Act of 1915 With muckraker Lincoln Steffens circa 1915 Demand for manpower to keep ships sailing to Alaska and the Klondike kept crimping a real danger into the early 20th century but the practice was finally ended by a series of legislative reforms that spanned almost 50 years Before 1865 maritime labor laws primarily enforced stricter discipline on board ships 18 However after 1865 this began to change In 1868 New York State started cracking down on sailors boardinghouses They declined in number from 169 in 1863 to 90 in 1872 19 Then in 1871 Congress passed legislation to revoke the license of officers guilty of mistreating seamen 19 In 1872 Congress passed the Shipping Commissioners Act of 1872 to combat crimps 19 Under this act a sailor had to sign on to a ship in the presence of a federal shipping commissioner 19 The presence of a shipping commissioner was intended to ensure the sailor wasn t forcibly or unknowingly signed on by a crimp 19 In 1884 the Dingley Act came into effect This law prohibited the practice of seamen taking advances on wages 20 It also limited the making of seamen s allotments to only close relatives 20 However the crimps fought back In 1886 a loophole to the Dingley Act was created allowing boardinghouse keepers to receive seamen s allotments 20 The widespread adoption of steam powered vessels in the world s merchant marine services in the late 19th and early 20th centuries radically altered the economics of seafaring Without acres of canvas to be furled and unfurled the demand for unskilled labor greatly diminished and by extension crimping The sinking of the RMS Titanic followed by the onset of World War I which made the high seas a much more dangerous place due to the threat of submarine attack provided the final impetus to stamp out the practice In 1915 Andrew Furuseth and Senator Robert M La Follette pushed through the Seamen s Act of 1915 that made crimping a federal crime and finally put an end to it Notable crimps editMaxwell Levy Port Townsend s Crimper King James Shanghai Kelly of San Francisco 17 Johnny Shanghai Chicken Devine of San Francisco 17 Joseph Bunko Kelly of Portland 17 One Eyed Curtin 17 Horseshoe Brown 17 Dorothy Paupitz of San Francisco 17 Andy Shanghai Canuck Maloney of Vancouver 17 Anna Gomes of San Francisco 17 Thomas Chandler 17 James Laflin 17 Chris Blind Boss Buckley the Democratic Party boss of San Francisco in the 1880s 17 William T Higgins Republican Party boss of San Francisco in the 1870s and 80s 17 Shanghai Joe of New Bedford Mass 21 Tom Codd the Shanghai Prince of New Bedford Mass 22 James Turk of Portland 23 Billy Gohl known as the Ghoul of Grays Harbor of Aberdeen Washington also a known serial killer Tommy Moore of Buenos Aires 24 See also edit nbsp Transport portal nbsp Organized labour portalBarbary Coast San Francisco Blackbirding Clipper Froberg mutiny Impressment Involuntary servitude Maritime history of California Maritime history of the United States Shanghai tunnels Portland Oregon Tunnels allegedly used to shanghai laborers for ships in the early 20th century Shanghaied in Astoria a long running musical comedy The Big Valley Barbary Red episode of Season 1 of the drama series covers this topic The Live Ghost A 1934 comedy short film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy The Go Getter A 1937 comedy starring George Brent and Charles WinningerNotes edit a b Crimp Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 07 11th ed 1911 Shanghai dictionary com Retrieved 2007 04 05 For a modern definition of shanghaied see wikt shanghaied San Francisco Shangaiers 1886 1890 Collections amp Research Mystic Seaport Museum 31 December 2016 Retrieved 2 February 2022 In 2005 Mystic Seaport Museum received in database form information gathered from a rare source the ledger book of 19th century shipping master James Laflin This ledger is accessible through the J Porter Shaw Library San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park For more information visit The San Francisco Shanghaiers Database Michael P Jones The Portland Underground Shanghai Tunnels Archived from the original on 2007 03 23 Retrieved 2007 04 05 Astoria s history along the tracks Astoria Riverfront Trolley Association Archived from the original on 2007 05 14 Retrieved 2007 04 05 Boy named Henry Short shanghaied from Seattle on December 22 1901 historylink org Retrieved 2007 04 05 permanent dead link Levy Maxwell d 1931 Port Townsend s Crimper King historylink org Retrieved 2007 04 05 Dillon Richard H 1961 Shanghaiing Days New York Coward McCann p 234 OCLC 1226774 American Merchant Marine Timeline 1789 2005 Barnard s Electronic Archive and Teaching Library Archived from the original on 2007 06 09 Retrieved 2007 03 29 a b c Hope Ronald 2001 Poor Jack The Perilous History of the Merchant Seaman London Greenhill Books ISBN 1 86176 161 9 The Lookout of the Labor Movement PDF Sailors Union of the Pacific Archived from the original PDF on 2003 05 12 Retrieved 2007 04 02 whaling timeline PDF npshistory com Retrieved 2 February 2022 a b c Georgia Smith 1988 About That Blood in the Scuppers Reclaiming San Francisco History Politics and Culture a City Lights Anthology City Lights Archived from the original on 2006 10 11 Retrieved 2007 04 03 Sailor Boarding Masters ETC San Francisco News Letter Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco February 19 1881 Retrieved March 23 2010 Purchasing Power Today of a US Dollar Transaction in the Past MeasuringWorth Retrieved 2008 04 20 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bill Pickelhaupt Shanghaied in San Francisco Archived from the original on 2006 12 11 Retrieved 2007 04 02 Bauer 1988 283 a b c d e Bauer 1988 284 a b c Bauer 1988 285 Halter Marilyn 1993 Between Race and Ethnicity Cape Verdean American Immigrants 1860 1965 University of Illinois Press ISBN 978 0 252 06326 8 Retrieved 2008 05 13 Williams James H 1921 A Tall Water Story of Adventure Aboard a Whaling Ship Notorious A Self Guided Tour of Portland s Historic Lone Fir Cemetery PDF Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery Archived from the original PDF on 2015 09 27 Retrieved 2014 08 10 Dowling Robert M 2009 Critical Companion to Eugene O Neill 2 Volume Set Infobase Publishing ISBN 978 1 4381 0872 8 References editBauer K Jack 1988 A Maritime History of the United States The Role of America s Seas and Waterways Columbia South Carolina University of South Carolina ISBN 0 87249 519 1 Samuel Dickson Shanghai Kelly in Tales of San Francisco Stanford University Press 1957 Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Crimp Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 07 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 465 Gutoff Johnathan M 2005 Coerced Labor and Implied Congressional Powers The Example of Deserting Sailors and Fugitive Slaves Report Roger Williams University School of Law Archived from the original on 2007 09 27 Retrieved 2007 04 16 Stewart Holbrook Bunco Kelly King of the Crimps in Wildmen Wobblies amp Whistle Punks edited by Biran Booth Corvallis Oregon State University Press 1992 ISBN 0 87071 383 3 Hoover Elizabeth D May 5 2006 Travel Portland City of Kidnappers AmericanHeritage com Archived from the original on 2006 05 07 Retrieved 2007 04 14 Keller David Neal September 1995 Shanghaied American Heritage Magazine 46 5 Archived from the original on 2007 09 29 Retrieved 2007 04 13 Timeline Alongside World Events Mission to Seafarers Archived from the original on 2007 09 16 Retrieved 2007 04 02 Pickelhaupt Bill 1996 Shanghaied in San Francisco San Francisco UFlyblister Press ISBN 0 9647312 2 3 The Lookout of the Labor Movement PDF Sailors Union of the Pacific Archived from the original PDF on 2003 05 12 Retrieved 2007 04 02 Archives Balclutha Sailors Union of the Pacific Archived from the original on 2001 04 11 Retrieved 2007 04 02 Crisis at Sea Flags of convenience A Maritime Trades Department Report PDF Sailors Union of the Pacific Archived from the original PDF on 2003 04 05 Retrieved 2007 04 02 Smith Georgia 1988 About That Blood in the Scuppers Reclaiming San Francisco History Politics and Culture a City Lights Anthology City Lights Archived from the original on 2006 10 11 Retrieved 2007 04 03 Strecker Mark Shanghaiing Sailors A Maritime History of Forced Labor 1849 1915 McFarland amp Company 2014 comprehensive scholarly history 260 pp online review External links edit Sailor Boarding Masters etc San Francisco News Letter February 19 1881 Shanghaiing at StupidQuestion net The Barbary Coast San Francisco s Bawdy Paradise has a section on crimping Shanghaied The 1895 Voyage of the A R Tucker a New Bedford Mass account An account of crimping for the East India Company in London 1767 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Shanghaiing amp oldid 1205196952, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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