Shanghaied Aboard the Babcock: A Captain's Escape and a Crew Taken at Gunpoint
Capt. Graham slipped his guards at Port Townsend while his wheat ship waited—after a Tacoma crew of 23 was rounded up with beatings, revolvers, and two bewildered Japanese men.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Port Townsend, Jan. 6.—Special.—Just after the ship Wm. P. Babcock, wheat-laden from Tacoma for Europe, got under way in tow of the tug Tyee, Deputy Marshal Baker went aboard and arrested Capt. Graham on a charge of attempting to leave the state for the purpose of defrauding creditors. The complainant is Max Levy, a sailor boarding house runner, who alleges that Graham contracted to ship his crew through his agency, and that afterward a crew was secured at Tacoma whereby complainant was damaged in the sum of $260. Graham was brought ashore and the vessel continued on toward Port Angeles, where she will remain until the present difficulty is settled. Boatmen who were alongside the ship when she went out of port claim there was trouble aboard. Several shots were fired, and a general fight appeared to be in progress. The captain denied the story.
Late tonight it was discovered that Capt. Graham had eluded the officers and escaped, presumably getting aboard his vessel and going to sea. Just after the marshal brought him ashore under arrest a messenger hurriedly informed the former that his wife was dying, when he turned the prisoner over to the custody of another ship captain. The latter says Capt. Graham suddenly disappeared while his back was turned. A vigorous search is being made for him, with little hope of success.
Tacoma, Jan. 6.—Special.—Much trouble was experienced in getting sailors to ship on the Babcock, which sailed today for Liverpool with wheat. At one time some of the sailors were beaten by armed boarding house masters to induce them to sign the shipping articles. This resulted in the statement that they were driven aboard at point of revolvers.
The Babcock is the ship from which William Purchase escaped by jumping overboard, claiming he was brutally beaten by the mate. He afterwards libelled the ship for and settled for $73. Today, after the ship got under way in tow of the tug Tyee, she put back to port, owing to trouble among the men. She soon left again.
In attempting to round out the crew of 23 men this morning all sorts of sailors were pressed into service. Two of the men signed were Japanese sailors, who, it is believed, never were employed as sailors. They were, according to the water front authorities, shanghaied aboard the Babcock. Soon after the Babcock got away a Japanese restaurant keeper came down to the dock in hot haste looking for the two Japanese men who had gone aboard. He said they owed him money.
The trip of the Babcock to England will be watched with great interest by local shipping men. Trouble is looked for.
“They were driven aboard at point of revolvers.”
The Babcock story captures an era when labor recruitment on the waterfront could shade into kidnapping and debt bondage. Modern fights over seafarer welfare, trafficking, and coerced labor still turn on the same question: who gets to say yes to a voyage, and who is simply forced aboard.
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