Customer Reviews

Shanghaied in San Francisco

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Shanghaied In San Francisco details a system by which cargo ships sailing out of San Francisco were assured a full complement of sailors. Shanghaing - forcing men aboard sailing ships by essentially kidnapping them - was indeed a system, buttressed by agreements between ship captains and the crimps who supplied them with sailors, by politicians who knew that without full crews to sail the ships the city's economy would crumble, and by support within police and fire departments. Shanghaiing existed in every major port around the world, but the term originated in San Francisco from the clipper tea trade with China. When the clipper era waned, shanghaiing of sailors increased, as the city's growth brought in more trade and more ships. Bill Pickelhaupt details this colorful history with this absorbing, well-researched account. In this book you will find legendary crimps such as "Shanghai Chicken" Devine and "Shanghai" Kelly, but there is also some surprising information, such as the large number of women crimps who shanghaied sailors. The rivalry among the crimps to collect "blood money" for supplying men to ships was so intense, there was a case of one crimp shanghaiing a rival crimp! The author also dispels a popular myth - that much of the shanghaiing involved trap doors in saloons, where sailors fell into the hands of runners who took them out to awaiting ships. Although not entirely untrue, it was not nearly as prevalent as legend has it. The legal struggles against shanghaiing are also discussed, along with the crimps efforts to subvert legal infringements on their trade. Shanghaied In San Francisco is also a portrait of an era when San Francisco was a wide-open town, and when sailors were treated as third-class citizens. Anyone interested in maritime history, San Francisco history, or in just a good read, will benefit from this book.

Good information on a little-known issue in local history. Overly long and repetitive--shoiuld have been an article, rather than a book.