CUNNING STOWAWAYS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3729, 13 December 1927, Page 4

CUNNING STOWAWAYS

TRICKS FOR FREE TRAVEL- 1 LING. A problem for many steamship captains is that of dealing with stowaways. On one vessel on a recent trip from New York to San Francisco and return thirteen stowaways were unearthed. Eight were found on the way to San Francisco and five more on the return voyage.

Formerly the stowaway was /thrashed and put in irons. This , custom has been done away with, although the irons are still used on occasions. In most cases the stowaways know that when discovered they will be put to work. All stowaways, after discovery, receive the same treatment. They are taken to the bridge, where they are searched. A record is made of the discovery —time, date, place, and by whom. These facts are entered in the ship’s log. Some of the men are signed on as regular seamen; others work to pay their passage; very rarely a stowaway is found who has sufficient money to pay for his transportation.* One of the captain’s first queries is whether the stowaway has a 'friend in the crew. If so the seaman mentioned-is brought to the bridge. If he admits knowing that the stowaway intended boarding the ship and made no move to prevent it he is nearly always “logged” or fined.

It is not an especially difficult, task to board a ship. The quartermaster on duty at the gangway does not know the entire crew and after a stowaway has slipped aboard it is easy for him to find a place in which to hide. Leaving the ship presents more of a problem. The stowaway (presuming .that he has been discovered in the course of the voyage), is now known. In any event he cannot uni ceremoniously leave by the gangway. Sometimes he tries to slip through a porthole; sometimes he hides in one of the huge rope nets used to carry freight from ship to pier.