Shanghaied in Portland
By Clarice Dankers
By the time Frank Richardson made it to Portland, Oregon, he was destitute.
In a letter dated July 23, 1888, he admitted to his grandfather that although he had left his home in Racine, Wisconsin, with a good deal of money, he had wasted it. After going four days without eating, Frank met a man who offered him a salary of $40 a month working on board a steamship that plied the Columbia River between Portland and Astoria.
Thanking God for this lucky turn of events, Frank accepted the man’s offer and accompanied him on a small steamer to Astoria, where the man arranged for rooms in a nearby boardinghouse. One night soon after arriving, he knocked on Frank’s door and said it was time to start work.
Clambering into a boat filled with drunken sailors, Frank watched the harbor recede as the group was rowed to a ship anchored in the river. When the ship set sail, however, it headed out to sea instead of back upstream to Portland: Frank had been shanghaied.
Today: The City of Roses
Today Portland, Oregon—The City of Roses—prides itself on being a clean, progressive community filled with bookstores, coffeehouses and microbreweries. Five universities call Portland home, as do numerous art galleries, a vibrant symphony, and professional ballet and opera companies.
Portland has also received international recognition as an urban planning leader with the passion and foresight to remove a freeway in order to make room for a park, bring back light rail after an absence of 50 years, and turn a blighted area just north of city center into the upscale and elegant Pearl District.
Yesterday: Notorious Den of Crimping
Less than 100 years ago, however, Portland was much less genteel. To meet the demands of the working man, its center teemed with saloons, brothels and boardinghouses. Far from being the friendly, culturally-refined city we think of today, Portland was one of the most notorious places in the world for crimping—entrapping men onto ships as sailors.
Because the destination of so many West Coast sailing vessels was the port of Shanghai, China, the term to shanghai eventually became synonymous with crimping. Among the most notorious shanghaiing cities were San Francisco, Astoria and Port Townsend.
However, it developed into a high art—and lasted the longest—in Portland. During its heyday, between 1,500 and 3,000 men were shanghaied in Portland annually.
A Honeycomb of Tunnels Offers Numerous "Business" Opportunities
By the late 1800s, Portland boasted a honeycomb of tunnels that snaked beneath the city streets and reportedly extended more than twenty blocks—from the Willamette River to Northwest 23rd Avenue. Through such tunnels, men could easily haul goods from the ships to various downtown businesses.
It was only a matter of time before enterprising crimpers like Larry Sullivan, Jim Turk and Joseph (Bunco) Kelly would take advantage of the tunnels for their own purposes. Well-compensated merchants aided the crimpers by building trap doors in their saloons and brothels. At the touch of a lever, unsuspecting men—their heads addled by whisky or a surreptitious Mickey Finn—would simply vanish.
Beneath such establishments, the men were held in small, dark cells until the call came from a ship’s captain in need of a crew. The crimpers prided themselves on being able to supply ships with the manpower they needed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Numerous anecdotes circulate about the crimpers’ corrupt deeds.
Bunco Kelly Supplies 20 "Dead" Drunk Sailors
For example, the story goes that Bunco Kelly was walking down a dark street one evening when he passed by an open trapdoor. He climbed down the ladder to investigate and discovered more than 20 dead bodies. The men had drunk heartily from a keg in the cellar beneath a saloon. Unfortunately, it was actually filled with embalming fluid (formaldehyde) from the mortuary next door!
Not a man to waste an opportunity, Kelly sold the bodies to an unsuspecting captain for $52 each ($2.00 over the going rate) because he had managed to get the men so “dead drunk” that they wouldn’t waken until well out at sea.
In fact, Kelly was so good at his profession that he set a shanghaiing record, crimping a crew of 50 men for a 4-masted bark in just 3 hours. He is also said to have shipped two women dressed as men.
Larry Sullivan Defers to His Bride
Another crimper, Larry Sullivan, became famous for slipping Mickey Finns to innocent men. One time he supplied a crew of "sailors" that consisted entirely of boys straight off the farm.
The enterprising Sullivan also owned a boardinghouse for sailors in an old warehouse at NW Second and Glisan. In deference to his bride, Lucille Ayers, he banned liquor and "working" women from his establishment.
Jim Turk Shanghaies His Own Son
A third notorious crimper, Jim Turk, was such a dedicated professional that he even shanghaied his own son. In the early 1890s, he, too, owned a boardinghouse, which was located on Couch between NW First and Second.
Curiously, the experience of being shanghaied did not always turn out badly. Turk purportedly crimped a doctor who returned 6 months later happy as a lark because his time at sea had cured him of tuberculosis!
The Era Finally Ends
Conditions in Portland slowly improved, but far more slowly than elsewhere. Four gangs were still active in 1917, and it was not until 1941—when the United States entered World War II—that Portland crimpers closed down business for good.
What About Frank Richardson?
Unfortunately, the changes came way too late for Frank Richardson. In 1890, he posted a letter from London to his grandfather in Wisconsin begging for passage home.
Before taking any action on the request, however, Frank's grandfather wrote a letter to maritime officials in Portland aksing if they thought the letter was legitimate.
This letter is on file in the rare books room at the Multnomah County Library. No letters indicate how the story finally ended.
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