Daily Alta California, January 5, 1853
SAILOR THIEVES--GALLANT RESISTANCE.—On Saturday last, Captain Richardson,
commanding the three-masted schooner Corinthian, urgently requested
Marshal Crozier to send some trustworthy and efficient officer to protect
his rights and property on board his vessel from that most villainous
combination called sailor thieves, some of whom had openly threatened
to take his men from him even if they had to follow him twenty miles
to sea to accomplish their purpose. In view of these facts, the Marshal
with praiseworthy promptitude selected Mr. Daniel O'Regan, who was an
officer in the Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers during the Mexican
war, and enjoyed a high celebrity as a gallant and reliable officer.
Mr. O'Regan has also been an officer in the police department of this
city and served under Marshal Crozier during his last term of office.
Before Mr. O'Regan went on board, the rascals had commenced operations
by stealing the schooner's boat. About 3 o'clock, A.M., Sunday night,
Mr. O'Regan repaired to his berth, under the promise from Capt. Richardson
that some one should be placed to keep watch. The cook was called and
put on guard. A short time after, the cook was surprised by three men,
two of whom choked him to keep him silent while the third broke open
the forecastle with a marling spike, the hatch being closed and locked
for the better security of the men. The cook succeeded however in making
them believe that he was interested in their success and was a friend
rather than an enemy to their intentions, whereupon they released him;
but no sooner was he at liberty than he ran to the cabin and woke up
Mr. O'Regan, who ran forward just in time to see the scamps making their
escape over the bow into their boat; he ordered them to stop, which
they refused to do. He then threatened to fire at them, but they continued,
and he fired some three or four shots, nearly all of which took effect.
One man was wounded in the lower part of the chest, another was shot
through the ear, and a third was hit in the fleshy part of the left
arm near the shoulder. The one who was shot in the breast made a statement
to Marshal Crozier, fully exonerating Mr. O'Regan from any blame, stating
that under the circumstances he did just what he thought an officer,
who was placed there for that purpose, should do. He says further, that
he was hired about 2 o'clock of the morning in question by several men,
to take them off in his boat to the Corinthian, and received
$30 for so doing. We understand that the various foreign Consuls in
this city are about holding a meeting to see what steps can be taken
to suppress this vile association of sailor thieves, and that Mr. Fortin,
The Danish Consul, the Corinthian belonging to that flag, has
expressed his approbation of the determination evinced by the officer
above mentioned to do his duty under all circumstances. These are just
the kind of policemen we need in California.
Daily Alta California, June 6, 1853
SAILOR THIEVES AGAIN.—Some of these scoundrels went on board
ship Arethusa before daybreak this morning, and stole away three
of the foremast hands. It may not generally be known that sailors leaving
this port receive two months' advance pay, the wages being from forty
to fifty dollars a month. The consequence is that when seamen run away,
the commit a downright robbery. Sailor thieves are those who supply
them with every means and make every effort to enable them thus to defraud
the ship owners, receiving a portion of the plunder as their perquisites.
Daily Alta California, San Francisco, January
8, 1853
OPERATIONS OF THE SAILOR TH IEVES.--REVENUE CUTTER
FROLIC.—
The recent outrages committed by this combination
of scoundrels are again calling the attention of the mercantile community
to the subject. When our now flourishing and populous city first commenced
its wondrous career, the shipping interest of foreign nations, as well
as our own, was much injured by the operations of this gang of desperadoes:
Their manner of acting and the object intended to be achieved by them
The moment a ship comes into port, the gang visits her in boats, and
the men are immediately incited to revolt. In some cases, they have
broken in on the cargo. Masters of vessels have frequently found themselves
abandoned by their crews, while the ship was in the stream, with sails
hoisted and anchors at the cat heads. Several of our fine clipper ships
were, on coming to this port, deserted in the manner above stated. The
Sword Fish, when she arrived, immediately sent to request protection
from Capt. Ottinger of the revenue cutter Frolic, which was promptly
afforded, Captain Ottinger himself going on board and staying there
until the ship was moored alongside the wharf. She was the first vessel
that kept her crew until those duties were performed. So bold and daring
were they that they openly made threats to board land take the revenue
cutter Frolic.
Captain Ottinger immediately ordered the round
shot to be drawn from the 32 and 12 pounders on board, and loaded them
with canister. The guns were then depressed, so that the heavier ones
should strike the water at seventy-five yards and the lighter at fifty;
small arms were prepared, matches lit, and the crew kept at their quarters.
The great pity was, that the scoundrels did not undertake to carry their
threat into execution. Several times Capt. Ottinger has been sent for
to protect British vessels in their rights and has always afforded the
protection demanded.
On one occasion he boarded an English ship, which
had been visited by these sailor thieves, and left the crew so panic
stricken by their murderous threats, that, although willing to perform
their duty, they had not the courage to lower their boats, when ordered
to do so by their officers. Captain Ottinger established a code of signals,
for both night and day, with the masters of merchant ships, which will
at all times bring an armed boat from the cutter to their relief. By
hoisting the colors in a "with" at the peak by day, or two lanterns
about six feet apart, one under the other by night, captains can at
any moment command such aid as they may desire. An offer is at all hours
of the day and night on the deck of the cutter, and she is when in port,
always anchored at some point which will afford a view of all parts
of the harbor.
The combination of sailor thieves is formed for the purpose
of plundering and robbing ship owners, by stealing their men from them
after they are on board and have received their advance pay. The pay
of seamen in California averages from thirty to forty dollars a month,
two months wages being paid in advance. The men receive this, go on
board, and the ship is streamed. During the night she is boarded by
a gang of sailor thieves, who take the men away and convey them on shore
to a new boarding house ready prepared for them, and they are as soon
as possible re-shipped again, to be again stolen, thus carrying on one
of the most nefarious systems of robbery that can be conceived. Not
only do ship owners suffer from the actual loss of the money, but also,
and sometimes much more, by the detention consequent upon shipping a
new crew, and with no better prospects of keeping them than they had
the first.
The subject is one which has excited the attention of the
foreign consuls in this city to a considerable extent, and is a fruitful
source of much anxiety and pecuniary loss to our mercantile society.
Some merchants, both in England and France, as well as in the Atlantic
States, will not send their ships here for the very reasons above stated,
and we are of opinion that the legislative powers of the proper authorities
could be very usefully employed in furnishing a suitable remedy for
this evil.
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Sailor Thieves
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Page: http://www.maritimeheritage.org/news/thieves
Date Entered: June 1999
Source: Daily Alta California
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