Untitled [Bradley Cesario on Shanghaiing Sailors: A

Mark Strecker. Shanghaiing Sailors: A Maritime History of Forced Labor, 1849/1915. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2014. 260 pp. $39.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-7864-9451-4. Reviewed by Bradley Cesario Published on H-War (August, 2017) Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University) “Shanghaiing” conjures up tales of the sea--of the legal history of the court cases that ended the forced voyages, secret liaisons, and oceanic cross‐ practice in the United States in 1915. ings. While fully understanding and drawing Unfortunately, it must be said that there are upon the romantic side of these tales, Mark two major issues with Strecker’s work. The frst is Strecker sets out to undertake a more scholarly a question of definition. The author notes early in examination of the phenomenon. His work the frst chapter that shanghaiing specifically Shanghaiing Sailors: A Maritime History of refers to “the kidnapping and forcing of a man to Forced Labor, 1849-1915 “presents not only a com‐ serve on board a merchant ship” (p. 3). However, prehensive history of shanghaiing, which peaked many of the examples and anecdotes used relate roughly between 1850 and 1915 … but also exam‐ to entirely separate maritime activities--impress‐ ines the nineteenth-century seafarer’s world and ment/the press gang, privateering, and piracy. All the circumstances that created the perfect storm three of these are covered as activities distinct of events which made shanghaiing a lucrative from shanghaiing, with the result that the reason business” (p. 1). for their inclusion in the volume is somewhat un‐ To accomplish this, Strecker divides his work clear. There are certainly parallels that could be into ten chapters. They are thematically rather drawn between all forms of involuntary maritime than chronologically organized, and cover a great service, but they are not to be found here. Rather, deal of ground--chapter 3, for example, ranges Strecker treats impressment and piracy essential‐ over the topics of shipboard fogging, mutiny, ly as subsets of shanghaiing, which at the very piracy in Hawaii, and desertion in China. The least creates a problematic chronology. Related to most relevant chapters to Strecker’s central theme this point is the second major issue, that of the of shanghaiing are the fourth, sixth, and tenth. work’s timeline. Strecker’s reason for choosing Chapter 4 covers crimps, the common term for 1915 as his ending point is made clear in the fnal those who did the shanghaiing--whether by false chapter (though not before)--1915 saw the passage advertising, forced signature, or simple kidnap‐ of the Seaman’s Act in the United States, ending le‐ ping. Chapter 6 provides various brief case stud‐ gal penalties for desertion from a merchant ves‐ ies of those who were shanghaied, from England sel. But why 1850 (or 1849) as a beginning? The to Australia and Brazil. The fnal chapter covers only clue is a mention of “shanghaiing” as a re‐ cent term in 1856 (p. 81), which is itself contra‐ H-Net Reviews dicted by Strecker’s earlier assertion that the term his primary sources, generally newspaper arti‐ dates from 1872 (p. 3). The California gold rush is cles, are from the Pacific Northwest and the West mentioned early in the frst chapter (p. 9), and if Coast, and as previously noted his timeline and le‐ this was the reason for the starting date it would gal framework match the situation in the United have been helpful for that information to be pre‐ States. With all this being the case, Shanghaiing sented up front. Moreover, many of the author’s Sailors could have benefited from a narrower ge‐ examples date from before 1850. Special attention ographic framework. A regional history of shang‐ must be given here to chapter 7, which deals with haiing on the West Coast would open the door for impressment and in which every example and future avenues of investigation--perhaps the rest case study took place before the book’s ostensible of the United States, perhaps an international his‐ chronology begins. That the cover features a tory. A definitive history of shanghaiing and scene from the War of 1812, though likely outside crimping has not yet been written, and Shanghai‐ the author’s control, does not improve the chrono‐ ing Sailors is not that project. But it demonstrates logical issues. The work also features no historio‐ that far from being a lost offshoot of the press graphic section of note, and no real conclusion. gang, shanghaiing was a real and pressing con‐ Yet there is value to be found in Shanghaiing cern for certain maritime populations around the Sailors. Strecker’s work can serve as a jumping- turn of the twentieth century--and it raises in‐ off point for a variety of intriguing avenues of re‐ triguing research questions related to the above search. Take media history, for example. Many of that call for further exploration. Strecker’s primary sources are period US newspa‐ pers--do tales of crimping and shanghaiing ft within the larger tradition of late nineteenth-cen‐ tury sensationalist journalism? Or social history-- who was being shanghaied? The author provides examples of everyone from wayward youths to other merchant captains. And who were the crimps? Maritime legal historians could fnd use‐ ful questions to answer here as well. Strecker briefly mentions some US laws that aimed to clamp down on crimping and shanghaiing, such as the Seaman’s Act of 1915, the Maguire Act of 1895, and the Shipping Commissioners Act of 1872. If explored in more detail and combined with other relevant maritime law such as the Din‐ gley Act of 1884 and the White Act of 1898, the re‐ sult could be a useful addition to the literature on how such practices came to an end. Then there is the question of the work’s geo‐ graphic scope. Strecker notes that one of his goals is to “shatter … the … myths” (p. 2) that shanghai‐ ing took place only on the West Coast of the Unit‐ ed States, and admirably provides many examples of its international scope. Yet the vast majority of 2 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-war Citation: Bradley Cesario. Review of Strecker, Mark. Shanghaiing Sailors: A Maritime History of Forced Labor, 1849/1915. H-War, H-Net Reviews. August, 2017. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=46216 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.

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