Author: Miss Cellania / Source: Neatorama
In the era of sailing ships, the 16th through the 19th centuries, ships couldn’t recruit enough men to stay at sea for months earning low wages and eating hardtack, so they shanghaied them. That was the term for kidnapping sailors, possibly because Shanghai was the destination for many of them.
Agents called “crimps” in America could make good money providing hands for ships, whether they were willing or not.The most straightforward method for a crimp to shanghai a victim is to render him unconscious, often by drugging his drink but a blow to the head works equally well, then forge his…
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