Sailortown

Last updated

Sweet Basil Building, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was the last wooden building on Halifax's Water Street and was typical of the "Sailortown" buildings which served seafarers in Nova Scotia's Age of Sail. Sweet Basil Building.JPG
Sweet Basil Building, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was the last wooden building on Halifax's Water Street and was typical of the "Sailortown" buildings which served seafarers in Nova Scotia's Age of Sail.

A Sailortown is a district in seaports that catered to transient seafarers. These districts frequently contained boarding houses, public houses, brothels, tattoo parlours, [2] print shops, shops selling nautical equipment, and religious institutions offering aid to seamen; [3] usually there was also a police station, a magistrate's court and a shipping office. [4] Because it took several days, in the past, to unload ships, crews would spend this time in sailortown. [5] These were "generic locations—international everyplaces existing in nearly every port." Cicely Fox Smith wrote that 'dockland, strictly speaking, is of no country—or rather it is of all countries'". [4] Sailortowns were places where local people, immigrants, social and religious reformers, and transitory sailors met. [3]

Contents

Sailortowns were found in major seaports, including London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Hull, Tyneside, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco and many others in Europe, North and South America, West Indies, the East, Africa, and Australia. [6]

Modern methods for handling cargo such as roll on, roll off techniques, and containerization mean that mariners spend less time ashore and this has led to the decline of sailortowns. [7]

Life in sailortown

Honolulu Sailor's Home, opened in 1856. Originally located on Bethel Street adjacent to the Port of Honolulu. Honolulu Sailor's Home.jpg
Honolulu Sailor's Home, opened in 1856. Originally located on Bethel Street adjacent to the Port of Honolulu.

Sailors were given their wages as a lump sum at the end of their voyage, and were exploited by crimps and other 'friends' of seafarers: "crimps essentially took control of seafarers' wages and provided them with lodging and entertainment, like an agent." Crimps were also frequently agents for, or owners of, boarding-houses, and they might also have a connection with public houses, brothels, places of entertainment, and places to eat. [8] An extreme version of crimping was shanghaiing, when seamen "would be rendered senseless – either by drink, drugs or blunt instrument – and then were signed-on to a ship". [8]

Folksinger and author Stan Hugill published, in 1967, a book on this topic, Sailortown, but his account has been criticized for "relying almost exclusively on generalisation, titillation and shock-value". [8]

During the nineteenth century, throughout the world, religious denominations established institutions in sailortowns to cater to the spiritual needs of sailors. One example was the Liverpool Sailors' Home project which was launched at a public meeting called by Liverpool's Mayor in October 1844. Such institutions provided such things, as "board, lodging and medical attendance, at a moderate charge" to protect seamen from extortion, as well as "to promote their moral, intellectual, and professional improvement; and to afford them the opportunity of receiving religious instruction". In addition the Liverpool Sailors’ Home had a reading-room, library, and savings bank. [9] In 1859, in Sydney, Australia, a provisional committee of citizens was formed with the object of building a Sailors’ Home to provide them with comfortable accommodation while the seamen were ashore. Construction began in 1863, using a design similar to sailors’ homes in other seaports, on land in George Street North in the Rocks area.[ citation needed ]

The seaports

Liverpool

Until the 1970s "much of Liverpool's sailortown area was clustered around the city centre, extending inland from Albert, Canning and Salthouse Docks". The area included "a Sailor's Home and Seamen's Mission to dance halls, bars, boarding houses and shops with most connected to the port". [5]

Found within this district, Liverpool's Sailors' Home, was designed to provide safe, inexpensive lodging for sailors, and to offer educational and recreational opportunities, in contrast to the temptations on offer in the docklands area. It was open for business in Canning Place, Liverpool, England, from December 1850 to July 1969. [10]

American writer Herman Melville describes Liverpool's sailortown in his semi-autobiographical novel Redburn (1849). [11]

London

London's Sailortown "was clustered in a narrow strip of houses, taverns and slums on the north bank of the Thames, down river from the Tower of London, but also included "the parishes of Wapping, Shadwell and Stepney". [4] This included the area known as Ratcliff, originally known for shipbuilding but from the fourteenth century more for fitting and provisioning ships. [12] In the sixteenth century various voyages of discovery were supplied and departed from Ratcliffe, including those of Willoughby and Frobisher. [12] By the early seventeenth century it had the largest population of any village in Stepney, with 3500 residents. [12] Located on the edge of Narrow Street on the Wapping waterfront it was made up of lodging houses, bars, brothels, music halls and opium dens. This overcrowded and squalid district acquired an unsavoury reputation with a large transient population.[ citation needed ]

Belfast

Sailortown was a working-class community in the docks area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Established in the mid-19th century on partly reclaimed land, it had a mixed Protestant and Catholic population. [13] Urban redevelopment in the late 1960s resulted in Sailortown's eventual demolition; only two churches, several pubs, and three houses remain of the once bustling waterfront enclave. [14]

Cardiff's Tiger Bay

Norwegian Church Cardiff, in Tiger Bay's sailortown Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay.jpg
Norwegian Church Cardiff, in Tiger Bay's sailortown

During the nineteenth century as Cardiff's coal exports grew, so did its population; as dockworkers and sailors from across the world settled in neighbourhoods close to the docks, known as Tiger Bay (see also Butetown). This included immigrants from a wide variety of nationalities including Norwegian, Somali, Yemeni, Spanish, Italian, Caribbean, and Irish, helped to create the unique multicultural character of the area. [15]

Tiger Bay had a reputation for being a tough and dangerous area. Merchant seamen arrived in Cardiff from all over the world, only staying for as long as it took to discharge and reload their ships. Consequently, the area became the red-light district of Cardiff, and many murders and lesser crimes went unsolved and unpunished, as the perpetrators had sailed away. However, locals who lived and stayed in the area describe a far friendlier place. [16]

Following the Second World War there was a major decline in the importance of the docks and therefore of sailortown. In 1999, the area was redeveloped by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, [17] and renamed "Cardiff Bay". [18]

San Francisco

According to author Daniel Bacon, daytime San Francisco's "old Barbary Coast was quiet, save for a few clothing shops, maritime businesses and auction houses". However, in the evening it was dangerous a place of opium dens, crimping joints, bars, brothels and gambling dens, where unsuspecting sailors, "after having completed a long journey were slipped Mickey Finns—whiskey laced with a dollop of opium—and shanghaied on two-year long voyages. Skippers paid crimps up to $75 a head to supply able-bodied hands to crew their vessels". [19]

It was not until the 1860s when sailors gave the district its name, and began to refer to it as the Barbary Coast. [20] The term "Barbary Coast" is borrowed from the Barbary Coast of North Africa. That African region was also notorious for the same kind of predatory dives which would target sailors, as had been done on San Francisco's Barbary Coast. [21] Miners, sailors, and others hungry for female companionship and bawdy entertainment streamed into San Francisco's Barbary Coast. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiger Bay</span> Former area name of Cardiff, Wales

Tiger Bay was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is referred to as Cardiff Bay. Tiger Bay is Wales’ oldest multi-ethnic community, with sailors and workers from over 50 countries settling there from the mid-19th century onwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanghaiing</span> Form of kidnapping people to become sailors

Shanghaiing or crimping is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps. The related term press gang refers specifically to impressment practices in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mission to Seafarers</span> UK-based Christian welfare charity

The Mission to Seafarers is a Christian welfare charity serving merchant crews around the world. It operates through a global Mission 'family' network of chaplains, staff and volunteers and provides practical, emotional and spiritual support through ship visits, drop-in seafarers centres and a range of welfare and emergency support services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbary Coast, San Francisco</span> Red-light district in San Francisco (1849-1917)

The Barbary Coast was a red-light district during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in San Francisco that featured dance halls, concert saloons, bars, jazz clubs, variety shows, and brothels. Its nine block area was centered on a three block stretch of Pacific Street, now Pacific Avenue, between Montgomery and Stockton Streets. Pacific Street was the first street to cut through the hills of San Francisco, starting near Portsmouth Square and continuing east to the first shipping docks at Buena Vista Cove.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Hugill</span> British folk musician, artist and sea music historian

Stanley James Hugill was a British folk music performer, artist and sea music historian, known as the "Last Working Shantyman" and described as the "20th century guardian of the tradition".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Wales</span>

Islam in Wales is a minority faith followed by 2.1% of the population of Wales, making Islam the second most practiced religion in the country after Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opium den</span> Establishment where opium is sold and smoked

An opium den was an establishment in which opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America, and France. Throughout the West, opium dens were frequented by and associated with the Chinese because the establishments were usually run by Chinese mobsters, who supplied the opium and prepared it for visiting non-Chinese smokers. Most opium dens kept a supply of opium paraphernalia such as the pipes and lamps that were necessary to smoke the drug. Patrons would recline to hold the long opium pipes over oil lamps that would heat the drug until it vaporized, allowing the smoker to inhale the vapors. Opium dens in China were frequented by all levels of society, and their opulence or simplicity reflected the financial means of the patrons. In urban areas of the United States, particularly on the West Coast, there were opium dens that mirrored the best to be found in China, with luxurious trappings and female attendants. For the working class, there were many low-end dens with sparse furnishings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roald Dahl Plass</span> Public plaza in Cardiff Bay in Cardiff, Wales

Roald Dahl Plass is a public space in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales. It is named after Cardiff-born author Roald Dahl, and is located on the coast along the south of the city centre. The square is home to the Senedd building housing the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, and the Wales Millennium Centre, a performing arts centre. The bowl-like shape of the space has made it a popular amphitheatre for hosting open-air concerts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwegian Church, Cardiff</span> Arts centre, based in a church, in Wales

The Norwegian Church Arts Centre is a point of cultural and historical interest located in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It was a Lutheran Church, consecrated in 1868. Under the patronage of The Norwegian Seamen's Mission it provided home comforts, communication with family and a place of worship for Scandinavian sailors and the Norwegian community in Cardiff for over a hundred years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Lundeberg</span> American labor leader (1901–1957)

Harrald Olaf Lundeberg was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader.

The International Seamen's Union (ISU) was an American maritime trade union which operated from 1892 until 1937. In its last few years, the union effectively split into the National Maritime Union and Seafarer's International Union.

The maritime history of the United States (1800–1899) saw an expansion of naval activity.

James Kelly, better known as "Shanghai" Kelly, was an American crimp of the 19th century who kidnapped men and forced them to work on ships. The terms "crimping" and "shanghaiing" are used to describe this type of work. Kelly wore a red beard and had a fiery temper to match. A legendary figure in San Francisco history, Kelly was known for his gift of supplying or shanghaiing men to understaffed ships.

Yemenis in the United Kingdom or Yemeni Britons include citizens and non-citizen immigrants in the United Kingdom of Yemeni ancestry, as well as their descendants. Yemenis have been present in the UK since at least the 1860s, with the first Yemenis arriving as sailors and dock workers in the port cities of Northern England and Wales, and despite a smaller population than other British Muslim groups, are likely the longest-established Muslim group in the United Kingdom, with many of these cities retaining a Yemeni population going back several generations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiff Docks</span> Port in Wales, UK

Cardiff Docks is a port in southern Cardiff, Wales. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost 7 mi (11 km). Once the main port for the export of South Wales coal, the Port of Cardiff remains active in the import and export of containers, steel, forest products and dry and liquid bulks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sailortown (Belfast)</span> Working-class dockland community in the docks area of Belfast, Northern Ireland

Sailortown was a working-class dockland community in the docks area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Established in the mid-19th century on partly reclaimed land, it had a mixed Protestant and Catholic population. The 1907 dock strike called by trade union leader James Larkin commenced in Sailortown before spreading throughout the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butetown History and Arts Centre</span> Former archive and centre in Cardiff, UK

Butetown History & Arts Centre (BHAC) was a historical archive, educational centre and art gallery located in the Butetown area of Cardiff, Wales. BHAC was founded by Glenn Jordan as a non-profiting organisation with the aim to involve the local people of Butetown to help promote the area's history of the docklands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Hamadryad Hospital</span> Former hospital in Cardiff, Wales

The Royal Hamadryad Hospital was a seamen's hospital and later a psychiatric hospital in the docklands area of Cardiff, Wales. It had replaced a hospital ship, the former HMS Hamadryad, in 1905. After it closed in 2002 the site was redeveloped for residential use.

The 1919 South Wales race riots took place in the docks area of Newport and Barry, South Wales, as well as the Butetown district of Cardiff over a number of days in June 1919. Four men were killed during the disturbances. Similar riots took place in Glasgow, Liverpool and other parts of England.

Home Office 213/926 or HO 213/926 is a Home Office file which records the secret deportation from the United Kingdom of thousands of seafarers to China in 1945 and 1946, permanently separating them from their families. It was officially entitled "Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen."

References

  1. ↑ Fingard, J. (1982). Jack in Port: Sailortowns of Eastern Canada. Social History of Canada Series. Books on Demand. p. 54. ISBN   978-0-7837-2662-5 . Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  2. ↑ "Tattoos, Tars and Sailortown Culture," Port Towns & Urban Culture
  3. 1 2 Thayer, Jonathan. "Mapping New York City's Sailortown – New Media Lab". New Media Lab. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "London's Sailortown (1) - Servicing the Royal Navy". Untold lives blog. 2016. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Share your memories of Sailortown". BBC. 23 December 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  6. ↑ Stan Hugill, Sailortown (1967)
  7. ↑ BBC Radio Merseyside"Share your memories of Liverpool's Sailortown", . Accessed 5 February 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 "Where was Sailortown? - More Than a List of Crew". Memorial University. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  9. ↑ Nicholas David Wong, "The Rushworths of Liverpool: A Family Music Business. Commerce, Culture and the City". Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by March 2016.
  10. ↑ Images of the home Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine ; Images.
  11. ↑ Andrew Lees, Liverpool: The Hurricane Port. New York: Random House, 2013
  12. 1 2 3 "EoLFHS Parishes: Ratcliff". eolfhs.org.uk. 26 December 2005. Archived from the original on 26 December 2005. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  13. ↑ Clarke, L. (2017). Asher, A Fictional Biography. Wild Rose Press, Incorporated. p. 201. ISBN   978-1-5092-1606-2; Morgan, A. (1991). Labour and Partition: The Belfast Working Class, 1905–1923. Pluto Irish library. Pluto Press. p. 95. ISBN   978-0-7453-0326-0.
  14. ↑ Van Damme, I.; De Munck, B.; Miles, A. (2017). Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present. Routledge Advances in Urban History. Taylor & Francis. p. 313. ISBN   978-1-351-68179-7; Rolston, B. (1991). Politics and painting: murals and conflict in Northern Ireland. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 55. ISBN   978-0-8386-3386-1.
  15. ↑ The Tiger Bay Story by Neil M.C.Sinclair, published by Dragon & Tiger Enterprises, ISBN   0-9530859-0-2
  16. ↑ "Wales - History - Themes - Family history". BBC. Archived from the original on 13 April 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  17. ↑ "Report on Cardiff Bay". Newswales.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  18. ↑ "Cardiff Bay: Our History — About Cardiff Bay". Cardiff Bay. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  19. ↑ "SAN FRANCISCO MARITIME HISTORY: FROM THE BARBARY COAST TO TODAY’S EMBARCADERO," San Francisco Travel.
  20. ↑ Barker, Malcolm: More San Francisco Memoirs,1852-1899 – The Ripening Years, Londonborn Publications, 1996, p. 46
  21. ↑ Federal Writers of WPA: San Francisco in the 1930s – The WPA Guide to the City by the Bay, University California Press, 2011, p. 214
  22. ↑ Kitchin, Rob (2002). "Sexing the city: The sexual production of non-heterosexual space in Belfast, Manchester and San Francisco" (PDF). City. 6 (2): 205–218. doi:10.1080/1360481022000011155. S2CID   55129405.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.