Colonial Despatches
The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Public Offices document
Hammond, Edmund to Merivale, Herman 2 November 1858, CO 60:2, no. 11266, 96.
Abstract
Public Offices document.
Minutes (2), Other documents (1).
Hammond informs the CO that certain people crimping sailors at Callao have left that port for the Fraser River.
The minutes “apprize” Douglas but “hardly think that in B. Columbia the crimping of sailors would be a very profitable trade.”
Hammond to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)
Foreign Office
2 November 1858
Sir,
I am directed by The Earl of Malmesbury to request that
you will state to Secretary Sir Edward Lytton, that His
Lordship has been informed by Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at
Lima
1
that he has reason to believe that certain Parties
lately engaged in a system of crimping
sailors
2
at Callao have left that Port for the Fraser River in New Caledonia.
Lord Malmesbury considers that it may be useful that
Sir Edward Lytton's attention should be called to this
subject as the system carried on by these personshas
has been
productive of much inconvenience at Callao.
has been
productive of much inconvenience at Callao.
Minutes by CO staff
Inform the Govr but I sd hardly think that in B. Columbia
the crimping of sailors wd be a very profitable trade.
C
Nov 4
Footnotes
- = British Charge d'Affairs at Lima Identify??
- Crimping, an indictable offence in Britain, involved removing sailors from one ship and selling them to another. Crimps often plied sailors with alcohol and delivered them, insensible or unconscious, on board a ship an hour or two before it sailed. San Francisco was the most active port for crimping in the nineteenth century, and crimps usually charged about $30.00 per sailor. Source??