Drunken Sailor – January 1903
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
As noted in the 2 January 1903 issue of the Hawaiian Gazette:
Transcript:
SAILOR STEPPED OFF THE WHARF
Had it not been for a prompt rescue on the part of watchman “Jack” and two men from the custom house, Captain McGrew and Night Inspector Wirud, a drunken sailor from the Helene would have been drowned late Wednesday night.
The sailor had returned from town after celebrating New Year’s eve, and in trying to reach his vessel stepped off the Irmgard wharf and fell into the water. “Jack” heard the splash and shouted “man overboard.” The trio then rushed to the rescue. McGrew flashed his searchlight on the water. This found the drowning man, who was quite close to the wall of the wharf. Wirud took off his overcoat and, climbing down on the wharf, threw its end toward the drowning sailor with the injunction to “grab hold.” The sailor did this, and several people assisted in pulling him to the wharf.
The water did not sober him, and it required half a dozen persons to push him up the Helene’s gang plank and into his bunk.
A court decision I studied once said that sailors were a class of people “to be maintained for economic as well as humanitarian reasons.” It described sailors as “poor and friendless,” “childlike and improvident,” and “Prone to habits of gross indulgence.” But we can tie knots better than anybody else.
“But we can tie knots better than anybody else.” True! LOL