The Shanghai Tunnels of Portland

The practice of forcefully conscripting sailors by kidnapping, intimidation, trickery, or violence is known as shanghaiing. The term was coined in the late 1800s, and based upon the name of the seaport of Shanghai in eastern China.

The difference between what is known as a press gang and shanghaiing is that press gangs were comprised of those who were pressed into service for Great Britain's Royal Navy and those men who were shanghai'd were usually forced to serve aboard American merchant ships.

A person who engaged in the act of shanghaiing was known as a crimp. These criminals took advantage of the poor economic conditions and lack of law enforcement and turned shanghaiing into a flourishing practice. Port cities on the West Coast, such as San Francisco, Portland, Astoria, Seattle and Port Townsend and New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore on the East Coast were particular hot beds for shanghaiing.

During this era, the California Gold Rush was seeing ships empty of able-bodied men who were flocking to strike it rich in California. Boarding masters, who were in charge of finding crews for the merchant ships, were paid "by the body". The more men packed into the ship's crew, the better the pay.

The most common way to shanghai a victim was to render him unconscious and forge his signature on the ship's articles. Other ways could be trickery, intimidation, and violence.

Once a man was signed aboard a ship as a sailor it was illegal for him to disembark until the voyage's end. Otherwise he would face imprisonment. It wasn't until the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898, which weakened the profiteering of shanghaiing, followed by the Seamen's Act of 1915, that shanghaiing was finally outlawed. Crimping became a federal crime and the use of new steam-powered vessels decreased the demand for labor.

The Shanghai tunnels run nearly the length of the Portland waterfront; from what was is presently today's Old Town and Chinatown, under the Skidmore Fountain, through to the "South End", presently the southwest downtown area of Portland.

Some experts disagree that the Shanghai tunnels were ever used for the practice, saying that it wasn't until the 1970's that the "dark past" became linked to the series of catacombs and tunnels. Those that believe otherwise say that politics are trying to cover up the dark past of Portland.

Today, the Cascade Geographic Society gives tours to those willing to brave the underground and see the Shanghai tunnels for themselves.

Tunnel Image courtesy Cascade Geographic Society