The China Coasters
81
a modern coaster, specially equipped for the emigrant trade, with space for almost two thousand deck passengers. She was employed on the Amoy, Swatow, and Singapore run, and when I joined her in 1928 the Malayan rubber boom was at its height, and the Antung was carrying a full complement of deck passengers south each monthly trip. On going below before leaving Swatow on my first trip, I came across many strange Chinese in the engine room and shaft tunnel, all industriously polishing hand rails and floor plates. Enquiry revealed these to be the Number One Fireman's 'pidgin'. The bosun, compradore, and chief steward each had their quotas hidden or working away in other parts of the ship.
The Antung had loaded her first few hundred deck passengers at Amoy and was completing her complement by loading another thousand or so at Swatow, where a medical inspection and tally was carried out by a doctor and member of the British Consul's staff at Swatow. On the China coast, the successful prosecution of the art of pidgin lay in knowing just how far to go without exciting undue comment. Had this 'smuggling' of passengers become too blatant, the Consul would have been compelled to take some action, or the authorities in Singapore been placed in an equally awkward position. Then, had the captain 'squeezed' the senior members of his Chinese crew too much for shutting his eyes at the appropriate times, they would have made life very awkward for him, and might well have "blown the gaff" themselves at either end of the passage.
Private cargo was another source of 'pidgin', and on the Singapore and Bangkok runs this consisted of fish, fruit, vegetables, and other delicacies in great demand among the prosperous Chinese expatriates. Cabbages and mandarin oranges from Swatow made a very profitable deck cargo in the season, on voyages which rarely lasted more than ten days, and ships often left Swatow with their decks piled so high with cabbages and oranges that their lifeboats were completely immobilised. Some attempt was made to control this dangerous practice on British ships, but it continued on Chinese and foreign ships as long as the trade lasted. Large wooden tubs of live fish were also carried on deck, and the water aerated by relays of coolies working paddles, whose payment was a free passage. Much of the 'pidgin' cargo carried on the southern runs was of an edible nature, ministering to the home-sick palates of the overseas Chinese.