Question?, did/do all Passenger Ships have a Jail Cell

[John Arton]

On the Empress of Canada there was actually a padded cell, very similiar to a police cell and one one crossing we actually had to use it.
I was on gangway watch greeting the joining passengers with a junior purser etc. in Liverpool and the very last passenger to board, slightly late, was a young man who came up the gangway with a holdall, this we passed to one of the stewards who took it to the passengers cabin, a single berth, tourist class cabin. As he was late joining we asked the passenger if he knew whether his remaining cabin bagge had been loaded to which he replied that he did not have any other baggage beyond his holdall. I thought nothing of this as it was always a rush to get the gangway in and sail on time once the last passenger was on board.
As was normal, on the trip down the Mersey to the Bar, a lifeboat drill was held and whilst I was at my lifeboat station with one of the Purserettes we came across said passenger. We checked his lifejacket was on corrrectly and that he was at the correct station for his cabin number and asked him the usual questions and did he have any questions for us. No he replied, but I am a stowaway!!!. Mad panic ensued but on double checking his passport etc. we found he was actually booked on a round trip, Liverpool to Quebec and back to Liverpool on the return crossing. A pissed off with idiot passengers junior officer (me) then went about his normal duties. That night whilst I was keeping my 12-4 watch with the 2nd Mate we discovered a cat on the bridge which was strange as we knew there was no ships cat, then another cat appeared, followed by a dog. I spent the rest of the watch chasing round the damm ship catching all the stray cats and dogs that had been released by some daft passenger (you guess correctly who it turned out to be, our so called stowaway) from the on board kennels. These were family pets of persons emigrating to Canada and taking their pet with them. Bloody awful 4 hour watch that was.
The next night I had just arrived on the bridge for the 12-4 watch when the Naster at Arms came puffing and Panting onto the bridge gasping that an Officer had better come quickly as one passenger was chasing another passenger with a knife and swearing to kill him. The Chief Officer was on the bridge at the time writing up his night orders for the deck watch (which none of them took a blind bit of notice of), he promptly put his pen down, told us he was off to bed and that I should handle the situation....great!!!!
I gathered a couple of the deck watch and with the Master at Arms went down into the passenger accommodation where we did indeed find our "stowaway" being chased round the alleyways by a very fit but elderly American ex. Marine with a very large knife that he had picked up on his travels through Europe , swearing to "kill that bastard if he comes into our cabin again". We managed to seperate them by shutting the fire doors between them. The deck crowd took our stowaway off to his cabin with strict instructions to keep a permament watch by his cabin to keep him in there and to give him one if he tried to come out again. I took the American off to one of the Bars and fed him scotch to try and calm him down and to find out why he was so mad with the other passenger. It turned out that in the afternoon he and his wife had returned to their cabin to find our "stowaway" going through there posessions. Not being to happy about this he had tossed him out of his cabin and reported the matter to his bedroom steward who assured him he would report the matter to higher authority (she did'nt) so as to ensure it would not happen again. That evening, after dining and watching the evening show he and his wife had retired to their cabin, he had gone to bed and was reading whilst his wfe was in the shower. When she came out of the shower who should be standing there but our "stowaway" again. (don't ask me why they did not lock their cabin door when they retired for the night, never got round to asking him). This enraged our American as he had been assured that the man would never be in his cabin again, hence the chase round the accommodation trying to kill our stowaway. I had just about got him calmed down (min. half bottle poured down his throat) when a junior Purser who I had summond to asist me, turned up and immediatley made this worse with his first question to the American. It being "You are not making this up are you sir". Instant dismissal of junior purser by junior officer and more scotch down the Americans throat.
In the morning investigation revealed that the "stowaway" had ben told that in Quebec he would have to change cabins for the homeward leg and had been given the cabin number occupied By the American couple outwards bound. He probably was just a bit confused by this as he definatley was threepence short of a full shilling and no one really took their time to properly explain everything to him. He had tried to get out of his cabin a couple of times during the night and the deck watch had had to have been quite forcefull in getting him to go back. In the morning he was taken to the hospital to be examined by the Doctor and apparentley there he had attempted to attack one of the nurses, so he was thrown into the padded cell, where he remained for the rest of the crossing, refusing to come out even when asked if he wanted to. It was part of my night rounds duty to check on him at 0200 and he always seemed as happy as Larry when I checked on him, just sitting there, reading magazines.
The ship had got in contact with his next of kin and it turned out that he had just been released from a long term sanitorium as they felt he no longer posed a risk. His family ptobably did not want a "nutter" back living with them in their posh Southport suburb, so had decided a nice sea voyage would do him good, hence the round trip booking.
When we got to Quebec two male bruisers who were sychriatic nurses boarded, put the poor guy into a straight jacket and quite literally carried him off the ship to the airport, where they flew back to the U.K. with him, still in the straightjacket apparently, and handed him over to the authorities there. I guess he was returned to the hospital where he had been released from just a short while ago.
Ho hum, the things that you ended up doing at sea, who said it was all wine, women and song.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Mike Line]

There was a padded cell on the Windsor Castle; it was at the stern in the hospital area.
I had a similar experience, but this time with a steward was running around the accommodation, naked. By the time the MA and I caught up with him, he was by the tourist class swimming pool, standing on the side rails. Fortunately it was about 2 o`clock in the morning, so no passengers were around. After about 20 mins we coaxed him off the railings and got him into the padded cell for a quiet night. I returned to the bridge and filled in the log. The next morning, I heard that the ship’s doctor had removed him from the cell, given him some pills and put him in the hospital unit, disregarding any input from the MA or myself. Later that evening, the pill wore off; he filled a bath with water, removed the light bulb above it and electrocuted himself.
As far as I know the doctor did not sail again.

[Captain Kong]

The old Georgic, last built of the White Star Line had a large jail flat with several cells in it. down near the fore peak below the water line.
Here is an exerpt from my story of the Georgic in 1955, in `Seafaring Yarns` in page 3................
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By the time we got to Cape Town three of the lunatics from Walton were taken ashore and charged with attempted murder. All the catering staff walked off on strike most of them forced ashore by the big hard cases , one was big Jossie Peters from Bootle, a giant of a man with a big iron fist driving them down the gangway.
When the three were being brought from the gaol to the court on the third day, they rushed the police and got them away and ran back to the ship and big Jossie drove them back up the gangway again. Old Captain Fitzgerald thinking the strike was over shouted to us to let go and we sailed out into Table Bay, followed by a Police Boat calling us to stop so we anchored. The Police came on board and searched the ship from fore to aft and they found the three men and took them ashore again. they got ten years each on the attempted murder charges.
They were battling and trying to kill each other all the way to Fremantle, A steward was smashed around the head and face in the shower with a large glass jug, he was found in a pool of blood and had to have 120 stitches to keep him in one piece.
Another steward was in the B Deck saloon having his dinner after the passengers had left, he was attacked by a gang and battered with a water jug and then a heavy saloon chair was smashed over his body. Every time a battle started they always called the watch on deck to help the six Master at Arms, we would wait until the battle had finished before going in, we didnt want to be targets.
The watch on deck and the Master at Arms were at it every day trying to stop them and the gaol on the ship which was down in the forepeak was full of lunatics and we had to guard them while we were on watch, not a pleasant job when the hard cases were full of ale trying to break down the door to the gaol house flat. The flat was a room with nine cells off it and we would have to sit at a table with the door locked, we would get abuse and threats off the guys in the cells and then around midnight when the others were full of ale they would come down the alleyway and start battering the door trying to break out their mates. I would be on the phone to the Bridge shouting for help. No fun being on the 12 to 4 at night,
When we hit Fremantle every alehouse in town was smashed up. Men were flying through windows out of The HM Hotel, Cleos , The Orient the P&O and so on, the cops had reinforcements coming in from Perth and when we left for Melbourne 27 men were left ashore in the big gaol house in Fremantle.............
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A real fun ship she was.
Cheers
Brian