IMMIGRATION: The Mary Beatrice

Twenty Chinese coolies in Cuba, and each had $500. Each was willing to part with it to get into the United States. The Mary Beatrice, small Bahama sponge-fishing schooner with an unnamed skipper, offered to accommodate them at that price. The Chinamen boarded her at Havana, paying half the fare in advance.

They sailed northward, 20 Chinese, a skipper, and a crew of four— two white, two black. They reached “Rum Row” off New York. They waited several days. There was no opportunity to reach the shore undetected. A woman came out in a rum runner’s launch. She went to the skipper’s cabin. An interval. The skipper and the woman lowered the schooner’s dory and departed. The ship’s papers, the money the Chinese had paid were gone.

Two white men, two Negroes and 20 Chinese remained. The crew knew that the Chinese had $5,000 in unpaid passage money. The schooner rolled on a gentle swell. One of the crew went to the hatch and ordered five coolies on deck—a storm was coming up; the ship must be made ready.

The Chinamen grew suspicious. Not five but all 20 came on deck, armed with hatchets, knives, clubs. The crew waited with shot guns and revolvers. They fired. The Chinese rushed them. Melee. Confusion.

The fight was over. The bodies of two white men, two Negroes and five Chinese were rolled into the sea. Calm once more. Several of the Chinese were wounded; the rest weak from privation. Without a skipper, without a crew, the Mary Beatrice drifted into Quarantine.