Definition

Verb

  • Enforced “volunteering” to raise a crew.

Origin

From San Francisco’s Barbary Coast where men were recruited to man ships on the China trade routes. Another possible origin is the Australian term meaning to catapult, where the unfortunate seamen were catapulted off to sea as soon as they were made insensible.

Comments

Prevalent in the 19th century in the United States when the brutal discipline aboard ships made recruitment of sailors unlikely. In large ports, boarding houses, run by crimps, would be used to lure seamen with drink and women and the crimp would receive payment from the captain for every seaman they delivered on the eve of sailing.

References

Kemp, P. (1994). The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Oxford University Press.

Rogers, J.G. (1985). Origins of Sea Terms. Mystic Seaport.