I'm glad that this location has been posted here. However, I for one am a little skeptical of the tour operators' assertions that Portland was once a tougher and more dangerous port than San Francisco or Seattle. There is no question that local politics were riddled with corruption, but so was virtually every municipal government in the country.

I also wonder just how useful a cowboy from Eastern Oregon who most likely wouldn't have been on anything bigger than a rowboat could have been to the captain of a sailing ship...

I've actually heard this story before. I had no idea they were conducting tours down there!

It did, in fact, happen. though as I understand it, the reason that the practice of 'Shanghai'-ing folks was more prevalent in Portland was the lax nature of the authorities out in the relative boonies. There was a very active business in trading people out of that port.

In answer to your 'farmboy' question, while they did often grab bumpkins that happened into town, it was much more often unknown low-end of the mast sailors on stopover that got bagged.