Binnacle Bill Tells Why Shanghaing Is Against His Principle

This newspaper comic strip exemplifies early-twentieth-century Sunday page humor, featuring sailors and maritime life as recurring characters. The six-panel layout uses speech balloons and sequential action to develop a single gag: Binnacle Bill's moral objection to shanghaing (coercing men into service) despite peer pressure from fellow crew members. The strip's pen line and figure work demonstrate the visual vocabulary that newspaper cartoonists were establishing—distinct character types, readable panel composition, and gestural comedy—conventions that would become foundational to American comic art.