Maxwell Levy was known as the "king of the crimpers" at the flourishing port of Port Townsend from the 1890's until his retirement in 1910. Crimps or crimpers are those who force or entrap sailors into service against their will or while they are incompetent, such as while inebriated or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Levy was the most important source of seamen to ships departing from the port. He was able to obtain them using a process known as shanghaiing. 
Levy acquired seamen through various types of coercion for a period of 20 years before being convicted of a crime against them. He worked out of a boardinghouse on the dock that he owned and operated for sailors. 
Changes in the law, as well as the introduction of steamships, which required far fewer seamen, finally compelled him to abandon his lucrative enterprise. Upon retiring in 1910, he returned to his hometown of San Francisco, where he died in 1931.
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