The sailors knew that without the longshoremen they had no choice but to return to work. Old Andrew Furuseth, however, had the last word. As a final gesture of defiance against the waterfront employers, he proposed a symbolic action: “We are going to build a fire. Alongside that fire we will have a can of petroleum and each man who has got a fink hall book will come along there and he will dip it into that petroleum and throw it on the fire.”

The day before returning to work a huge crowd of SUP members, with Furuseth looking on, made a bonfire on the docks and burnt their “fink books.”