Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-05-24
Dragging for the Drowned.

Dragging for the Drowned.
THE MELANCHOLY TRADE AT WHICH MR.. ROBERT
PEACH IS AN ADEPT.
DickenS's readers will recall CATER Hexam
who, with the muffied, shivering Lizzie, Is intro
duced in the opening chapter in an old boat
drifting down the Thames at night, 'on the
lookout a for somethings-Hexam, who, IS elther
but man who carries rope and gra ppllog
hooks, ana watches the currents and tides and
t TOW It ashore when the gqrgling water brings
here and there from Peck slip to the Battery,
one may meet dozen or more men who follow
Hexams calling, weather. beaten, swarthy, full
Hexam, honest, and working hard for all they
get Ro6f. Peach, VIM. Benson, John Rea, VIM.
Brock; Harry Singleton, Henry FLOCK, Jno. Gre |,
liam DUNBAR, and Bill Anderson are the princI-
pal ores Chief among these is Robert Peach
vino VIM fd mas neen aongshore and about Coeates
fciency which he has acquired, win the ..feel-
ers" az proacnes the artistic
GU can JUS bet" said oac af his admirers
Leaning rellectiyely over heap efoyster shells,
you can JUS bet, II he's feelin after anything.
he won't let UP till he gifts it. don't care
Wne,ner us watch or body, he'll bring it up
After dark, when the lettering sailors and
,longShoremen who block up south stree5 and
one place and another, Mr. Peach was found
Wiry man, with shrewd, intelligent face. He
talke freely about his way OF making living
II run away from home when was thirteen
years DID," he said, ''and I've been about here
ever since. Never did anything but grapple.
Never got into any scrapes or got arrested or
locked up In the Tomb; I've kept right along
In my way, and when I've had chance TO pull
a man out alive or dead I've done 1t and took
nothing or whatever was given me. l built
boat alone when l was boy, and begun hook
ing up b dies then. haven't drank pint or
twenty
In Brooklyn. No man. you see, can be good
grappler If he don't keep his head level The
t tnnngg al depends on his Judgment and delicate
Mr.. Peach then explained his method OF find
ing drowned person. TO begin with. he con-
siders all the particulars that can be ascer-
tanned necessary, whether the person was
drowned accidentally or committed suicide,
whether be swami struggled: or made any efforts
whatever to save himself whether he was va ign6
known, the most that can be done is to drag
the river from point to point with sweep lines
and hooks. If, however, the place where the
drowning occurred happens to be known, the
first thing to determine Is the condition OF the
tide at the time. Then, on the recurrence Of
like tide, fresh cowhide rolled together and
held by line, Is allowed to sink as 1t may. 1t
will go down about the same as man would;
and after experimenting with this hide three
or four times, an expert grapp!er can usually
body struck bottom. A pair OF graphing irons
are next used, and it Is with these that Mr..
Peach'S long experience comes particularly
usually held there by suction and the pressure
If the water and after this spot has baen hit
upon the graphing irons must be used very
carefully. 1t is necessary to feel OF the body
delicately until the ankles are reached, by
which it should be drawn up.
Can Can really feel about the body with the
could There are hundred men hereabSuts
who'll tell you what I've done. I never dis
figure body, and the only things l can't al
fe o as s9on as
A man In diving suit can't begin to do this
kind OF work as well as good grappler. When
diver gets on bottom he kicks up mass OF
mud that riles the water, and he can't find any
thing unless he happens to tumble over it.
Take, for instance, The Westf1e!d ferryboat
when IT blew up In the slip at the Battery seven
didn't get q single body, though he walked
around on the bottom day or two, While a
couple OF US grapplers took up from right be-
fore him twenty SIX bodies"
had taken out Of the rivers In the last twenty
five years, MIR. Peach said he couldn't tell
You see, I've never made any account OF my
work. haven't cared to be heard of, or to get
medals, or to getslnto any societies. When
find body just pull 1t ashore, tie it to the
dock, and notify the coroner. Sometimes l
Pean et e6e o me ana don't
hunt up drowned friends, and they give me
what they like-$1OO, $50, or s25. When Preston
King, the collector OF the port, jumped Off the
Christopher street ferry boat several years ago.
was offered 81 900 to find him. But he came
up In the Atlantic Basin, and all my work was
thrown away. That's just the way 1t Is half
the t1me,' he went on. "a great many peopie
that we look for are never found. There mus:
be hundreds OF them that 60 out to sea every
year; people who fall Off OF excursion burgess
In the summer, men and boys who are drowned
while In swimming, and drunken men who get
asleep Oh the piers and roll Off unbeknown to
any one. II they catch anywhere in going out
it's usually In the eddies off the Battery or In
those at Bay Ridge. Sometimes on stormy
Is anything In them. In the winter If body
is floating round, It's almost sure to be found
there at last I'm the slush and ice."
Frequently In the winter bodies do not come
to the top until after two or three months. In
the summer the time Is usually about week
The firing OF cannon at the navy yard and On
Governor sIsland sometimes prod aces this effect
Mr.. Peach, besides graphing for bodies, does
much for the marine insurance companies, and
In his time has brought up an odd variety OF
things from the rivers and harbor-ship loads
OF merchandise, anchors, cannon, jewelry
suspicious bags with hideous contents, great
many young Infants, clothing enough to set up
Chatham street dealer, and small articles too
numerous to mention. He has also saved over
fifty horses from drowning, and more men,
all Of which is well known along the East river
front.
OF another gang OF men who turk along the
river from Greenpoint down, Mr.. Peach spoke
In no mild terms. They pretend to be grapplars
only to conceal the character OF thief. They
watch for bodies In order to rob them OF what
ever may chance to be In the pockets OF their
clothes, towering around the eddles and places
where bodies are likely to lodge, the same as
birds Of prey.-[N. Y. Sun.