Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-25
THE SPONGE HARVEST


Nassau is the great point of export for
spOnges in the Western Hemisphere. A
large number of men and vessels are en-
gagged in the business, and all the sponges
of the Bahamas are taken to Nassau and
go through the ''sponge market' before
being exported. ''SpOnging'' is a regular
business in Nassau of such large proper
lions that Sponge Exchange has been
established, governed by rules on the plan
OF the Stock Exchange; and to do a spOnge
business successfully in Nassau a firm
must be represented in the Exchange.
Sponge is an important thing in Nassau.
1t is plenty, of course, and cheap. You
see spOnges lying in the streets and kick
ing about the wharves that in New York
we would have to pay fifty cents or a dol
lar Tor. Wherever sponge can be used in
place oil cotton or wooden cloths it is used.
Kitchen maids use spOnges for stdish-
Cloths" and frequently the seat in boat
Is nothing but an immense sponge as big
as half barrel. Windows are invaria-
bly, washed with tn IN, glasses polished
with them and they are used for almost
every conceivable purpose. Around the
hotel in the winter are always two or
three "bOys" with long strings of them,
trying to sell them to the Americans
Hardly any visitor leaYe- Nassau without
taking box of them along. Next time
you so into drug store and pay dollar
for little bit of a bath sponge console
yourself with knowing that you could buy
one just like it in Nassau for cents. |
bought string of about ID sponges, that
stretched out far higher than my head, for
''one-and-six," or 371I cents. They make
very fine presents to give to your friends
when you get home, they are so cheap,
and sponge is more valuable when YOU
know it has just been brought by some
body you know from the sponge fisheries,
Some of the servants about the hotel un-
derstand the knack of pre- ssing sponges.
and for trIfling consideration will take
bushel of sponge and pack it in a eli ar
box. This does the spOnges more good
than harm, so they say, and makes them
firm and solid.
The spOnging fleet is composed of small
schOOners ranging from 10 to 40 tons, or
even smaller. Each schooner carries from
four to six men and makes periodical trips
out to the sponge beds. Around Abaco,
Andres Island and Exuma are some of the
principal fisheries; there are hardly any
of value in the immediate vicinity of
Nassau. The men do not dive for them,
as sponge fishers in the Mediterranean do,
but use lOng-handled things like oyster
tOngs to fish them out of the water. They
do not $50 it blind' and probe in the mud,
like Oystermen, in this clear water they
can see every inch of the bottom, make
up their minds what spOngeS to take and
seize hold of each one carefully, detach it
from the rock to which it clings and lift it
into the boat. They are not the nice, del
icate, light-cOlOred things we see in shop
windows. When first taken from the
water they look and feel more like a piece
of raw liver than anything else | can COM
pare them with. They are slippery, Shiny,
ugly and smell bad. Their color is gene
rally sort of brown, very much like the
color of gulf weed, only a little darker.
Most people are taught, in the days of
their freshness and innocence, that the
sponge is an animal, and when they visit
Nassau they expect perhaps to see spOnges
swimming about the harbOr, if indeed they
do not surprise some Of the more athletic
ones climbing trees or making little ex-
cursions over the hills. But they are dis
appointed when they learn that the ami
NAL part disappears entirely long before
the sponge reaches market; and that
the part we use for mOpp ny up fluids is
only his house, the many-rOOmed resi-
dence IN which he sheltered himself while
at sea-a regular marine tenement house,
built with great skill and architectural
precision, in which many of the little
beasts lived and died. After the spOnges
reach the deck of the vessel they are
cleaned and dried and 90 through a cur
ingprocess. They then become the sDonges
of commerce and are divided into eight
varieties in the Bahamas. Some, called
'lambsw0Ol," or "sheepswoOl," are as
fine and soft as silk and very strong.
Others, although large and perhaps tough,
are coarse and comparatively worthless.
There are, too, @bouquet sponges, silk
spOnges, wire spOnges, and finger and
glove spOnges. The process for curing
them, l believe, is to keep them on deck
for two or three days, which 'kills" them.
Then they are put in a crawl and kept
there from eight to ten days, and are af-
terward cleaned and bleached in the sun
on the beach. When they reach Nassau
the roots are cut off and the spOnges are
trimmed and dressed for expectation.
Nearly every darky in Nassau under
stands how to do this trimming part. The
symmetry of the sponge must be preserved
as much as possible, and if there are any
places where coral sand has adhered to
the sponge those places must be cut out,
for no amount of skill or care will get rid
Of sand in sponge, and the sand is sure
to scratch anything it touches. The trim
ming is generally done very eXpertiy, so
that a novice would hardly see that a
sponge had been cut.
The Nassau sponge market is a large,
open building, long and narrow, without
any side walls. When the sponge vessel
reaches the city her cargo is all sorted out
into the various qualities, and the sponges
are put in piles along the sides of the mar
ket, the piles sometimes three or four feet
high. Each pile, either from its position
in the market or from label attached to
it, is known to belong to some definite
owner. Two or three or perhaps a dozen
vessels come in during the day, and their
CargOes are deposited in the market
When the place is opened, at O'Clock
every morning, all the sponge dealers in
Nassau, or their representatives, are as
sembled. Each member of the Exchange
is provided with little slips of paper bear
ing the numbers of the different lots Of
sponges. A member goes up to one of the
little heaps, LOOKS it over, makes mental
estimate of the quantity and quality of
the spOnges in it. decides just how much
he will be willing to give for it, and puts
the figures down on the paper correspond
ing with that lot, with his initials at the
bottom. Then he goes on to the next lot
and does the same thing there. If there
are any spOnges he does not want he does
not bid on them. When he has visited all
the piles of spOnges and made estimates
OF their value, and all the other dealers
have done the same, the papers containing
the estimates or bids of the various men,
bers are handed to the clerk of the market
and he looks them over. 1t takes him only
few minutes to ascertain who is the
highest bidder on each lot and he reads off
the purchasers and prices and the days
business is done. The highest bidder on
each lot, of course, is the purchaser and
it is remarkable to see how close the bids
often are. l went down one morning at
the kind invitation of a member of the
Exchange and saw the whole process. l
was shown a number of the bids after the
sales were made, and in several instances
there was a difference of only farthing
in the offers for piles of sponge worth from
95 to SO. BY long practice the Nassau
sponge dealers have come to know at a
glance what a lot of sponge is worth. A
novice going into the market, of course,
would not have the remOtest idea of the
value Of lot; and even years of practice
would hardly enable man to compete
with the dealers who have been brought
up to the bust less and who know sponges
as Wall street man knows stocks-fre-
quently better. Ev rything in the sponge
market is quiet and orderly 1t stands on
one of the wharves, with the end of the
building reaching up to the water, and on
the morning of my visit, when it was rain
ing that was the only rainy day saw in
Nassau there was brisk wind blowing
that made it delightfully."- cool and was
enough to cause a fNOrthern visitor to
envy the sponge dealers of Na5 au.