The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-01-22
DREDGING FOR OYSTERS.
Men ofthe Pungies, and Their
Methods OF Work.

oAAN' ShN ~ ~ A%ANSs
Men the Pungies, and Their
Methods OF Work.
Hardships of Those who Bring the Tooth
some Oyster from His Bed.
Each pungy engaged in dredging
for oysters is provided with two
dredges. They are iron instruments,
with chain netting made in the
form of a pocket. The mouths of
these pockets are provided with teeth
for scraping up the oysters, The
dredges have ropes attached to them
which are fastened to iron winders
placed amidships on both the port and
starboard sides of the vessel. These
winders are iron and provided with
cranks. They are securely fastened
to the decks. The dredger loves a
stiff breeze. He cannot Work to ad-
vantage without it, and if it blows a
half gale he likes it the better. When
the boat reaches the place where it is
proposed to work the two dredges are
thrown overheard and hauled along
the bottom by the vessel. Each
dredge will hold two and half bushels
Of oysters, but they are rarely drawn
up full, except on an especially fine
bed. The speed desired by the dredger
is two miles an hour. The sails are
therefore trimmed to keep this speed.
-Four men are required at each winder.
When the dredge is supposed to have
oysters in it four men seize the two
iron cranks of the winder and begin
the laborious task of winding the rope
around the cylinder until the dredge is
drawn up. 1t is hard work, | tell you,
and often very cod. Sometimes the
crank may feel like fire and take the
skin off the hands. Every drop of
water which strikes the decks and
clothing of the men may be freezing,
but they have got to work all the
same. Oysters sell better in cold
weather, and that is the time to catch
them. The captain takes part with
his men. His place is at the tiller to
steer and have general direction of the
boat. Woe to the men at the cranks
when the ropes slip or the dredges
strike a snag on the bottom. The
cranks are snatched from the men and
fly around with lightning speed, often
resulting in broken arms, legs and
lacerated bodies. l once saw crank
knock the top or mans head Off us
clean as it could have been cut with a
saw. Accidents from the crank are
frequent. There is not a day passes
but some poor fellow on the oyster
grounds receives wound from it.
|
The dredge boats 90 out from the
harbors, where they spend the nights,
at a very early hour in the morning,
and work as long as they can see in
the evening. They stop for no weather
except heavy gale or furious snow
storm. They will often work in 9
young hurricane under windward
shore, when they can only carry a lit
tie piece of mainsail and jib. The
men are compelled to be on deck in al
kinds of weather and work like beav.
ers. They get soaked with rain anC
have their clothes freeze on them
They sometimes have their ears, noses
hands and feet nearly eaten off by tht
frost and have to put up with uncom'
Portable sleeping quarters at night
As many of them have not got {
change of clothing, they lie down ir
their frozen garments at night an(
thaw out. So this process of freezing
during the day and thawing out a
night goes on, and it is no wonder tina
many of them die of pneumonia anC
other maladies incident to so rough ;
life. 1t too often happens that wheI
a man gets sick he is put ashore a
some point by his captain, withou
1 money, and left to shift for himself a
best he can. But on the other hand
some of these fellows who come to tn
CITY with such tales are deserters from
their vessels. The only time tha
dredgers have picnic is during tn
prevalence of 4 storm SO violent tina
the boats are compelled to lay in har
bor. The men then lay about the cab
ins and forecastle smoking. sleeping
and drinking, if they can get tn
liquor The food on the dredge boat
is coarse, but substantial. They havt
coffee. corncd beef, pork, bread ant
cabbage They also have soup.
The pay of a hand on these vessel
is about SIS to $50 per month. Som
few experienced dredging hands vii
get as high as $50 and $40 per month
Sometimes the crew agree to work OF
shares and divide the proceeds of tn
vessel-load of oysters among themselve
as stipulated in their agreement
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