The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1886-03-03
HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1886

er his "grub-bill" on trust. ON his re-
turn he sells his cargo, pays the owner
his share and the 'grub-bilI and then
divides the balance into nine equal parts.
One of these goes to the ioremast-hand
and another to the cook, IL they are
sharemen. The balance he retains for
himself, after paying his crew their stip-
ulated wages. The captains, as a rule,
are intelligent sailors, who have follow
ed the busines of catching oysters. and
who will so continue all their lives.
Sometimes they save a little money and
get an interest in a vessel, but such cases
are rare indeed. With the usual sailor
characteristics, they have spent all they
have made one trip before starting
on the next. The foremast hand,
often captain out OF luck,
is selected for his sea-faring knowledge.
The cook is selected from among the
crew probably as being the most decent
one OF the remaining seven. His office
is no sinecure. He has to prepare four
meals daily, at morning. noon, evening,
and midnight He chops wood for his
fire, and when not cooking, washing
dishes or chopping wood, is expected to
take his turn at the windlass with the
other men.
The crew is usually a motley group,
which would require no makeup to en-
able them to personate Falstaf's army.
They dredge a trip then lay up over a
trip, and when their little money! gone
they ship again. Few men are dredgers
from choice Those who are, invariably
desire to be sharemen in order to make
if possible, enough money to give them
a longer idle spell At one time when
the tramps overrun the sration-houses,
and there was, as there most always is,
a great demand for men to ship as
dredgers, it was customary to give them
a choice of q term in Jail or the privi-
ledge Of going down the bay to FISH for
oysters Some of them, in their guile
less innocence, accepted the latter alter
native, but they never repeated the ev-
pertinent.
The hardships undergone by dredgers
are indiscrbable. Hour after hour, in
all kinds Of weather, they work at the
windlass, pulling in two hundred or
more pounds Of oysters and the same
weight Of rope and dredge, and when
that labor ceases are busy for hours
more culling on deck or in the hold.
This work is equallyas tedious, tiresome
and laborious as at the windlass.
In a STOPPING position, with their feet
about eighteen inches apart, they sepa-
rate the shells from the oysters, drop
ping the former in front of them, while
the latter they throw some distance be-
hind them Often, after a nights hard
work and but brief rest, they find the
deck-load Of oysters frozen in q solid
mass. Then, with everything covered
with a glare OF ice, amidst a cutting sIeet,
which freezes as it comes down, they
are COMPEL ID to separate by hand each
oyster from the other, and, oitentimes,
with frozen limbs and aching backs and
heads, they toll on unremittingly to
save the cargo they have caught. In
most instances they are poorly clad, and
their imprOvidence, nine cases out of
ten, leaves them when they ship with
out means to provide a mattress or bed
covering, neither OF which the captain
furnishes Captains will frequently
purchase for improvident members ol
their crew, blankets and oiled clothing
charging the eamountagainst their wages
to be deducted on their return from the
trip. No sooner are the men ashore
/ however, than they HE away to the
nearest pawn-shop or second hand-store
where they borrow a dollar or two on
their chattels even before they are paid
of, and when compelled to ship again
the captain releases their goods for them
| by paying double the amount advanced
When a vessel arrives upon the
ground which it is proposed to dredge
the captain takes his position at the
wheel, while the crew of eight men
stand by the two windlasses. With a
sounding pole, the captain feels the bot
tom OF the stream, the vessel all tho
while sailing as rapidly as the prevail
ing wind would admit, and when con,
vince that he is over oysters will cry
out Heave.' Immediately the dredgcs
are thrown over the side of the vessel
After a brief interval, a second order il
given, "wind up" and the dredges are
brought up on the deck. The oysters
and its other contents are dumped out
and shoveled out of the way, while the
dredges are again thrown, and again re-
turned to the deck This is continued
until the captain finds he is leaving the
oyster bed, when the vessel is put
about and returns, dredging parallel tl
the former course. Not all are oysters
that come up in the dredge-sometimel
over half the contents are shells anC
other debris. If the dredging is don,
in the daytime the oysters are culled al
rapidly as possible as fast as caught, i
at night, they are held till daylight. n,
rest is taken as long as the wind blows
except a brief interval for meals. Thr
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