Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-11-04
LOADING A BIG SHIP.
AN INTERESTING SPECTACLE AT A
NEW YORK WHARF.

stevedore-HOw the Loading OF Nessei
is Conducted Shipping Merchandise.
Heavy Bodies Handled with Ease.
A petroleum broker gets word from firm
in Valparaiso, Chill, that it wants 5000 gal
Ions of best refined petroleum, but can pay
only % cents gallon, delivered. He goes on
Change and finds that the best he can do is TO
get his oil from New York company at 16
cents After talking with this ship agent and
that he chooses the most advantageous terms
which he can find, which are cents gallon
for freightage. Next he consults an insur-
ance broker and affects an insurance upon
his petroleum at rate which amounts to
4 cent per gallon. This leaves him a profit
of IL cents a gallon, or s75 for his morn
ing work.
Meanwhile the order is being carried out.
The oil is in the company's works at Hunters
Point, making that delectable locality obi
ously odorous. A lighter is sent for it and
the 5000 gallons put on board. This oil
may be packed in two different ways-in or
binary barrels or in tin cans holding five gal
Ions each, two of which are boxed in lease"
of thin wood This latter method of packing
is employed mainly for fancy brands A
word about lighters: They are broad, blunt
nosed, sloop-rigged boats, ali deck except
little hole of a cabin, and used about the har-
Dor for the transportation of merchandise to
and from vessels at anchor, or from wharf to
wharf. They are thoroughly ill-looking, al
ways in the way, and only to be excused for
existing on the score of their great usefulness.
The lighters are ON the rivers what the carts
are on the streets.
LADING THE VESSEL.
The oil safely aboard, the jolly captain and
his Jolly crew of one set their sail and bowl
along at a snail's pace down the East river
until they heave alongside the Valparaiso
ship. Then the jolly captain sticks his pipe
in his hatband and the loading of the oil be-
gins A huge double pulley, technically
known as a block, is suspended between the
mastheads Just over the hatchway, and
through it is reeved rope long enough to
reach to the deck of the lighter on one side,
and, through a second block attached to the.
planking, to a stationary engine on the
wharf on the other side. On board the vessel
itself staging is arranged, level with the top
of the bulwarlzs and reaching to the edge of
the hatchway, and then the men descend
perilous and shaking ladders and disappear
IN the echoing blackness beneath the lowest
deck. The oil is now in charge of the steve
dore-a man who makes business of loading
as he needs from the crowds of men hanging
about the wharves waiting for such chance to
earn a dollar, and who are called 1ongshore-
men All being ready the men on the lighter
pile up eight or ten boxes in double tier,
pass around them a fold of rope called
sling, and attach the iron hook at the end of
the tackle; the man on the dock whistles a
shrin AGO aheadI" to the engineer, whose
drum rapidly winds up the rope until the
slingful of boxes swings over the deck, when
it is seized by brawny arms and guidsd over
the hatchway, when, obedient to the signal,
"Let gon the engineer permits his drum to
fly back, and the burden drops hike a shot to
the tune of "Stand from underln There the
tackle is quickly unlocked, an empty sling
sent Hp, and then the boxes are rapidly
slowed away, their number having been re-
corded by the shipping clerk in his memo
randum book.
The object to be attained-the absolute
necessity-in slowing is to present all jostling
between articles of the cargo, and the boxes
of oil are crowded in sidewise, any way to
hold them tightly together, every crevice be
ing filled with wooden wedges, so that there
shall not be the least movement. By this time
the men above have filed another sling, the
whistle sounds again, the tackle creaks, the
"yo-hee-ye, oh-stand from un-n-n-der N is
heard, and down comes another dozen cases
to help fill the belly of the insatiate monster
When all the boxes are in the hold, the officer
in charge of the ship fills out the form of re
ceipt called bill of lading.n This is sent to
the office of the owners of the oil, and if found
correct, several copies are signed by the cap
tain-one for himself, kept by the ships
owners, another for the shipper, and a third,
at least to be sent to the consignees in Valpa-
raiso as guide to their part of the transac-
tion, for the freightage is paid ordinarily
upon delivery Of the consignment rather than
in advance.
OTHER MERCHANDISE.
The process above described is substantially
that used in loading whatever be the mer-
chandise shipped. The main features staging
across the decks, broad gangplanks hung over
the ships side to prevent maTTing her paint,
complicated block tackle and steam engine to
wind it or or horse power to walk away with
it, men to manage the great weight swung
about so easily by the tackle-these are al
ways present, and only the details vary. If
barrels or the cylindrical iron cases in which
caustic soda and other chemicals are packed
are to be lifted there are attached to the end
of the hosting rope two iron arms with
curved ends, like half-closed fingers which
clutch the chains; but often three or
four barrels or heavy hogshead Of tobacco
or sugar are put in sling. Bales of cotton,
rags, jute, mating, ETC., are clutched on op-
posite sides by graphing hooks similar to
those used in handling ice, which dig into
their soft sides; but this will not do for bales
of cloth, upon which you see printed the
warning: use no hooks" Iron T rails are
caught with clamps just in the middle, and,
being thus balanced, are easily guided by one
man, end foremost, through a little door in
the side of the vessel and landed on q hand
truck, whence they are again swung to their
resting place by tackle coming down through
the hatchway. Railroad iron is much used
for ballast in departing ships. 1t lies dead
weight, several layers deep, down in the bot
tom of the hold, and the floors of each of the
lower decks are usually paved with a double
layer of it, upon which the other cargo is
laid. If the merchandise over it is light the
rails are fastened down by cross ties of tim
Der.
The ease with which exceedingly heavy
bodies are handled by the stevedore's men is
remarkable. The hatchways are often Just
large enough to let package through, and
frequently the space between decks is so cir
cumscribed that the men have hardly room
to move, yet by skilfully landing the hogs
head, or boxed piano, or huge piece of ma
cinery, as it is lowered to them by the tackle,
by prying it up and twisting it over with iron
bars, pulling it with cotton hooks and push
ing it with brawny hands and shoulders, sit
ting down four or five in a row against a
bulkhead and showing with their feet, they
slowly work the unwieldy mass into its cor
ner and brace it firmly by wedges until its
successor is placedL-Brooklyn Eagle.
Lady Wilde's Eccentric Ways.
Marshall P Wilder, who recently returned
from London. speaks of Lady Wilde as being