Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-10-14
THE SHIP COMES IN.
How an Ocean Vessel Gets to New York
Wharf and Discharges Her Cargo.

Wharf and Discharges Her Cargo.
When ship approaches the coast she
hoists a signal for pilot; and usually
has not long to wait before securing one,
for the pilot-bOats are necessarily cruis-
ing in the offing. The pilot takes charge
of the ship and brings it into the lower
bay, where tug boat is employed to tug
it to the city, so that in three or four
hours after crossing the bar the wharf is
touched, the cables are IN ade fast to the
tremendous posts, and the weary vessel
rests in her berth. No sooner is this
| accomplished than a scene of hustle and
activity begins. The sailors are noisly
securing the sails, clearing the decks of
superfuities, and unlashing the hatch
ways: the owners are there to
welcome the captain, the harbor
master looking after the wharf
age; the consignees of the cargo send a
clerk to keep a record of its unloading
the custom-house officers watch sharply
for smuggling; boarding house sharks"
are trying to inYeigle poor Jack into
their power; stevedores are bargaining
for the contract of unloading, and long
shoremen cluster about in hopes of job.
| The unloading once begun, proceeds
rapidly, as many men being employed as
can work together conveniently, and the
freight being hoisted out by means of
tackle suspended from the yard-arm and
operated by steam or horse power. Usu-
ally, as fast as it is discharged, the cargo
is sent to warehouses near by and assort-
ed for the owners. The warehouses are
simply great caverns for the storage of
goods, and the legend over their strong
and gloomy portals is, 'sNo smoking"
They are two kinds-the private store of
the merchant, where he keeps his own
goods, and bonded warehouses" where
the freight of vessels is received and
stored for the owners under bonds to the
government until the duties have been
paid. The bonded warehonsemen give
two kinds of receipts-One, a mple &C
acknowledgement of the acceptance of the
goods for storage by them, the other, a
negotiable receipt" which, being proper
ly endorsed, may be presented by any
one, and will be acknowledged as a claim
upon the merchandise. In their phrase,
they ''know only the receipt" Therefore,
the owner may, and generally does sell
his goods by sample without taking
them from the warehouse and they
are delivered to whomever presents
the receipt with evidence that duty has
been paid. Each warehouse has a revenue
officer quartered in it called ''storekeep-
en-" and certain number of trucks are
licenced by the custom-house authori-
ties to transport goods held in bond, the
truckman being responsible for the gov
ernment's lien upon the goods while they
are IN his charge. The government never
loses sight of the imports from the time
they are sighted off Sandy Hook until
the duties are paid.
Upon these warehouse floors is written
history of our commerce. They are
denied by contract with freight from all
the continents and strewn with samples
of the products of every climate. Tea
and coffee and cinnamon, fragrant oils
and cloves and allsp1ce, mingle their pun
geat perfumes in the laden air and indi-
go, ocher, cochineal and the sweep1ngs
of costly bales dye the floors with queer
cosmopolitan mosaic of coIors. AS you
step out into the broad sunshine and the
heavy iron doors close behind you, you
feel as though you were Just landing
after years of foreign travel, and you
have about with you for many hours the
aroma of the tropics.