News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-07-12
SPONGING IN THE BAHAMAS
AN INDUSTRY OF GREAT IMPORT
ANCE TO THE LAZY ISLANDERS.
How the ProtoZoans are Caught,
Prepared for the Market and
Sold in the Nassau Exchange.

Prepared for the Market and
Sold in the Nassau Exchange.
The marine establishment of the Ba-
hama Islands is almost wholly composed
of "sponging" schoOners and sloops.
They are distinguished almost wholly by
the possession of one or two masts. In
size they run as close to each other as the
individual herrings of a school. In in
terror fitting they are identical. Each
carries a turtle reservation" cOmpart-
ment in which are housed enough green
turtle to furnish the spongers food for the
voyage. They come easily for the catch
ing, and the rude cooking that is con-
sidered sufficient to prepare them for the
table would turn the soul of a Hoboken
Turtle CIubite to infinite loathing.
Barring the small tween decks thus oc-
cupied, the remainder of the vessel is
devoted to the storing of spOnges and
the tools to get them with.
Take one of these craft when making
its last reach for the port of Nassau,
New Providence. If she have two masts
strands of spOnges are stretched between
them so that they look something like
naval vessel on the general wash day.
Sponges are everywhere. Down under
the hunks in the cabin and piled up on
its floor. On deck forward of the fore
mast are several dozen. In the yawl and
port bow are several more. Sponges of
all sorts are there from the rough grass
quality to the fine glove and wool sponge.
There are the Key Vesters (the original
sponger must have been a Philadelphia
judging from the suppression of the W),
hedge hogs, yellow spoDges, wine
sponges, bouquet, finger, mullet and
even the rare and much sought cup
sponges.
The craft is lacking through the Hole
in-the-Wall passage, which leads up to
Nassau's harbor, and its freight repre-
sents the lazy labor of sixteen men spread
over the last six weeks. Each " strandn
connects fifteen or eighteen sponges, and
all of them are seeking a market through
the English Exchange of the City of
Nassau n. P.
This alleged Exchange deserves espe-
cial mention. A New Yorker with Vi
sions of the Wall street and Whitehall
street structures aroused by the name
would probably be sadly disappointed by
personal acquaintance with the greatest
Sponge Exchange on this continent. 1t
is simply big shed, destitute of side
walls of any description and wholly open
to the public. Scattered throughout it
are piles of sponges strung together in
strands. At nine a. NJ. the brokers as
semble. They are clad in tow linen gar
ments and chip hats. Time is too plenti-
full to waste much of it on business or
sociability. They merely cast critical
glances over the various piles of sponges,
write down their bids on tabs, carefully
folding the slips and depositing them
with the clerk of the Exchange. At
high noon the bids are opened and COM
pared. The highest bidder becomes the
purchaser. This sounds like rude and
primitive way Of doing business, but the
Nassau brokers enjoy the reputation of
Shrewdness which belongs to men who
can bid within two or three cents of each
other on merchandise worth $500 or
$500.
Off the Neapolitan coast, and in other
seas where the protozoans grow, they are
gathered by diving. The Bahamas are
too shrewd or too lazy for any such anti,
quated methods. Possibly it is the clear
water that surrounds the islands, where
the bottom may be seen at almost any
in sponging. These are long poles vary
ing from twenty to thirty eight feet in
length, with curved prongs at one end.
The prongs detach the sponge from its
coral anchorage and convey it to the
bottom-is used to locate the sponges,
and by its use the spoDge-fisher can dis
tinguish his prey from other forms of
marine life at almost any depth. As the
sponges appear on the surface they have
a very unattractive, dirty, purple, livery
sort of look. They are then washed,
rubbed dried and strung on strands
which are doused with sea water
three or four times a day.
Every fishing smack has a "crawl,"
which is something like the fish weir
which infests certain fishing grounds in
the North. Stockades of saplings
bound together with manila or cocoa
fibre are submerged, and in them the
catch is deposited until enough are col
lected to make a profitable trip TO Mas
sau. Sponges aie plentiful down in
Nassau at sixty cents a strand.
The trade of the Bahama Islands in
this speciality alone amounts to $3.50, 900,
and beats fruit growing all hollow.
Over five million sponges are shipped
thence every year. They serve every
purpose of the dishcloth in the Bahama
and the way they are used for
other household purposes would astonish
the people who are accustomed to regard
them as a costly luxury. Chair bottoms
are often cushioned with Key Vesters,
and a dainty cup sponge for a cigar
holder is an ever welcome and unique
present. A sponge famine in the Bahia
mas would be serious catastrophe.
nl
more than thirty feet below the surface are
generally safe from the efforts of fisher
men. The water in the Hole in the Wall
passage, a channel dividing the high
ocean plateau of the Bahamas, is deep.
In many places six hundred fathoms of
inc have been run out without reaching
Nassau are occasionally wrecked, and
Nd A bocO CaItc orn fond IF covipp that |