Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-03-06
wATERslDe CHARACTERS.
The Work Done by 'LongshOremen ant
Stevedores In New York Harbor.


The Work Done by 'LongshOremen and
Stevedores In New York HarbOr.
The jolly jack tar of the British and
American ship is hard worker at sea. In
these days merchant vessels, as an old salt
in the United States Shipping Office re-
marked to New York Graphic man, ''carry
no more cats than can catch rats" Ships
go to sea with just enough of a crew to
enable them to manage the vessel and in
bad weather they have rough time Of 1T.
When the ship is weathering Cape Stiff, as
the boys term the Horn, Jack does not spare
himself, but pulls out the weather earring
with frozen and benumbed hands, as he
chances into the vast concavity of blue and
icy water below him. He does not object to
trim cargo when it shifts, or to go aloft to
secure main top royal when the wind Is
singing a death rattle through the standing
rigging, when the foot-rope is running
slack through the stirrups and the reef
points are stiff as iron rods. But he most
decidedly objects to receive or discharge
cargo in port That he considers the duty
Of 'longshoremen employed by the steve
| dores. 'Longshoremen are many here in
| New York. Two years ago they were very
| prominent in the Knights Of Labor, but
} since they inaugurated a strike against the
! Dominion line few years ago they have
| nOb DCcu Inc ODlCCbS VI IuuCu newspaper dl-
| tenton. They are fine, manly, able fellows,
and if they do hang around the saloons on
the slips" and all over South street it Is
because their work is of an intermittent
nature, and not because of any desire to
idle away their time
The 'longshoremen whose business it is to
load and unload ships must be within the
reach OF the stevedore from daylight to
dark, and so down on South street near the
ferry and on Burling and Coenties slips,
where boss stevedores congregate, rooms
are fitted up for the men in rough sailor
fashion, where they can sleep, drink and
play cards in their of hours.
About 10000 men, all told, handle the
freight that comes into and leaves the port
Of New York, and the wages paid then
yearly is estimated at over $4,000 600
Every race is represented except the Chi
nese among these workers along shore
In New York harbor there are, all told
800 stevedores, and many have amasseC
great wealth. They are in effect the agents
of the consignees to whom cargoes ar,
brought, and like agents for the s'charte
! party the legal m aritime term for an,
person or company chartering vessel t
convey cargo of goods from one port +
another. To illustrate: A vessel has beel
chartered to convey q cargo from New Yorl
to Liverpool. She is ready for her oarg
and her cargo ready for her. The 'charte
party calls for his stevedore, as all larg
: shippers usually continuously employ tn
same man, and contract with him t
put their cargo aboard This does no
mean that it shall merely be put o
the vessels deck. 1t must be stowe
away in the hold and between decks in
; proper manner for an ocean voyage Thes
contracts are based either on weight @
measurement, and often on both; and tn
cost Of loading a cargoof q 1,O00-ton bark c
1 a great ocean steamer will vary from 81 sc
to Sc, COO While the vessel is being loade
he is practically its master. For while
ships captain may suggest regarding stow
age, he must after all yield TO the arbitrar
ruling OF The stevedore, who thus become
2 the responsible party for the good cond
: ton of the cargo on delivery at It's foreig
port.
8 The stevedore usually has several for
prep IN his employ. These are 'longshor