New-York tribune., 1891-05-09
FLORIDA.
spoNGE-FIsHING ON THE WEST COAST.

WITH sHARKS--A SPONGE FARM
oMA STAFF CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUNE
Key West April 6.-This harbor is generally fuli
Of little, light fore-and-aft schooners, with STUMP
foremasts and steeving bowsprits. painted all the
colors of the rainbow They belong TO the sponge
feet, and wherever you go among the Keys thrown
out like military outwork south and west from
Cape Florida you stumble on them IN busy clus'ers
The best sponge ground in Florida is on the west
coast, toward Cedar Keys, and thither these tiny
craft boldly steer, although not one OF them is
bigger than a ships longboat, and hurricanes
sometimes sweep the intervening sea- lhey are
rarely lost. Key West has three distinct smells
oakum bad tobacco. and green sponges; and when
the schooners make the port after three weeks
cruise. YOU can gauge the extent of the catch
by the prevailing odor. The fleet numbers about
800 sail Last years haul was the greatest known.
and would give average return of $1,000 Tor
each vessel Some belong 10 the merchants. but
most are owned by the shippers themselves.
These hardy navigators are picturesque and
interesting race. Nearly oil come from the
Bahamas, where sponge-fshing on these coasts
originated They have their American faces, keen.
wistful blue eyes, brown mustaches, spongy-brown
hair, and bewildering habit Of mixing western
slang with an inherited cockney dialect skip
per who owns his boat has generally worked
his way aft through the hawse-holes," buying
at second hand for S400 $500 small craft that
needs modest crew. He gets new suit Of
sails, patches and paints her little and then
looks for q crew. -"
q, "Come with me next cruise Jack, he says to an
old comrade he meets on the quay "The COM
pany'lI be good, an you'll ave lots to heat
Jack Yields TO the temptation. So do three or
four others, though when sailing-day arrives they
may hang back lthe merchants are trying TO intro
duce regular ships articles. II all hands keep
faith, the skipper hoists his sails puts his helm
UP and goes skimming out among the reefs toward
the fishing ground with string of dingies In
tew. For cargo he takes about 1926 worth of hard
tack, salt beef and canned provisions. several
ordinary wooden water-bucSets. with glass bot
toms, and dozen or more thin pine poles, as long
as the schooner with three-pronged hook at the
end like an old-fashioned toastine-fork or curly
trident. When the sponge-beds are reached, every
body excepting the cook gets into dngy by
himself at sunrise, with water-bOttle and one Of
these hooks, and pushes off from the ship. Then
he kneels down in the boat and begins peerlng
over the side at the sea-bed through the unsteady
green water, polling himself gently with an oar.
At intervals he seizes the hook plungcs it into
the water, and tears from the bottom greasy
green substance, very like decayed cabbage, and
smelling almost as bad, coated with white sand,
and with grit and pebbles clinging to the roots.
This is a sponge.
This work is wet as we'll as hot. But the
fisherman keeps at it steadily until noon. and
returns to it Immediately after dinner until sun
set. His aim with the hook is extraordinary.
Refraction never seems to bother him, nor the dis
turbance in the water caused by the hooks inser-
ton. In rough weather. however, the waves hide
the bottom Then he gets mate to propel the boat
and himself passes the day with his body curled
over the gunwale and his head bent far down into
bucket, through whose glass bottom held firmly
beneath the surface, he scans the sea floor. Some
times he crouches for hours in this attitude while
The sun blisters his hands and his cramped neck,
without finding dozen good punches. 1t is no
wonder his back curves and his eyes have a far
away look. He learns to detect everything at a
glance, "white-hole,' patch of sea-grass, a
turtle-back or strip Of coral. The gulf.bed he
knows like book, and thoughts of it must haunt
his dreams, if he ever has any. But the boats are
run on shares, and his sole idea is to make good
division. AT dusk the dingies return 10 the
schooner that the cook has steered in their wake.
Each is unloaded and the sponges are spread sepa-
rately on the schooner's deck to die. Then after
supping and smoking, and yarning about the last
hurricane the good times when spongers were
divers and the decay of the Key West fish trade,
all hands crawl into their dingy hunks among the
coekroaches and in five seconds are snoring in con-
cert.
1.-The sponge is strange BEAST" says an old
fisher who has grown gray in the chase himself.
"He hain't O fish or a hanimal or a vegetable, an
vet he's all three. Nobody knows what they
grows from, or how they does it. But sometimes
we'll scrape place clean an conclude that that's
done for. for good. Next year, we goes back, an
there's Just as many of 'em as hever An do you
know If you cuts up green sponge under water
an soatters the bits, each bit u grow by hitselfP
This is authentic. Nat" Niles, local celebrity,
started e. sponge farm on Torch Key, thirty
miles from Key West, and failed only for want oil
a cement to hold the sponges to the bottom under
water -.
During the fishing, the schooner Keeps i's
catches in wooden pens along The key-oeaches
Tbere the animal matter dccomposes, and the eot
and flow of the tide washes It away. "heh Uns
end of the cruise approaches the men jump into ths
uater Nm 70 their waists at the pens and beat each
sponre separately with sticks. rinsing and squeez
ing II until the meat" is all eliminated. Then they
load up. run needle through the spongcs' str'he
them together in punches Of ten or dozen. ant
;oufullv tnru bomeward The largest vessels Of
course, can make the Dlgaese hauis' s,Hoe wy ~
send out the most men in dingies. But the crews
all share in the same proportion. hve-ton boat
carrying FIVE hands, including the captain WI
perhaps bring back from three weeks Trip Zv'
punches of sponge. These are spread out on en
wharf at Kew West and sold to the highest bidder
the skippers often agreeing together informally u
take nothing below fixed price. Two hundred
rood punches should bring S40o, $3.50" figure
as they say here OF this sum, the vessel receive
a third. and the captain and crew divide the bal
snce equally. The vessel costs about sib yea
for repairs. Where the merchant is the owner
the shares are graded according TO the crew
duties. Some years ago, Mr.. +. J. Arspian.
shrewd Greek who has practically built up thi
trade. sank about $4,000 in trying to introduc
a. Tnr,,ish stvle NJ diving for sponges ii