The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-12-08
Especial Corrcspondence.l

oysters i'll cold winter in Chesapeake bay
Is perhaps the hardest and most trying
work that falls to the lot of poor fellows
who are homeless, hungry, suffering. I
did it myself. Of course dredging is q
rather well worn subject to write about,
but to my mind it has only been written
up by men who knew actually nothing
of the subject. Never perhaps has the
professional dredger told of himself in
the press. He is generally II poor human
buffet whose mind is deadened by priva-
tions and the worlds hard blows. Men
such as he can hardly be expected to col
lect and shape their thoughts for press
acceptability.
To begin about my experience I will
say that one winter, some years ago,
arrived here from Liverpool in vessel
upon which, had shipped as able sea-
man. Along with nearly the whole
crew, deserted her, practice which is
usual with sailors all over the world.
You see sailoring is such an undelight-
full pastime that men rarely ever make
the round trip back to the port whence
they shipped. They need both rest and
change and forfeit their wages to get
them. They get the change all right, but
quite often they miss the rest missed
the rest
Being without cent and having no
place or friends to go to, 1 naturally
enough looked around for something
whereby L might get, so to speak, a Ii
cense to eat. found dredging. Along
the Light street wharf were slOops and
schooncrs, ranging in burden all the
way from 10 to 80 or GO tons l shipped
at the rate of $15 month and sailed
mcrrily and chcerily down the bay. The
merriness and cheeriness, however, did
not last forever. They quickly con-
gealed into woe of the most pronounced
kind.
On the way down to the dredging
grounds we had nothing to do but to sail
the schooner, which was an easy task,
as there were in all 10 men aboard. 1t
took us two days to get down, on ac-
count of head winds.
A word about the dredging outfit =
our schooner. She had two winches
amitships OH the port and starboard
sides for winding in the dredges when
they were filed. 1t took four men to
winch. Fastened to stout strong rope
dredge lay Oh either side near the gun
vale In working time these We're put
In readiness to be heaved overheard at q
word from the captain, who then steered
the boat. The gunwales were cut away
and rollers put on level with the plank
ing of the deck, so as to allow the dredges
to pass easily. The dredge was triangu-
lar in shape and was simply strong iron
frame with a steel chain bag pending
1,a
of the bag was steel bar, in which was
arrow of long, sharp teeth. These scraped
in the oysters as the dredge dragged over
the bed. Each man was armed with
'culling hammer" which he used for
breaking off extra shells from the oys-
tiers and for separating them from the
loose shells when the contents of the
dredge were dumped on deck.
What follows is the palcst and fee
blest description imaginable of our DAYS
work. Indeed it would require Hugo,
with all his paragraphs and word color
ing, TO adequately show forth its rigors.
About an hour before dawn the cook,
who lived aft with the captain in the
cabin, would come forward to the fore
castle. where We slept huddled together
like rats and inform us that the time
had arrived for us to sally forth to toll.
Reluctantly and unjoyfully we would
arise ut the sound of the cooks voice
and put OH our clothes-that is, if it had
been warm enough the night before to
take them off. You see, blankets were
scarce, and besides the captain wished to
instill into us a Spartanlike endurance.
After creeping shiveringly ont of the
manhole and onto the deck, our first job
was to haul up the enchor and loose
the sails. We anchored every night
in any small bay or cove that came near
est or handiest Getting up the anchor
was always IL terrible job because of the
raw, damp wind which was usually
blowing before daylight.
"BreakfastT the cook would shout,
and one by one we would file into the
cabin to eat.
While breakfast, which consisted of
Goldfish, hash, bread and coffee, was be-
ing doled out in detail the schooner
would be making all speed for the dredg-
ing ground. Arrived there, we would
get to our places at the windlasses.
"Heaver' from the captain at the wheel.
and splash! would go both dredges stimuli
taneously as a man from either side
heaved them overheard. The speed of
the schooner checked considerably as the
dredges dragged over the bed and gradu-
ally filled with oysters, which were
scraped into the bags by the toothbars.
"Windr the captain would command
when the dredges had passed over the
whole width of the bed.
With will the whole of us would
suddenly bend our strength upon the
handles of the Windlasses and wind u,ith