The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-12
A UNIQUE INDUSTRY.
The Search for Lost Anchors in the
Waters About New York.

The Search for Lost Anchors in the
Waters About New York.
From the New York Post.
Many strange ways of making a liveli-
hood are to be found in and near a great
city, and one of the strangest of these
hereabouts is fishing up lost anchors and
anchor-chains from the bottoms of the
bays and of the sea along the coast. 1t is
not what might be called a tiOurishing
industry, but it is, indeed, precarious
dependence for the necessaries of life 4;
yet II yields sustenance enough to have
created quite number of followers. Sew
eral schooners and sloops are engaged al
most exclusively in this trade" and
each carries crew of from three to ten
men.
These odd fishermen seek their mani
mate prey whenever the weather per-
mlts and, of course are most active dur
ing the long summer days. Like the
takers of living spoiiS from the water
they know the field of their operations
thoroughly, and expend their energies
mostly where the Fishing" is best. Per
haps, of all the grounds in this vicin-
lty, they regard the stretch of sea off the
Delaware breakwater as the most profit
able. 1t is widely known among shippers
and all seafaring men who visit these parts
as great cemetery for anchors. they
are constantly being planted" there, TO
use the natural phrase. The perpetual
involuntary sowing of anchors there is
due to the large number of vessels that
are compelled by conditions of business
or OF wind and tide to ride off the break
water, and to their getting frequently
caught in gale while doing so. Then,
the floor of the seaat that point appears
to have a peculiar facility for fouling
anchors, and the vessels are not seldom
compelled-or prefer, as the less of two
evils-to abandon them.
Territory up and down the coast ranks
next, in the Acknowledgement esteem, as
a fruitful anchor bed. The interior wa
tiers of the harbOr are more barren, vet
repay search. Even the north and east
rivers, for some distance up, are occasion
ally harvested, andsusually not wholly in
vain.
The method of anchor fishing is simple
to primitiveness. 1t consists in letting
down a chain in loop from the sides Of
the vessel until the loop trails along the
bottom. Then the boat sails along with
all hands on board alert for a "bite. "
Plain as this tackle is. it is as effective as
any that could be devised.
PLANTED" anchors almost invariably
lie with one fuke buried in the mud and
the other sticking straight up. If the
angling chain is dragging in the direction
of the inner curve of the outstanding tiuke,
it is almost a sure ''catch" Then the
line with the anchor attached is carefully
hoisted, sometimes by hand, or, if the
anchor is very heavy, by means of cap
stans II the spoil is a very weighty one
say four, five or six thousand pounds. a
driving engine is frequently employed. The
instances are few, however. where the
fishermen fail to secure their booty. When
necessary the crew of one anchor smack
will lend a hand to another. Boats often
work in pairs. A cable is stretched be-
tween the vessels, and dragged on the
bottom. When an anchor is caught one
Of the vessels takes a position above it
and both crews assist in raising it. This
method inSures wide sweep of the bot
tom.
There are two purposes for which the
"catch" IS disposed of. Usually the an
chors are sold to be used as anchors again
for moderate, or even a considerable
degree Of rust in no way impairs their
efficiency as such If they are too much
eaten up by rust, which seldom happens,
they are sold as old iron. AS they are of
wrought iron the price brought is often
considerable. There are also two ways
by which the fishermen find a market
value for their wares. They either sell
then directly by hawking them about
sell them to the ship chambers. Some
times they have permission from wharf
owners or leSSeeS to stick the anchors up
there with notice that they are for
sale, with the price stated As a
rule, they get very good prices. New an
chors are sold for about cents a pound
now, and the recovered old ones seldom
suffer a greater depreciation in value
than l cent pound. Therefore, for every
LOCO pounds Of anchor they capture, the
fishermen make about $40, and if the an
Choir is one of the very heaviest-a 5000
pOunder-their haul nets them about
$40. They seldom take a monster of
that size, however; their usual capture is
between 100 and $500 pounds There
are several reasons for this. in
the first place the lighter anchor
are more generally usedr in the
second place, it is the sailing vessels
which most often lose their anchors, and
as rule they carry lighter anchors than
steamers; and in the third place most
large Vessels-whether steam or sailing
carry both a light and q heavy anchor.
and seldom drop the latter in the harbor
or Immediately of the coast, using IL for
deeper and rougher seas. The fact that
steam-vessels lose their anchors less fire.
quently than sailing vessels is due TO their
being able TO use their steam, when neces-
sary, TO check the strain upon the anchor
chain.
The captured anchor-chains often make
a substantial addition to the gain of the
fishermen, fetching about cents pound
Sometimes they are very long and weigh
hundreds of pounds.
One Of the divers of a local wrecking
company makes business Of keeping an
eye open for lost anchors while examining
or working around sunken vessels He is
said to have located several, and 10 have
made considerable sum as the result of
his enterprise.
Capt. Charles King, the novelist. expects
soon 10 take up his residence for three or
four years in Switzerland, where his family
has been for Some Years. II Is interesting -