The St. Johns herald., 1895-08-08
i QUEER TRADE.
Vessels Engaged in Searching for
 Lost Anchors.
The Method Employed in Fishing Up the Planted hTud Eooks-A CoIDfozta- ble Revenue in the Odd
 Business.

1lDSd ETC IO De 1Ou00 III ana near d great city, and one of the strangest of these hercaboats is fishing up lost an- chors and anchor chains from the bot toms of the bays and of the sea along the coast. It Is not what might be called q fourishing industry, says the New York Evening Post, but is. in deed, a precarious dependence for the necessares of life; yet it yields suste- nance enough to have created quite number of followers. Several schoon- CTS and sloops are engaged almost ex- ciusiyely in this trade and each carries crew of from three to ten men.
 These odd fishermen seek their imam innate prey whenever the weather per
 nit5, and, of course, are most active during the long summer days. Like the takers Of living spells from the water, they know the field of their op- erations thoroughly, and expend their energies mostly where the fishing" is best. Perhaps, of all the grounds" in this vicinity, they regard the stretch of sea eff the Delaware brealwater as the most profitable. It is widely known among shippers and all seafaring men who visit these parts as great ceme- tery fer anchors. They are being con- staHtly planted" there, to use the nautical phrase. The perpetual invol untary sowing" of anchors there is due to the large number Of vessels that are compelled by conditions of busi- ness or of wind and tide to ride off the breallwater, and to their getting ire quently caught in gale while doing Sc. Then, the floor of the sea at that point appears to have a peculiar facil ity for fouling anchors, and vessels are not seldom compelled-or prefer, as the less of two evils-to abandon them.
 Territory up and down the coast ranks next, i. tho anchor fsherman's esteem, as q fruitful anchor bed. The interior waters Of the harbor are more barren. yet repay search. Even the North and East rivers, for some dis t2nce up, are occasionally harvested, and usually not wholly ill vain.
 The method of anchor fishing is sim pie to pTiraitiveness. It consists in let ting down . chain in loop from the sides of tho vessel until the loop trails along the bottom. Then the boat sails along with all hands on board alert for g bite" Plain as this tackle is, it is effectivs as any that could be devised.
 Planted" anchors almost invariably lie with one flnl1e buried il the mud and the other sticking straight up. If the angling chain l. dragging in the direction of the inner curve Of the up standing flulzc, it $ almost a sure ''catch." Then the line win the anchor attached iscarefully hoisted, some times by hand. CT if the anchor is very heavy, by me2ns of capatons. If the spoil is a very weigh5y C1e-say f0ur, five CT six thousand pounds, a driving engine is frequently employed. The instances are few, however, where the fishermen fail to secure their booty. When nee essary the crew of one anchor smack will lend a hand to another. Boats often work in pairs. A cable is stretched between the vessels, and dragged or tAe bottom. When an an- chor is caught one of the vessels takes g. position above it and both crews asaist in raising it. This method in- suros wide sweep of the bottom. There are two purposes for which the catch is disposed of. Usually the anchors are sold to be used as an chors again, for moderate, or even a considerable, degree of rust in no way inpairs 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 market value fer their wares They either sell them directly by hawking them about among the vessels in the harbor or they sell them to the ship chandlers. Sometimes they have per mission from wharf-owner5 or leSsees to stick the anchors up there with notice that they are for sale, with tho price stated. As a rule they get very good prices. New anchors are sold for five cents a pound now, and the re- covered old ones seldom suffer a great CT depreciation in value than enc cent a pound. Therefore, for every one t4JOSc2u DCItltlS cl -AiC4ICT t1Sy cap ture the fishermen make about forty dollars, and if the anchor is ore of the very heaviest-a six thousand pounder their haul nets them about two hun- drcdau1forty dollars, They seldom take n monster cf thct size, however; their usual capture is between fifteen hun- fred and twenty-five hundred pounds. There are several reasons for this. In the first place the lighter anchors are more generally uaed; in the second place t is the sailing vessels which most often lose thcir anchors, and, as q rule. they carry lighter anchors than steamers. end, in the third place, most large vessels--vle;acr steam CT sail big-con1noaly c2rry both g light and 6 heavy anchor, end seldom drop the latter in the harbor or immediately eff the coast,-uaing it for deeper and ropgher seas. Inc fact that steam vessels l2se their anchors loss frequent r. than sailing vessels is due to their Icing allo to usc their steam, when T. ~