The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1902-01-10
THE FILIPINO CASCO.
structure and Operation of the Fa-
yorite Water Craft of the
Philippine Natives.


The casco is a craft for coast and
river commerce, and is the home Of its
crew and patron, the former Living fore
and the latter aft. 1t is of boat-like
structure. hooded with bamboo, and is
the handiwork OF the Filipino water
rat. 1t is slow and cumbersome and
will soon be fancy of the past, for
lighters are to- take its place, says the
Manila Critic.
The casco has had an unique field
for ages. Manila is not a city of great
wharyes, such as the traveller may see
in Liverpool, New York and in inland
Chicago. Manila bay is not deep har-
Dor, hence when great ships or trans
ports anchor. means must be at hand
to convey their people and cargoes into
port, and the casco is the chief beast
of burden" employed to do it. There
are cascos and casqutos, both hooded
and covered and both built on Like prin-
cip1es. The former has a tonnage OF
20 to 100 tons and the latter to 20. The
casco is from 70 to 90 feet in length, has
a beam of 10 to - feet and draws from
2h to feet Of water when loaded. IL
is built in light tough wood grown In
the province of Bataan, greatly resem-
bling teak, and it will last for centuries
on land or in water. The casquito, the
child of the casco. is from 20 to 90 feet
in length and has proportionate
beam.
Cascos and casquitos are usually
propelled by bamboo pole is to 70
feet in length in the hands of husl-
Filipino river men. The poles are
piked and padded so that the crew may
place them against their shoulders to
land give force to their pushes as they
move up or down stream and out into
the BAY. Running boards of bamboo
are attached to each side of the casco,
touching the water, and upon these the
crew prod their craft whittier they
will. aided, of course, by taut rudder-
The crew of casco numbers from five
to ten men, and their families live, as
hitherto mentioned, fore and aft.
Food is cooked in earthen pots fed
from the flames of fagots: plates are
the leaves of the palm; fingers, forks,
and teeth, knives. Rice. fish. oysters,
CLAIMS and shrimps are the staff Of life
of the caseo family. The bow and
stern of the craft provide the home, and
its center the place for the cargo. The
pay of he crew is one peso (92 cents)
peI Gav. and that of the patron one
neso media. Rentals run from 10 TO 10
pesos (S13.s0 to $36.S0) per day. Less
than year ago full tonnage cascos
brought 100 pesos ($92) per day. While
under Spanish rule the maximum price
was 10 pesos ($11.96).
The casco made number of Ameri-
cans rich during the past three years
men who came to Manila as soldiers OF
! fortune in '9S and early in '99-men
who had not dollar in the world above
the necessity of living. They took the
| situation in. saw at glance that
means must be provided for unloading
and !aboring cargoes and soldiery' anu
the vast stores of everything necessary
TO sustain life during a period OF war.
The casco was seized upon, cornered,
at a very low wage, aud in trIce rem
| tails shot up like meteor and the gov
eminent in its emergency had to pay
/ the price. There was nothing else to
do. Soldiers and civilians had to be
fed. arms and ammunition had to De
suuplied the men ia the field and. IN
consequence. The carpetbagger wen
point and the snake-ike easeo was b
medium.