The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-12

but the rigger must come down on
hard boards. 1t is not unusual for
twenty per cent. of all riggers actively
employed to be injured in a single sea
son. The proportion of Triggers more
or less seriously injured in the course
of life time is about one hundred per
cent. A single firm of riggers in New
York had eight of it's men instantly
killed last year by a heavy spar fall
Most of the ship riggers injuries are
received from falls. The next great
est danger, judging from the hospital
records, is that of being struck by
blocks, spars or heavy ropes falling
from great hight. Cuts and knife
wounds are also very common, since
the chances of a knife slipping in UNI
stable rigging is naturally great. An
experienced rigger will tell you that
the accidents which have the appear
ance of great peril rarely do as much
damage as the less spectacular ones.
Men who fall from great nights are
curiously enough seldom as badly hurt
as those who suffer by shorter falls.
Every ship rigger is full of the mar
Vicious escapes in his trade.
Only last month a rigger fell from
the cress trees of a ship in the East
river in New York. He shot down
ward head first for more than a hum
dred feet, when by marvellous good
luck. he struck a slack rope. rebounded
and landed on his feet, Jared, but UNI
hurt. Another rigger, in falling from
about the same hight turned three
somersaults and landed upon a huge
coil of rope with only a few slight
bruises and bad shaking up. An
even more remarkable case was that
of the rigger who was thrown to the
deck by the parting of a rope half
way up the mast. He pitched down to
what appeared to be certain death.
He had fallen twenty feet when his
hands came in contact with the main
sail halyards, which he instictively
clutched. The rope broke his fall, but
swung him against the mast with the
proverbal sickening thud. A moment
later he had slid down to the deck.
No one asked him if he were hurt.
The experienced eye of the foreman
took in the situation. Roundly cursed
for his carelessness and followed by a
volley of oaths, the man leAped on
the bulwarks and ran up the ratlines
to the very place from which he had
fallen. Last year man was struck
on the head by a spar falling hum
dred feet. He was crushed to the
deck, but the impact had broken the
spar fairly in two, and while it re-
moved every particle of skin from the
skull, the man eventually recovered,
and is now plying his old trade.
To-day, in New York and other large
seaports, the riggers are organized,
and their union is one of the strongest
in the country. They have their laws,
handed down from the guild, of the
time when Drake swept the Spanish
Armada from the sea, and founded on
the dangers which are part and parcel
of their work You will hear them
talk cheerfully of their benefit society,
which supports them when they are
injured, or about the premium of their
lodge. which will bury them if they
are killed. They have to look to them
selves for these matters. The more
cautious of the insurance companies,
and this includes the accident socie-
ties. will not insure a rigger at any
premium. A few of the most liberal
companies will insure him, but charge
a rate which is practically crohibitive.
The pay of ffrst-class rigger is 81
for day of ten hours, and double
this rate for all overtime. The mex
pert rigger earns from SO to SO. so a
day with the same arrangement for
overtime. In the busy season many Of
these ringers viii work for fourteen or
sixteen hours a day continuously and
VIII earn DIS IluCll SS S0U d WEEK. 1OSl
of the standard ship rigging firms have
a regular staff of men, whom they en-
Dloy year after year. The ranks of
the riggers, which are constantly de-
pleted by injury and death, are re-
cruited mainly from the merchant ma
rine 1t is easy to find experienced
sailors who are nmble and active and
there are plenty more unemployed with
a talent for mental mathematics, but
the combination so necessary for the
rigger is very rare. The expert rigger
must have an eye which can measure
distances with the accuracy of three
foot rule. He must know the names
and use of every last detail of a ships
rigging. No other trade, probably, Is
reached by so long and arduous an APP
premiership. Any one who expects
to become FOREMAN or an expert rig
ger must begin his experience with two
years spent before the mast at sea- In
many long. rough voyages the appren-
tice learns to feel perfectly at home IN
any part of the ships rigging and in
prentice is graduated in time to the
drawing board. where several years
must be spent before he can be trusted
with the more difficult problems of his
trade. Then comes d finishing. post
graduate course in the shipyards.
To a landsman the transformation of
a ship in the hands of a gang of ex-
pert riggers is almost like magic. The
ringers first attack the sails and ropes