The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-07

good boatman now, and if he had a
staunch Whitehall boat he could earn
good bit of money on Saturdays and
holidays and in the hours he can spare
from study. I'll put him into the
way of it myself
Very well,' said the lawyer you
do that, and I'll buy him the boat. Or
no! I won't buy him the boat. He'll
start better if he starts on his own
hook l don't think that he ought to
touch the money from the Insurance
esSary funds and he can pay me
back at the rate of say rs cents
a week. if you think that will be
right"
The captain thought and said that
il was extremely fair indeed and as
soon as we left the lawyers Office he
opened an account in "A savings bank
for me and then we went to the
river and picked out a beautiful boat
complete with oars, boathook fend-
ers and all the other things needL
ed for a thorough watermans out
fit
Then began a life to which / often
look back now with longing. 1t was
full of hard work, but full of fine free
dom, and it gave me health, strength
and energy that have lasted through
Ceivable sorts of work. Sometimes on
a Saturday morning I hitched the boat
TO the stern of an excursion barge and
accompanied it to act as life saver
in case anyone should fall overheard.
I rowed sailors and visitors to ships
anchored in the rivers or harbor and
often I acted as tender between tug
boats and ocean steamships to carry
the hawsers from one to the other
vSrh ho fcr a1e
ed. I earned good sums, sometimes
getting as much as S. a day. and on
holidays, when there were warships
in the bay, l have earned SIS and even
$50 carrying sightseers from shore to
the vessels and back.
Finally one day l was near by when
a lighter full of freight capsized and
dumped her cargo into the bay where
it was fifty feet deep. 1 rowed to the
spot Immediately and took ranges
that is, l got certain objects on shore
into line so that could locate the spot
again.
Then I rowed to town and reported
to a wrecking concern, which imme-
diately made a contract with the own
ers of the freight. l guided the wreck
ing boat and the divers boat to the
spot. and we hit 1t on the first trial.
helped them during the following
evenings ana WAS LUCKY enough TO
save one of the divers who happened
to get his air tubing tangled around
the keel of the wrecking boat. Being
an excellent swimmer, 1 diVed and
cleared him in a moment.
The result of 1t all was that the
wrecking concern offered me a posi-
ton, and when I refused, because
was determined to go through school
first, they paid me 5000 for my aid in
finding the cargo and my subsequent
work.
MY mother had long since ceased to
work for a living, and was keeping
house for me. After few more years
l was graduated from school, and on
the advice of the lawyer / invested
the salvage money, which had grown
to he a respectable sum, with the COM
pound interest that it lad been earn
ing, in a tugboat with my old friend
the captain, who invested a similar
sum, while the lawyer lent us the rest.
We did well from the start, because
we took care to lay aside a percentage
of our earnings every month without
fail for a reserve. This enabled us to
keep our boat in thorough condition.
and one winter when the harbor was
so badly ice bound that only the
strongest tugs could break through,
we reaped the reward. Scores Of
DOdtS whose owners naQ let tnem run
down lost their sheathing and their
so they had to go on dry
dock, and the demand for boats to
break ships out of the ice became so
great that we got as much as $500 a
day. OF course, this lasted only a
week or ten days, but at the end of
that time we had almost $4,000 clear
profit.
With this and our other savings we
were able to take advantage of a bar
gain that offered in the way of steel
tug that was sold at auction. few
years afterward we bought wrecking
boat and raised a sunken bark off the
famous Diamond Shoals at Cape Hat
teras. The salvage on this vessel
to $4,000.
To-day, the man who Is writing this
who began life as a tenement house
boy. the son of a poor 'longshoreman,
is a rich man, and II he were to sign
his full name to this story, most of
you would recognize II, for 1t has fig
ured often in the accounts of interest
ing salvage operations from Maine to
South America.
l have told the story of my life be-
cause I think that IL may encourage |
other poor boys to work at anything |
at all to earn a living without pinng, |
even though ii seems only a poor way. |
There is opportunity In everything. !
providing you will work and work |