Evening star., 1905-08-26

LONNSHORENEN LOADING
SHEET IRON. e

must KNOW SorneW nat more tnan a lttle OF
the inexplicable art of slowing and trim
ming a cargo so that II Will not interfere
with the smooth progress of the vessel
once It is upon the high seas. OF course.
especial of the stevedore and his as
sistants that he has directly in charge OF
diffenert parts OF this delicate bit of sea
business Yet the longshoreman himself
must not be ignorant of the art-he must
have more than a smattering of 1t, that
he may be able TO do the work that the
assistant stevedore over him demands OK
him.
An Inexplicable Art
I have said that the art of loading ship
Is inexplicable That's what the stevedores
say, to a man.
i've been loading ships for twenty-five
years." said one, but II my life depended
on It 1 couldn't tell you how II is done
OF course, | can tell you that In loading
a ship we do not put the heavy stun on top
1T isn't our aim to see how many shlps
we can capsize. Neither do put all the
heavy freight in the hold-we don't want
to have her smokestacks shaken out 10y
the short, terrific, jerky rolls that result
when a ship is loaded stiff, as we say
We put just so much heavy freight IN me
hold TO keep her steady; We distribute Inc
rest about the ship among the light freight
in just the proper places and proper pro,
portions, and then the ship rolls easily and
naturally. What different kinds of freight
will weigh, approximately, and what kinds
should go here or there, and all the rest OF
| il seeps into you you workshops IN un-
| consciously-and one day you wake up 20
i find that you know how to load cargo
| But for being able to tell how you 90
| it-not much"
The loading OF a ship is always a source
| of wonder and mystery to the average
! landsman when he beholds the great buik
surrounded by half dozen lighters, with
their cargoes swinging into the air. In the
| act of transference; when he looks in upon
pier jammed with great pyramids or
| freight and loaded trucks, and hears the
noises made by steam winches. trampling
horses, wagons, cursing and colliding driv-
ers, hand trucks, ringing iron, and a small
army of ceaselessly moving 'longshoremen.
But what an infinitely bigger wonder 1t all
becomes-what deeper mystery-when
you see all this and know that the very
man who directs all the seeming chaos to
its legitimate cosmos cannot tell how he
does it-but just does 1t!
A half Million Pieces Of Freight.
A half million pieces of freight made up
the cargo of $500 tons of freghter that
recently left the port OF New York for Eu-
rope. In weight the pieces ran from the ten
ton dynamo to the small box of canned
goods of perhaps twenty pounds. or course
the ships loading machinery lifted the
dynamos and the sheet iron and such stun
about, but remember, even here the long
shoremen had to call their giant strength
into play in order to make the stuff secure
in great chains for the journey up into the
air and thence downward a second later
into the hold. Not a bit Of freight went into
the boat, into fore or after hold or between
decks that was not handled solely or In
part by the 175 longshoremen engaged on
the Job.
From the time the work of slowing the
cargo began, Immediately after the rggers
had thrown open the ports, laid the skids
and the gangplanks and otherwise opened
the ship, until the last bit of cargo was in,
at the end of eighteen working hours. each
'longshoreman presumably handled 2,So7
and fraction pieces of freight, or nearly
159 pieces every hour. or nearly two and
half pieces every minute. A fraction under
463 pieces of freight t23 tons of freigho
were transferred from pier and lighters
each minute, and slowed each piece in the
niche 1t should go. that the vessel might
have a safe and easy voyage.
The same day that this ship was taking
on cargo less than hundred 'longshore-
men relieved West Indian fruit steamer
of her cargo of 10000 punches of bananas in
four hours.
Many hard things are said of the long
shoremen. and many of them said
justly. But give the devil his due; and
really, now. isn't the man of belt and bale
hook called upon to do about the biggest
days work of the muscular sort that the
old hurlyburly world demands OF any of
her sons?