THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 443 
divers and boatmen. In the beginning the crews were paid wages, which under 
the competition for competent skilled men that developed, rose rapidly until the 
divers were receiving as high as $300 per month. ‘The old system of advances or 
bounties, which had been the bane of the vessel owners during the preeminence 
of the hookers, was introduced on the diving vessels, and the owners competed 
against one another for the best men and even for those of little experience and 
ability. 
These facts were soon noised abroad among the Greeks and there was a 
heavy influx from New York and a considerable immigration from Greece, until 
within a year there was a Greek colony of not less than 700 to 800 located at 
Tarpon Springs and more were coming on every train. A few Americans also 
engaged in diving, but as a rule they were less successful than the experienced 
men from the Mediterranean and they gradually dropped out of the business. 
Cocoris’s experiment was made at a particularly favorable time. The 
great crop of 1903, made under unusual conditions on practically virgin deep- 
water grounds, had been consumed, and the comparatively poor crops gathered 
by the hookers in the succeeding year had left the market largely depleted of 
high-grade goods. To allay to some extent the animosity of the users of the 
established method, the first diving boats went well offshore in depths of 7 to 10 
fathoms, where they found sponges of large size and excellent quality for which 
the buyers were ready to give high prices. Each dealer was anxious to secure 
his full share of the product, and being uncertain as to the possible yield and the 
period during which it would be maintained, prices continued high throughout 
the year, reaching their culmination in February, 1906, when one particularly 
excellent cargo sold for $11 per bunch, the highest price ever paid, the usual 
price for divers’ sponges at that time being $8 to $10 per bunch. 
Between January 1 and February 15, 1906, a season when under the old 
methods very little was marketed, over $60,000 was produced by diving. By 
the middle of April about 4o outfits were at work and this number had increased 
to 50 by the middle of May, at which time the yield from January 1 had been 
no less than $250,000 and about $20,000 worth was coming in weekly. The 
boats properly manned were averaging about 500 to 600 bunches per month 
‘and one got 500 bunches in five days without moving much over a mile. Under 
this heavy supply the price broke sharply and sponges which would have brought 
$8 to $10 per bunch in February were selling for $2.75 to $3 in May. 
Under these conditions the exorbitant wages of the earlier trips became pro- 
hibitive and the divers were placed on shares, their pay then being more depend- 
ent upon their own skill and industry. In some cases the other members of the 
crew were on shares, but about May 1, 1906, when wages were paid, the man- 
agers or overseers, stern oarsmen, and life-line men, received $75 to $80 per 
month, and the pumpers and bow oarsmen from $50 to $60. Under the 
