Implements and Their Uses 139 



a beam of twenty feet, and a depth of six feet. It car- 

 ries a crew of eight men. Its original cost was sixteen 

 thousand dollars, and a hundred dollars a month pur- 

 chases fuel, water, and oil. 



The carrying capacity of the vessel is twenty -five hun- 

 dred bushels of oysters, and it is able to dredge eighteen 

 hundred bushels a day from beds under thirty-five feet 

 of water. In order to equal a single day's catch by this 

 vessel, it is stated that it would be necessary for the sail- 

 ing vessel of average size employed by the oystermen in 

 Long Island Sound, carrying a crew of three men, to 

 dredge the same bottoms for nearly two and a half 

 months. 



The fearful tortures to which the crews of many 

 dredging vessels in the Chesapeake have in the past been 

 subjected by their masters, form an interesting subject 

 that will be referred to later. To these cruelties have 

 been added the sufferings caused by exposure to winter 

 weather. Under the most humane treatment, the lot of 

 the crew of a dredger with exposed decks is a hard one. 

 In the North especially, where winters are so severe, the 

 limit of human endurance is required of the crew of an 

 open boat. In contrast, life on a modern steam dredger 

 is pleasant. It is housed over so as to afford almost 

 complete protection to the crew, no matter what the 

 weather may be. The four dredges are hauled by steam 

 winches, and powerful propelling engines make frequent 

 visits to port a certainty. 



One extremely important advantage possessed by the 

 steam dredger that should not be overlooked, is that its 

 owner is able at all times during the winter to deliver 

 his oysters when he has promised to do so. If he is to 

 dredge them from deep water and in the middle of the 



