Show loading A BIG LINER HOW stevedores DO THE WORK OF PLACING THE CARGO the itasta steamers save a good deal by coal from alio other aldo lu sailing vessels importance of careful loading to a fast steamer did you ever noto the fact that one of the great transatlantic greyhounds grey hounds seldom remains in port more than a week during that short time she is unloaded and loaded which in the case of a vessel like the majestic or the city of new york means the handling of some tons of cargo and coal almost all the british steamships send over the coal to be burned in the eastward passage in sailing vessels only shipping enough in liverpool for tha western run thus they have mora hold room for freight for which they get more money than it costs to send over coal by sail this work of loading a vessel cannot be done without extreme care the very safety in an ocean monster depends in a great measure on the manner in which her cargo is stowed nothing is more dangerous to a vessel than to have its cargo shift in rough weather and hence only experienced men are engaged in the stevedore busi nesa the stevedore therefore does not regard himself as an ordinary laborer but as a workman to load and unload a cargo properly is an art for 1 vessel may be strained in unloading as well as in loading then again the bad loading of a vessel may not only delay the voyage of a greyhound but it may cause her to labor and roll to such an extent as to render every passenger on board seasick THE WORK IS distributed the distribution of weight so that ac undue strain be sustained ly tho iron hull of the vessel is the problem that can be seen successfully solved every day by one curious enough to spend an hour on the docks 0 tho areat transatlantic ship companies which dot the north river up to twenty sixth street tha process is an interesting one the boss stevedore who is responsible for the carrying on of the work stations at each hatch and side port a gang of men the gang consists of from ten to twenty men the number varying with thu size of the vessel the character of the goods to le handled and the distance they have to bs moved each gang is in bharga of a leader he receives five cents an hour moi ethan the men under him when the work is raid for by the hour the men receiving thirty to forty centa an hour tor day work and about sixty cents for night work there is also over tuo men a ro remau who is paid by the week and received rece ivea from twenty to thirty dollars and an assistant foreman who is paid ly the timo worked the master stevedore maps out tha duties of each and is responsible for any mistakes made in batow ing the cargo the duties of the master stevedore are by no means light when one considers the varied character of the goods shipped daily across the atlantic he has to see that goods are not together which are likely to injure one another and that space is found for everything that comes along up to the capacity of the ship FOR ane WORK the duties of the foreman relate to seeing that the goods are BO stowed that the cargo cannot shift and that the rolling of the vessel will not damage any of it the stowing of the vessels of tho white star north german lloyds the taman guion and hull lines is done ander the control of the company that of the other lines by contract with master stevedores some companies pay by the ton and others by tho package when the payment is by the ton the english ton of 2210 pounds is tho unit of weight light goods which have little weight ant tale up considerable space are paid at so much par forty cubic feet handled among stevedores cotton is as the hardest to stow and railroad iron as tho easiest the iron rails are laid across the leel diagonally and are said to strengthen the hull when the cargo or a imer cumi bound from new yoa is properly stowed she will roll comparatively little as the steerage is largely given up coming from the other side to cargo is reversed then the entire the case steerage is occupied by passengers with weather that the vessel the result in rough will often roll her lee rail almost under new york recorder |