Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1899 — A STRANGE INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

A STRANGE INDUSTRY.

How Longshoremen Earn Good Government Money. Mr. Seppings Wright has . come across many curious trade? and peculiar methods l of earning a living in his wanderings through all corners of the globe, but the business of shotting he discovered at home, for it is daily pursued under the eyes of thousands of holiday folks* and landsmen generally, who neither know nor care what the longshoremen are about in their fishing boats a few miles from land. But these busy workers are engaged upon tlie business of “shotting,” and the nature of that peculiar occupation we will now describe. All royal navy men training for the rank of seaman gunner have to undertake a more or less lengthy term of regular practice in firing, and for these men during their period of training some two or three of the oldpattern gunboats are set aside. These vessels are connected with every dockyard, and while obsolete for battle purposes make excellent training ships. They are, of course, fitted with approved modern weapons, and daily during the season they carry squads of embryo gunners to the seaward ranges that lie outside the Spithead forts. The bearings of these practice grounds depend on the particular conjunction of certain objects ashore, and the targets are generally placed in shoals where a fair range can be commanded free of traffic.

After a busy and noisy period so much solid metal has been blazed away into the sea, and it is this metal that the shotters set forth to recover when the gunboats have done their task and return to the dockyard. The ranges and the area in which the cannon balls most probably lie submerged are, of course, well known to the searchers. .Armed with experience and a long ironshod pole they sail over the ranges and probe the shallow bottom carefully. Familiarity with their task renders them skillful, and an expert knows in an instant when hi? pole touches the hidden projectile beneath. The shell found, a pair of huge tongs is* lowered into the sea, and it is gripped and carefully lifted aboard. The price of the metal shells is slight, and rarely exceeds one penny halfpenny a pound, but the brass studs on the shot possess considerable more value, and these are usually cut out intact. Both studsi-and the main iron fabric of the recovered shells are sold to the royal navy, and the prices offered appear sufficient to set many men at steady work on the task of recovering them.—Black and White.