USA > Florida > Florida, 1513-1913, past and future; four hundred years of wars and peace and industrial development > Part 20
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DEEP-SEA DIVING
John Cocoris, a Greek sponger employed at Tarpon Springs, early in 1905 concluded that in spite of unsuccessful attempts prev- iously made to introduce diving operations in these waters, there was really no good reason why the means used in his home waters might not remedy the discouraging conditions in the gulf. Assisted by local capitalists he gathered a few expert Greeks and the necessary equip-
TARPON SPRINGS SPONGE FLEET
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ment for the experiment. It was a success and Corcoris' boat became the nucleus for the present sponging fleet, which is manned by two thousand or more of his countrymen.
Of course, the hookers, mainly native Floridians and Bahaman or native negroes, immediately saw their occupation threatened by this invasion of the Greeks. The divers worked in seven to ten fathoms of water, a depth impossible to the hookers, yet the old-timers, unable to meet the new competition, saw only ruin staring them in the face. Accordingly the strong arm of the Federal Government was brought in to protect them by the enforcement of the alien labor laws.
The revenue service men were sent to the rescue. They came and sought evidence of infractions, but they discovered none, and the reason was simple-it was because the Government has no jurisdiction outside the three-mile limit. Inside this little league, there was no violation of law observable, or if there was, these officers of the Gov- ernment failed to find it. But outside, the Greeks were gathering riches from the deeper waters. And so the revenue officers returned to report a fruitless investigation.
CONGRESSIONAL, LEGISLATION
But something must be done and after months of careful think- ing, a bill was prepared which became a law of the land in June, 1906. It provided that from and after May first, 1907, " It shall be unlawful to land, deliver, cure or offer for sale at any port or place in the United States any sponges taken by means of diving or diving appa- ratus from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico or Straits of Florida: provided, That sponges taken or gathered by such process between October first and May first of each year in a greater depth of water than fifty feet shall not be subject to the provisions of this Act: and provided further, That no sponges taken from said waters, shall be landed, delivered, cured, or offered for sale at any port or place in the United States of a smaller size than four inches in diameter."
The penalty for violation was a fine of from one hundred to five hundred dollars against each convicted person and against the vessel, or a forfeiture of the vessel and equipment.
Leaving out of consideration the faulty grammatical construc- tion of the last paragraph of the act and its reflection upon the size of "any port or place in the United States" where the sponge trade may or may not be carried on, the interpretation of the law prohibited divers from landing at any place in this country sponges gathered in
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less than fifty feet of water during the last three and first four months of each year; it prohibited diving operations during the other five months, and both divers and hookers were forbidden to offer for sale at any time sponges of less than four inches in their largest diameter when fully inflated with water, a provision heartily approved by all interested in the trade. This law was the result of the best efforts by the national lawmakers for the protection of native labor engaged in this occupation, against foreign competition. The final conclusion of the matter was that a majority of the natives sought other means of livelihood, while a few accepting the inevitable joined forces with the Greeks, and fewer still continued to hunt sponges with the old fash- ioned hook.
DIVING EQUIPMENT
The equipment and operation of the Tarpon Springs sponge fleet are copies of Grecian ideas. The principal American innovation is the gasoline engine for propelling the boats to and from the spong- ing waters. Even the boats themselves follow exactly the Greek models or are direct importations from Mediterranean waters. These foreign models have pointed bows and sterns rising high above the water line, which makes them especially worthy in heavy seas, whether at anchor or under way. The machine boats from which the divers work, carry the latest American-made air pumps, which keep two able-bodied men busy while the diver explores the bottom of the sea beneath them.
The boat's rig is a short mast forward carrying a spritsail, and three long oars or sweeps. A ladder extending two or three feet below the surface and hinged so that it may be swung inboard, is the diver's means of leaving and returning to the boat. These machine boats are usually thirty-two feet long and eleven feet in beam. Fully equipped their cost is not far from two thousand dollars each.
Accompanying each machine boat is the deposit, or living boat, schooner rigged and fitted with a gasoline engine. The larger boats are used as commissary and sleeping quarters for the crews of both boats and for curing and storing the sponge catch. These miniature fleets often cruise in deep water and out of sight of land for six weeks or two months, and the matter of provisioning for a dozen men is a somewhat important problem.
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THE DIVER'S ARMOR
The diver's suit is a cumbersome affair. Two thicknesses of double water-proofed cotton cloth with rubber between the layers and open at the neck, cover the body completely below the neck, excepting the hands, a close fitting rubber cuff wrapping each wrist. A rubber yoke covers the shoulders and extends over the back and chest.
The helmet is of copper with heavy plate glass windows set in the front and sides and obliquely above the face. A valve admits fresh air through the pump in the boat above by a heavy, rubber lined hose. Another valve is provided for the discharge of vitiated air from the helmet and suit. The first is controlled by the pressure of the air from the pump; the diver opens the second for the egress of breathed air by a backward movement of the head against a projecting metal pin or peg.
In preparing to descend the process is as complicated as when the lady of fashion dresses for an evening reception-the diver has to be assisted in getting into his armor as well as to have it fastened on his body. Thick woolen underclothing and stockings come first, then a heavy coating of soap is rubbed over the wrists to facilitate pulling the rubber cuffs over the hands, and this also serves to make a water-tight contact at the wrists. With the assistance of an im- promptu valet the diver works his way into the suit. A breastplate is inserted within the yoke and by the projecting lugs the helmet is screwed down over rubber gaskets to insure a tight jointure between the headpiece and the suit. The air pump must be started as soon as the helmet is closed. Heavily weighted leather shoes tipped and soled with brass are strapped to his feet, front and back weights are lashed over the shoulders, the air hose is brought under the left arm and tied to the waist, and the life line is fastened securely around the body under the arms of the armor.
A robust man in these working clothes tips the scales at four hun- dred pounds or more in the open air, yet he treads the ocean floor at a depth of fifty or sixty feet with the pressure of only a few pounds. This is due to the density of the water below the ocean surface, and also because of the buoying tendency of the air within the suit. In- deed, air may be allowed to accumulate within the rubber armor to an amount sufficient to bring the diver to the surface from a moderate depth, without the aid of the life linc.
To complete his working equipment the diver carries a short- handled, three-pronged fork or hook, with which he tears the sponges
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from its rock anchorage; also a bag of coarse cotton netting fitted with a metal rim, which opens and closes like the mouth of an old fashioned valise. This by a separate line is used to carry the sponges to the vessel's deck. The life line is also a signal line to the crew on the vessel and it is the diver's sole means of communication with those above, on whose understanding and prompt obedience of his signalled orders his life often depends.
PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT
Only the physically perfect man may safely engage in the hazard- ous occupation of deep-water diving, and even then only after long apprenticeship in shallower depths. No alcohol user is permitted to make the venture and the diet is regulated with even more rigor than that of the athlete in training. A cup of coffee and a roll or bit of bread for breakfast and a hearty dinner when the day's work is done, are the limits of gastronomic indulgence. A disregard of these rules has been suggested as at least the partial cause of several deaths among the divers of the Tarpon Springs sponge fleet in the past.
The maximum depth to which a diver may descend and the length of time that he may work safely on the ocean's bottom, are matters that limit his efficiency. They vary inversely and probably differ within small limits according to the physical condition of the indi- vidual. Sponging in Gulf waters is carried on usually in seventy fect or less. The shift is two hours down and two hours rest, the divers of each crew alternating in their labors. They have worked in one hundred and ten feet and rarely in greater depths in the gulf. With every fathom the diver's liability to heart trouble, caisson fever and other physical ailments increases. Professor H. F. Moore, of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, has declared that the laws of Greece prohibit sponge fishing in depths greater than one hun- dred and twenty-five feet, and a medical authority is quoted to the effect that one hundred and fifty feet is the limit of safety for a diver in perfect physical condition. The world's record, it is claimed, is a stay of forty-two minutes in two hundred and one feet of water.
CREWS AND THEIR DUTIES
To man the machine boat requires two divers, three oarsmen, two pump men and one expert to handle the life line and answer the diver's signals. The deck men relieve each other frequently because of the
A SPONGING CREW
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arduous toil of handling the sweeps and working the pump. The living, or commissary boat, carries in addition a master who, under the laws of the United States, must be an American citizen, a deck hand and a cook, and usually an engineer to care for and operate the motors in both boats.
The pay of the crew is fixed according to a sliding scale. The operator or owner of the boats and their equipment, furnishes these and provisions the little fleet and gets as his share one-half of the gross proceeds of the trip. The remaining half is divided into equal shares, of which each diver, according to his skill and experience, re- ceives from two and a quarter to four shares. The other members of the crew, including the master, get one share each.
GATHERING SPONGES
The newly harvested sponge has little likeness to the commercial article ready for sale, which is in fact, the skeleton of the living organism. In appearance it resembles a piece of raw beef liver and varies in color from a grayish yellow to a dark brown or black. It is slimy and repulsive to the touch. The curing process consists in the removal of the soft gelatinous tissues of the living animal and of the skin that envelops it. The skill and thoroughness with which this is done determines the marketable value of the product. The hookers along the Florida coast used to expose each day's catch to the air on shore and devoted the last day of each week to "cleaning up" the week's harvest. But the divers could not afford to lose one day in seven and so they clean up at sea as the sponges are brought to the surface.
The raw sponges are spread over the deck of the commissary boat where they are beaten with sticks and trampled by the bare feet of the crew, then repeated washings on deck, and finally the sponges are strung on rope yarns, each piece six feet long, and these strings are tied together in "bunches," which are trailed over the vessel's side for the finishing action of sea water. When dry the product is stored in the vessel's hold ready for sale.
The sponge market at Tarpon Springs is controlled by an ex- change in whose membership the principal dealers of the United States and Europe are represented by agents. Several independent brokers are also active buyers at the weekly sessions of the exchange. The goods are offered in competitive sale by the pound and go to the highest bidder.
Vol. I-26
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SPONGE VARIETIES
Sponges are classified mainly according to their color and fineness of texture. The principal varieties gathered from the waters of the gulf in the order of their commercial value, are the sheepswool, or wool sponge; the yellow, sometimes called the Anclote yellow; the grass and the wire sponges. Occasionally specimens of velvet sponges and other more valuable grades are found here, but the demand for these is supplied largely from the Mediterranean.
In preparing sponges for the market they are graded according to color, texture and size. "Fornis" are the natural sponges ready for the market without trimming or shaping. "Cuts," as the name implies, are the pieces into which the larger sponges are cut to make them marketable; and "seconds" are the more or less imperfect speci- mens that may not be included in either of the higher grades. Accord- ing to size they are further divided by the number required to make one pound. There are the sponges larger than one pound in weight, the "twos to threes," the "threes to fours" and on up to the "thirties to forties." They go to market in bales, each package containing a single grade and size and each bale weighs about forty pounds.
The average annual value of the sponge crop taken from Florida waters from 1903 to 1908 was $555,000. The following year it in- creased to $650,000 and each subsequent year has shown a gradual but not a large increase over each immediately preceding twelve months.
FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY
But these waters will not always yield the large harvests of recent years. The signs of a diminishing supply are evident and the anxious divers are extending their searching for the hidden treasure to deeper and more distant waters. A hundred miles and more they go from the sandy and marsh-bordered shores. The discovery of new spong- ing grounds or the repletion of the old ones by artificial propagation are the alternative remedies. The resources of the United States Bureau of Fisheries have not yet been exhaustively applied to the study of propagation, mainly because of the lack of a suitably located and equipped biological station near the sponge fields.
Certain sponge varieties reproduce from the egg. Probably all varieties multiply from cuttings or fragments of the living organism. The newly hatched sponge is a free swimming body, which may be
GRASS SPONGE
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YELLOW SPONGE
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WOOL SPONGES
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carried by tides and currents long distances before it anchors to its permanent abiding place. The tender young animal may be smoth- ered by sand or sediment or be overcome by the rank vegetation on the sea bottom, and many young sponges are killed by these natural causes. Artificial propagation through the egg is a practically unknown problem.
Experiments have shown several important facts: That sponges may be propagated from cuttings of the living parent sponge; that fresh water is fatal to sponge growth at any stage of its development; that a degree of salinity varying even little from that indicated by the specific gravity of water of 1.019 is not favorable to it, and that the normal growth of the sponge under favoring conditions is from one inch to an inch and a quarter a year.
Further experiments at Tarpon Springs were begun by attach- ing cubes of live sponge an inch in each dimension to wire and anchor- ing them in salt water. The wire used was of copper, iron, steel and aluminum, but each failed of success. The wire was then cov- ered with a lead coating to avoid corrosion, but it was found that wire was not the proper base and further ideas were worked out. Imitat- ing nature, disks of concrete, resembling rock, the base sought by the sponge itself, were prepared an inch or more in thickness and a foot in diameter. To these the live cuttings were attached by aluminum wire, which served the purpose until the little sponges fastened them- selves by their own roots to their artificial anchorages. The disks were then placed in deep water on a favorably clear bottom, there to remain until the cuttings should develop into sponges of merchantable sizes in from three to ten years. This plan showed more signs of success than any experiments that had preceded.
DANGERS OF PIRACY
But the sponge farmers were confronted by another perplexity. which has not yet been worked out to their satisfaction. No man may claim the ownership of lands or leases outside the three-mile limit and make good the claim. He may not call on the Federal Govern- ment to protect him in his control of his plantings, and within that limit of a league a lease from the state must be guarded by his own constant vigilance. Practically to the finder belong the sponges he may find and piracy is the never-ending menace.
It is a problem to be solved and that it will be solved can not be doubted by him who has faith in the accomplishments of American
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perseverance and ingenuity. Capital and science will find a way to make this industry one of the most important and profitable in the waters controlled by Florida's jurisdiction. The development of these sponge fisheries into a permanent and increasingly valuable industry awaits the coming of the nian or men who will have sufficient faith to work for and await results.
SOCIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS
There is another side to this sponge industry that centers at this little Florida city. It is the sociological conditions of these Greek workers, and they have some valuable suggestions for the student of such matters. The census of 1910 gave to Tarpon Springs a popula- tion somewhere above three thousand, seven hundred, probably about fifteen hundred less than was its due. The conscientious enumerator following official instructions to get his facts and figures at the homes of the citizens, considered his duty properly performed when he had obeyed these instructions to the letter. But during the time allowed for taking the census, hundreds of the Greeks and their assistants were far out at sea and the names of these bona fide residents found no place on the rolls.
Yet these Greeks, many of them among the best citizens of Pinellas county, own real estate and other property in this pretty city. They own and operate nearly one-half of the mercantile estab- lishments and hold blocks of stock in the local banks. They put their savings into substantial investments. Some of them have accumu- lated wealth and occupy beautiful homes along the bay and on the principal streets. A thousand or more of them are members of a club whose object is to foster American citizenship among the race. A requisite for membership is that the applicant must be already a citizen or have declared his intention in that direction. The same organization encourages sobriety, morality and industry. The Greek Catholic Church has here a strong organization and its splendid cere- monials at Easter and on other festal days are almost magnificent in their picturesque gorgeousness.
CHAPTER XIX FLORIDA SCHOOL SYSTEM
T HAT its citizens should be intelligent and that the edu- cation of the masses should be fostered, was a funda- mental idea in the organization of Florida as a state. The act of Congress which gave statehood to the great southern peninsula was accompanied by a sup- plemental act providing a liberal endowment for the establishment and maintenance of schools, which should become a more valuable income-producing investment as the state grew to greater commercial importance and as the demand for educational facilities should increase. The plan inaugurated with Florida's admis- sion to the Union of States, is the foundation of the system of edu- cation which has grown with the growth of the state.
The history of the educational system of every new section illus- trates the fact that pioneers are not the builders of colleges and high schools. The fight for existence is too strenuous and the available resources are too few to foster the erection of educational institutions. And so it comes that the common school system, which is the boast of all Americans, has been the development of later decades and of later generations than those that have hewn their way into unbroken forests and built and protected their early homes in the wilderness.
Florida, in its struggle against Spanish rule and Indian aggres- sion, has been no exception to this fact of history. During the period of territorial development from the time of its cession to the United States Government, Florida's citizens, aided little by their own gov- ernment, made more or less futile efforts to establish a free school system. But its growth was hampered by the lack of funds and by the idea which prevailed largely among the people that the patronage of free schools implied the acceptance of charity. Wealthy families employed private tutors for their children or sent them to the schools and colleges of other and older states. Time and public sentiment eventually corrected this false idea, but not until Florida reached the degree of statehood was the foundation laid for the school system
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which has grown to large proportions and which promises in its ulti- mate development generous provisions for all the people, from the highest to the most humble, and instruction in all grades from the kindergarten to the university.
LAND GRANTS FOR SCHOOLS
An act of Congress, adopted March 3, 1845, advanced Florida from a territory of the United States to full statehood. A supple- mentary act of the same date granted the new commonwealth eight entire sections of land to establish a seat of government; the sixteenth section of every township, or its equivalent, for the support of public schools; two entire townships for the establishing and maintenance of two seminaries of learning, one to be located east and one west of the Suwanee river; 500,000 acres for internal improvements, and five percent of the net proceeds from the sale of United States Gov- ernment lands in Florida, to be devoted to the purposes of education.
Of the half million acres for the internal improvement, nearly four hundred thousand acres were subsequently granted as subsidies for the construction of railroads in different parts of Florida. Some- thing more than one hundred thousand were sold, or remain in the ownership of this state.
Through the efforts of United States Senator Wescott what was known as the Swamp and Overflowed Land Grant Act was adopted by the Congress of the United States September 28, 1850. An amendment made the act in force in every state of the Union. Under this act, upwards of twenty million acres of land were patented to the state of Florida. The primary purpose of this act, as expressed by Congress, was to aid the states to reclaim their swamp and over- flowed lands within their limits by means of drains and levees. The Florida Legislature, by special enactment, provided that twenty-five percent of the proceeds from the sale of these state lands should be added to the educational funds of the state, which, under the Consti- tution of Florida, may not be diverted to any other purpose whatever.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT TRUSTEES
The Legislature, by special enactment in 1851, accepted the grant made by Congress and created a Board of Internal Improvement. A subsequent act, in 1855, created the Trustees of the Internal Im- provement Fund, designating as such trustees the Governor, the State
HIGH SCHOOL, MIAMI
CENTRAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL, JACKSONVILLE
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Comptroller, Attorney General, Treasurer and Commissioner of Agriculture; and to these trustees were granted irrevocably the lands theretofore granted to the state and remaining unsold, the principal trust being the drainage and reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands.
The payment to the State Board of Education of the twenty-five percent of the proceeds from the sale of lands controlled by the Inter- nal Improvement Trustees was not made for many years. Under the administration of Governor Jennings this omission was discovered. It has been paid from the sales of lands made since November, 1908. An accounting was demanded from the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund, to discover what was due from previous sales to the education fund. When this sum shall have been determined and paid, it will add several hundred thousand dollars to the school funds of this state.
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