The Oyster Dredger

The open rowing boat can even now be used, for recently I had the pleasure of assisting my nephew, Edward Maynard Collard, of Herne Bay, in dredging from one off the flats. He is an enthusiast on the subject, and full of information, owing to the keen interest which he takes in all appertaining to the Whitstable oyster and its culture. A dredge is the implement used, from time immemorial, for dragging the oyster from the bottom of the sea.

It is of triangular form, stoutly made of wrought iron, to which the necessary "rigging" is attached. The iron "ring" passes through a hole in the " heel" or "rest" which hooks on to the bulwark when the dredge is about to be lifted on board. The three iron bars radiating from the "keel" are called the "limbs," and the cross-tie is called the "warbin." The way in which the ends of this warbin are twisted round the two outer limbs is noticeable.

The ends of these two outer limbs are united by a flat bar with a blunt edge, called the "bit," which scrapes up the oyster, and a good deal else that comes in the way. The dredges used on the flats have a "link back" or "ground" of wire rings, made and wired together by the fishermen themselves. On the beds this wire netting would be too rough, and hide is used instead. The upper netting in both cases is made of twine. The netting is fastened on to the dredge by hide "lacings." The "catch-stick" to which the "link back" is fastened is of holly, and the two side sticks of oak.

Between the catch stick and the twine net are three rows of wire netting called the "bonnet," which take the weight and pressure when the net is filling.

Each smack works what is known as a "fleet" of five or six dredges. The two heaviest dredges drag from the bow, two of medium weight from midships, and the two lightest from the stern. In this way the dredges are kept clear of each other, the smack, of course, sailing and drifting with wind and tide. The crew consists usually of four men on the "shalls" and three on the flats, the skipper taking the stern dredges and steering. The lightest dredges are at the stern, to avoid, as far as possible, the chance of a little extra weight pulling the ship's head round.

A dredge weighs about eighteen to twenty-four pounds, with five pounds extra for rigging. The rope or warp is fastened to the ring by a fisherman's bend, and, to prevent the warp being chafed, the ring is bound round with canvas, which is called the "puddening." The warp is coiled on deck, with the end buoyed, and is only secured to a cleat by a short length of twine called the "stop." If the stop breaks, and the dredger cannot hold on to the warp, it goes overboard, and the buoy marks the spot where it can be picked up on the next tack by one of the hands in the smack's boat.

It happens sometimes that the dredge gets. caught so firmly in a rock, or perhaps a weir stump, that it cannot be released, or the warp may snap off close to the dredge, in either case the dredge is lost. It is less expensive to leave it alone, and go on dredging, than to waste time in getting it back. Many are the lost dredges sprinkled over the flats, and at phenomenally low tides, a few are occasionally seen and recovered by longshoremen.

When a dredge is hauled on deck, the dredger turns out the contents, consisting, perhaps, of some small soles, eels, the horrid-looking squid, crabs, cultch, and' oysters, and "culls" them over, chipping oysters off the cultch with an implement called a "cultick," like a large oyster knife, and having selected everything else usually retained, he "shades" the rest, through the porthole. It may be left to the etymologist to decide if the words cull, cultch, and cultick, have a common origin, as they appear to have.