BRICKWORK. TIDAL WARNINGS. PIPE JOINTS. DREDGING.
"You remember my old partner on the last dock works we were on?"
"Rather. He had been properly educated, and knew the time of day, and
there are few things he ever had to do with he did not get a bit
'extra' out of. On that you can bet the family plate."
"Right you are. Old partner, do you know I have a weakness. I liked the
old times when there was plenty of work to be had, and few that knew
how to do it. Then the likes of you and me were regarded at their
proper value, and estimated as worth something extra. Now there are
about a million too many of us, and not half the work to be done. Old
England is not like a big place that wants opening up, and it is a rare
high old breeding country, and a lot of folks seem to wish it to be
nothing else.
"My then partner took, labour only, a lot of brickwork in cement. It
was a dock wall, and it averaged not far from 20 feet in thickness. It
was a wall, and not a mere facing like little bridges. It gave a man a
chance of something to work on. When a chap takes a contract, labour
only, not having to find the materials, it is no use turning your
attention to saving them; the only game to play is to use the mortar
nearly liquid, so that it runs about of itself almost, and put some
random work in between the face work and the back, and trust to
mortar-rakes and grout, and oiling the human wheels as much as
required. I don't like the word bribe the inspectors. For two chaps
like us, that will have what we consider good work, it is not bribery,
it is downright pure philanthropy that prompts us to give a sovereign
away now and then in the proper and most deserving direction, which I
generally find to be the inspector. I never give gold away without
knowing it will come back well married, and may bring a family, and
they are welcome to my best spread. That's just where our education
enables us to grasp things right. What a shame it is for people to find
fault with the School Board rate, when it is only about four times more
than its promised highest figure, and the school buildings are such
models of art and strength; and how thankful we ought to be to the
teachers for their kind attendance, given for almost nothing! How
pleased our old schoolmaster would be when he knew we took every
advantage to make a profit somehow or other from what he taught us."
"I guess he would be, the joy might kill him; but how did you apply
your schooling to the brickwork?"
"Wait, patience please! As I said before, or nearly did, there was not
much face work compared with bulk in the wall. I had a lot of militia
chaps, and well paid and lushed them. They were something like
brickies. Bless me, the wall used to rise up; and I was half afraid if
those at the office worked out the check time, and compared it with our
cubic measurement, they would think I was paying all my chaps more than
any other member of creation ever did, or making too big a profit to
suit them, and don't you mistake. But there! the Company did the work
themselves, or let it in bits, and of course the check-time game was
not played anything like so strong as if we had been working for a boss
contractor.
"Well, we were doing trench work, and had shoots for the materials to
travel from the surface down to the wall, and the trench was about 50
feet in depth from the top to the foundation. We had one shoot for
bricks and another for mortar in between each frame, and that would
have been plenty if all the work had been laid to a bond, but when only
about 4 feet in the front and 2 feet at the back was, and the rest
raked in level, except a course or two now and again, we used to want a
couple of shoots for each. I had the face of the wall made really
pretty, just like a doll's house, and pointed up lovely; but let me
give a bit of credit to the Company, for they gave us the best
materials with which I ever had to do."
"You mean the bricks and mortar were such that it would have been a
downright waste of good muscle to put the bond the same throughout,
simply pampering up the materials and turning them sickly, like some
people do children, so as to appear so fond of them before other
people!"
"Precisely; so after my partner got the face in right, the stuff went
down and in. All we had to be careful about was not to smash the
bricks. We soon managed that, and we had few broken ones, for they were
good, hard, and dark. Well, in they went, and when we began to work the
show, some of the scenery was hard to get right. Of course the
inspector began to find fault, that was what he was paid for, and was
about the only way he could work round for his 'extras.' After oiling
him a little, and pleasing him in the old-fashioned way, we managed
gradually to overcome the natural dulness of his mind, and we became a
happy crew--a lot of brickies with a single thought, and hearts that
beat as one.
"Well, in the stuff went; and after working out the averages according
to the rules of the exact sciences, me and my partner arrived at the
conclusion accordingly that about one-half or a trifle more bricks were
put in by hand, and the rest were like machine-made bread, unsoiled by
hand, and therefore must have been good and pure, as those alone know
who work on the same lines. My partner, in his younger days, before he
took to brickwork, had been to sea, and all the men used to call him
'Captain.' When he wanted to give the chaps in the office the straight
griffin, he used to say, 'Nelson's my guide.' That meant give them
'biff,' in other words, finish off the enemy as quick as you know how."
"You mean get the bricks in as fast as you can _only get them in
quick_."
"Yes, that's it. If good old Nelson sent his shots in as fast as these
bricks were squatted, all I can say is the guns did not get much time
to cool. Let me give my partner all praise, for although he had a nice
spot to work on--as of course the timber in the trenches hid a lot of
the work, and made a nice gloom--as a precaution he kept the ladder
away from the top of the trenches, so that anyone had to walk along the
top strut and then get down, consequently there was not much chance of
being caught; and after the bottom courses were in and the face and
back right, it was easy work, because there was always time to get the
road right and all went as peacefully as could be wished. But the old
Captain, on the same dock, nearly overdid it one day, and all to save
him scarcely one hundred pence, but he got so eager that money to him
was food, and it is my opinion if he had been born rich he would have
made a fine miser; but apart from that, he knew how to make a contract
and what work was, and the training on board ship he had in his young
days set him right, and he was always on the work looking out for a bit
'extra,' or on scout. But once he nearly overreached himself."
"How did he do that?"
"I will tell you, if you keep quiet."
"Right away."
"It happened like this, and might have wrecked the whole place, and was
the consequence of working against orders. At one part of the works
there was an old slope at the end of the dock which was no use without
a new entrance. Where the trenches had been dug out for a wall a piece
of earth was left in at the dock end, and was stepped down like a
retaining wall, although only earth. Well, the orders were to keep it 4
feet above a certain level, which made it not so nice for unloading
from barges as 2 feet or so. As that end of the dock was only sloped
off, and left to itself, for no one ever seemed to go there, and it was
a good height, and up and down a bit at top, been stuff run to spoil,
my partner, the old Captain thought he might as well take another 2
feet off for about 10 feet or so, and ease the unloading the bricks,
cement, and sand, and made certain it would not be noticed. Now of
course it did not take long to pare a slice from that short length
sufficient to help the unloading, and I should have said this was done
soon after we began the brickwork. I remember the day well enough, for
if I had not have happened to have been having my dinner by myself on
the cofferdam, I believe we might have been flooded out and wrecked.
"The wind was blowing strong and had been for several days from the
same quarter, and it brought the water up till it was heaped. Before
the wind began to blow it had been very wet, and it was also the time
high tides were expected, so everything worked in the direction for a
real high one. I began my dinner before the usual time, feeling a bit
hollow, and had done by a quarter of an hour after the whistle had
blown. I was just lighting my pipe when I happened to look upon the
water. It wanted about an hour or more to high water, I watched the
tide flowing up, and, all of a sudden, it struck me it would be a
topper; but as the cofferdam was a long way above high water, so as to
stop any waves breaking over, for the estuary was nearly one mile in
width, and as this dam was a really well strutted one, it did not
trouble me. I dare say I smoked for nearly ten minutes, and was
thinking it was a nice job, and that 'extras' would have a good look
in, when, just as things that frighten you do occur to you very
quickly, it struck me--How about the Captain and his two feet off,
pared off, up at the trench end bank? Well, I did not stop, but went at
once to the place, although a good half mile away, and was soon there.
I saw it must be a near squeak, and I knew there was no chance of the
entrance gates being shut because a lot of craft was waiting to go into
the dock, besides it would give the office that something was wrong,
and I knew the chances were a thousand to one no one would come near as
it was right away one end of the works, and nothing doing there except
for us when we were unloading. Most of the chaps had never been that
end of the works at all. Now this was all very pretty looked at from
getting a bit of 'extra,' but it was hardly the same when that game was
played by the tide putting in a bit 'extra' and rising nearly 2 feet
more than ever recorded before. I looked at my watch and knew the tide
had about an hour yet to run up. I got out my rule and measured, and
then I was sure it would not be far off two feet over the dip the old
Captain had cut to save an odd penny or two. I was just turning round
to go to fetch him--for I knew where he was, and of course we always
let one another know, although we don't name it--when I saw him coming
pretty sharp with his ganger and a few trusty chaps. I beckoned to him.
He was alongside very quickly, and I said, 'The tide will be over.'
"He answered: 'I thought it might, as the bottom of the tenth step down
on the landing place was just the same level as the top of the dip. I
knew it by the water.'
"I said, 'There may be a chance about it, but I don't think so, for
this tide is running up so strongly that I know, from experience of the
estuary, that it will beat the highest tide ever recorded.'
"While I was speaking he measured, and took out his watch and timed
five minutes. He measured again, and then off went his coat like
greased lightning, and we all followed suit as if we were a lot of
figures pulled by strings, and he shouted, 'We have not a moment to
lose. It will rise 1 foot 6 inches above where we are.'
"He then clenched his teeth. 'Planks, stakes, bags, tarpaulins, bring
anything you can get, and come back at once or we are drowned out,
wrecked, and lost, all ends up.'
"We soon got some stakes in, and some planks, and we set to work, all
six of us, raising the dip in the bank the old captain had made. He
turned white as a sheet, and said, 'She is on us, simply romping in.
Half a dollar each if you can stop her.'
"We all worked like black devils flying from torture, for we only had
half an inch start of the tide. It was a sort of life and death race,
and death for choice.
"'She is still rising, Captain.'
"He then cried out: 'By thunder! She's over the far end at the plank
dip. Once really over, and all will go.'
"He stood still for a moment and then dashed to the place and laid down
on his side full length, and shouted: 'Give me a short plank, and my
coat.' He would not get up although we asked him. He had got the
frights, so we let him be. He placed the plank in front of him, and his
coat over it, and there we were filling in stuff at the back of him as
fast as we could, and putting in stakes for the planks. The tide was
still rising, He turned his head, and said: 'Are you ready?'
"'Yes.'
"He then rose, and a pretty mess he was in.
"'By thunder! that was a close shave. If we had only had another
tarpaulin or two we should have been right sooner. There was some sand
there, I remember we upset a wagon-load.'
"He looked scared, but soon brightened up and said: 'We are right now
though. The tide has stopped, but keep at it, lads, we must bury
everything and get a good 2 feet higher, for if once the water runs
over, the tail-race of the largest mill stream in creation will be a
fool to it, and it would only be a question of minutes before the whole
earth-bank would burst and let in ten acres or more of dock water, and
the sea, and perhaps break up a lot of craft and wreck the whole place.
Lads, I well remember seeing a catch-water earth-bank give way, and it
is soon over when the water runs down the back slope, and there is not
much chance of stopping a breach.'
"The men went away, and the captain said to me: 'My word, I shall not
forget this.' He then sat down and wiped his forehead and said on the
quiet to me: 'There is one blessing, no one on the work knows about it
but us, and, if we are careful, no one will.'
"'You had better get home at once and have a rub down and change and
sixpenn'orth or more, hot. I know what to do, and will see all is put
right.' He took the hint and skipped, but came back in half an hour,
and then we had a talk.'
"I tell you what it is, one can play a lot of tricks on land, and get
'extras' many roads, but water won't stand it. It is too honest, and
turns upon you and soon finds you out. I never did like water much, you
can't beat it, that's why I left the sea. It's an unsociable element,
and is most always in the way except when you're boating, washing,
fishing, or mixing something. You can't educate it so as to look at
work from an 'extras' point of view, for it cares for no one.
"Take my advice and always give it a margin and allow in temporary
structures a good 3 feet above the highest recorded water line, unless
you want the work wrecked, and then add a height necessary to keep out
the waves."
"You are right, for I remember getting a bit 'extra' out of some pipe
joints. Instead of making all the joints according to the
specification, we made a good many with brown paper and covered them up
quickly. The pipes were laid at a depth of some 20 feet, and it took a
considerable time before they began to leak. At last there was a burst
up, but it was so powerful that all the jointing was washed out, so
they never knew who was to blame. The place where that happened is
fully a couple of hundred miles away, and will never see me in it again
as I did not like the people, so I said to myself, all right, I will
leave something behind that will tickle you up, and cost the lot of you
some beans to put right, and I did, and so got even with them all. It
was one of those lovely small towns where everyone knew everybody's
business much better than their own."
"Do you remember Carotty Jack?"
"Yes, rather. You mean him who was up to snuff in spoon-bag dredging.
'Old tenpenny labor' only was his 'chaff' name."
"He was the sharpest card, so I was told, on the river for getting
'extras' out of dredging. He was measured by the barge, and paid
accordingly. I confess I don't quite know how he worked it, but he did
for years, and never got found out. You see, what is ten or twenty
yards of dredging, nothing either way? It is never noticed, and you
can't measure under the water as you can on land. It can't be done,
except in new cuts, when new cross-sections have been taken over the
ground. The beds of most rivers being always more or less on the move,
water then becomes a nice servant to work a bit of 'extras' out of, and
that is about the only way I am aware of where it comes in useful in
that direction.
"How Carotty did it, as I said before, I don't quite know, although I
saw the thing, but he used to work it somehow or other by movable
boards fixed on a pivot. He had three or four of them, and could fit
them together just about as quick as the roulette tables are fastened
by racecourse thieves and stowed away. They had two flaps at the sides
covered with stiff tarpaulin, and the ends were closed by planks
loosely fastened by a catch to the pivot. They were well made and
fitted splendidly, just like hinged box-lids, and the whole thing was
similar to a box with the bottom out and the sides hinged and ends to
slide up and down. I believe Carotty would have made furniture A 1, if
he had turned his attention to it.
"He had an old ship's boat of his own. The apparatus was stowed away in
it, and I might further say it resembled a shallow box upside down,
with the lid off, working on a saddle, and the flaps at the sides moved
as the box got pushed down on either side; but they kept the stuff from
getting under it almost always; for when they measured the barge-load
for depth, if they put the measuring-rod down on one side and touched
the board, it went up a foot or so on the other, and no one suspected
anything. The barges were all narrow ones, as usual with spoon-bag
dredging. The measurer used to walk round the barge and be busy trying
the stuff here and there, to see if there was no gammon. The mud was
thick, and went up and down very slowly. Carotty always had two or
three of these boxes fixed on the saddle, and just the right distance
to be out of reach, and he did not fix them on the same line. He kept
the frames two or three feet apart, so that if by any chance two men
started probing on the same line he would soon shift them a little, and
say it was an odd brick, or a tin, or a bottle, and then everything
went down easily upon both sides, and for one place where they were
extra sharp, he made the machinery in very short lengths, and zigzag
fashion. He told me he got pretty nearly from six to ten yards extra
out of every barge, according as the stuff and the size of the barge
was kind towards 'extras.' Of course, from the solid dredging he had
the best haul. Carotty was a cool card at the game of 'extras,' and had
a face on him like a nun, and could look that innocent and lamb-like as
only humbugs can. He used to laugh over it.
"He told me that he had known the time when no 'extra' machinery such
as his was needed, for plenty of water, some boxes, a false bottom, and
a few planks, were all the things that were wanted. Then they had to be
given up, and he said he was really compelled to make himself a present
of the first small pump he could privately annex, and soon found the
chance on one of the works where he had a little contract.
"He got some old bags, mended them, and soaked them in some solution
that made them tight, and he used to fill them with water and weight
them with a stone or two. He had a rope with a draw-knot attached to
short lengths of line so that he could let the bags loose or fasten
them against a hook when he discharged the barge out at sea or
elsewhere. Generally he used to unscrew the stopper of each bag at the
side of the barge, and when on the return journey let out the water and
then haul up. Although it cost him some labour, he said he used to get
one way or other a bit of gold 'extra' by that means every barge load,
or, rather, what was thought to be; and sometimes he did not let the
water out of the bags at all if the people he had to deal with were
easy, but now times were very hard on him, as he had to work at night
to keep the machinery right, and he thought it very cruel of them, as
it gave him a very short eight hours' recreation, as was the cry now
for the third part of a day.
"He was clever, and I believe he could have made an iron-clad out of
old fire-irons and coal scuttles if they had given him enough goods,
plenty of time, and paid him sufficiently, and you may bet the ship
would have answered its rudder all serene.
"He told me he actually got twopence a yard more on one occasion by
using the boxes right for a week, on the ground of extra hard dredging,
for, of course, all the stones and heaviest dredgings fall to the
bottom. He put in his machinery pretty close together, and heaped up
the stuff in the middle, and did the injured innocence business
properly, and after they had done a lot of probing about, during which
he told me the machinery worked lovely, they gave him another twopence
a cubic yard. Measurement by the ton would have spoilt that game,
though; but then it was not canal dredging he was doing, but in the
open. Give Carotty his due, I was told there was not a man on the river
who could dredge to a section as he could, and he did the work quickly
and well, but he always managed to get paid for more than he did, and
he told me he never meant to do otherwise. He said he considered he was
cheap goods at the price, and wholesome; but he complained tremendously
of the dredgers and excavators introduced lately, for they spoilt him,
and there was but little chance of 'extras' now worth the trouble or
the risk. In consequence, he had given up doing dredging."