drudgery

The 1874 introduction of the dredge, (pronounced ‘drudge’ on Cape Cod) revolutionized the industry. The first primitive dredge was a variation of the net at the end of a pusher, only attached to a rope and dropped overboard from a boat. Several at a time could be towed, initially behind sail-powered boats (often catboats), and later by motor powered boats. What scallopers now refer to as a ‘tow’ was then called a ‘drift’, with six to ten of the three foot wide dredges being towed. As time passed, variations on the shape of the dredges sprang up, often in response to the local bottoms. Chatham’s was called a ‘box’ dredge or ‘Chatham’ dredge, and was used exclusively there, although a few cropped up on Nantucket. A second shape was called a ‘scraper’, which featured a triangular frame and was designed to dig into the bottom and cut through heavy eel grass, with room for extra weights if necessary. This was in use in Nantucket and Edgartown, the difference being Nantucket made its entire holding basket of twine, while Edgartown made the bottom of the basket of iron rings. A third variety of dredge was called a ‘slider’, in which the rail that drags along the bottom is angled up or made so that the blade hangs loose, so it will bounce or slide over obstacles, and is mainly used on bare or rocky bottoms. A fourth type, called a ‘roller’, was used only in Mattapoisett. The leading edge consisted only of a line of leads, and it was considered useful, even necessary, on a bottom that presented many rocks and obstacles that would otherwise snag or rip ordinary dredges. A steel-ringed version of the ‘scraper’ dredge is the one that has come into nearly universal use today.

Photos and text copyright Jim Patrick and Rob Benchley, 2002