Hatch Farms

[Guest]

I remember too, and to think, my back kinda cramps everytime I think back to tarping those old girls. I first saild out on the McKee Sons in 1962. I dont remeber the hatch sizes but I do remember it being alot of work to tarp them. We were docked in Toledo,(I think) and some of the company Big-Wigs came aboard to have a look around and they made their way into the hold. Our Bosun at the time wanted to show us off so he was calling orders out to us and shouting them quicker than we could carry them out. After leaving we were to head back out into the lake so we had to tarp the hatches. Well, i was new and didn't want to upset anyone so I left the firring strips on the middle hatch leaf. I never noticed them untill they were falling into the hold after we closed the one side of the hatch. I missed the guys down below, but I never quit hearing about it. I also saild aboard the Valley Camp the last time she saild. Leaving port, we were closing the hatches and I was going around tightening the clamps down. Well, our bosun thought he was heaven sent and was yelling at me. So I gave a good tug on the lage pipe I was using and bent the threaded bar on clamp. I went to bend it back and he told me not to bother with it as it was the last trip anyhow. A few summers ago, I tourd the old girl, and the clamp bar was still bent! I dont doubt but that hatch cover hasnt been opend since we closed it back in 1967. Ahh the good ole days.... -Harvey.

[Guest]

I am assuming it is spelled "batten" not "baton" as the phrase, of course, is "batten down the hatches." A baton is what the girl twirls at the front of a parade. Might help people understand better.

[hayhugh]

I really liked the Pittsburg hatch farms after working on the Great Lakes Steamship and Wilson Transit hatch farms. With USS there was no cleaning of the cargo holds after hauling grain to coal to grain or ore to coal or grain. Everything carried back in those days when into the blast furnaces. Yep it used to take a few hours to take all the jewelry off and put it back on again after loading at the head of the lakes and there was usually no time up the street for the deckhands. Sure was nice when you got promoted to deck watch and only had to put in four hours. I remember it well. The Clemson , Dickson, Buffington, and then moving up to the Frick, JP Morgan, and the Irvin with the "Iron Deck Hand" A guy just can't get a job like that anymore...

[ML]

Standuffer. I know you came on the Ziesing the year after I did. We should have left the boat in good order for you. We layed her up in Sturgeon Bay, I believe rafted to the Clemson. Do you remember who your bosun was? Mine always called them fern(ferring) strips. Never heard them called batons. you must've had an educated bosun on your hatchfarm ride. Ahh, the good ole days, manual labor at it's finest.

[standuffer]

I find this thread very interesting, however I do not understand all the terms, tarps, wedges, fern strips. I found a good group of pics on the Maumee (fleet photo gallery) page. Can you please help me understand. Thanks

Describing all these terms will not be easy especially to someone who has no “tarp farm” experience but keep following these threads because I’m sure there will be many more entries.

A tarp is just what it says it is, a large piece of canvas (tarp) that completely covers all the leaves of a telescoping hatch.

A wedge is exactly what it says it is, a piece of wood, approximately 10 inches long by 2 inches square cut into the shape of a wedge. This wedge is used to hold the tucked edge of the tarp and the baton in a metal cleat that is attached to the outside of the hatch coamings. There were probably more than 80 cleats on each hatch coaming.

I assume that a fern strip is a furring strip. Once again I would have to assume that “ML” was referring to the baton. A baton was a piece of wood approximately 12’x2’’x1 that was placed (rolled or folded) along the edge of the tarp and placed in the cleats. Ones the tarp edge and baton were placed in the cleat a wedge was hammered into place to secure the tarp onto the hatch.

Has anyone mentioned that the tarps were pieces of canvas that were sewn together? There were probably 6 or 8 seams per tarp and these seams had to be situated in such a way that when waves rolled over the deck they weren’t ripped apart by the wave action.

Hopefully, someone will be able to supply a few pictures or drawing to more clearly illustrate my descriptions.

[Guest]

I find this thread very interesting, however I do not understand all the terms, tarps, wedges, fern strips. I found a good group of pics on the Maumee (fleet photo gallery) page. Can you please help me understand. Thanks

[Jon Paul]

Thanks so much for your responses so far, just what I was looking for. I am glad you mentioned ML about the space between hatches. On boats with 12 foot centers you had about a foot or less between hatches and it always gave me the heebie-jeebies especially when closing up after unloading. Pellets were everywhere so it was like walking on marbles, the hatch coaming was 14-16 inches high and here your prying on a stuck hatch leave while looking 30 feet to the bottom of the hold.Glorious! It was definitely a different way of life back then, sometimes 3-4 guys in one room, the smell of soft coal smoke when you were out on deck, no cell phones, no internet and very little TV coverage. It was an incredible learning experience though and I grew up fast.

[ML]

I couldn't have described it better. I knew Stan and I were on the Ziesing (me in '72) and it was brutal work. The weather played a roll in the times the tarps were on. If those canvas tarps got wet, and they did a lot, they were murder. If they were frozen and stiff, it was difficult at best to drive the wedges in and to keep the fern strips in place with that stiff tarp. I snapped many strips like toothpicks, they didn't hold up in the cold too well. And talk about becoming a pro at swingin a baby sledge! Let's not forget closing the hatches with the tracks froze (more graphite please) and leafs popping off, then out come the crowbars to put em back in place. Then 100's of clamps that made the 18 hatch telescopers feel like a feather. How bout the eyes for the clamps down on the deck with taconite and ice at night with 3' or so between hatches and a empty cargohold looking up at you. It wasn't for the faint-hearted and a lot of guy's couldn't take it. As was mentioned, I too moved on to 18 hatch telescopers and iron deckhands and the job got a lot easier. To experience that though, to me, was the old school......the complete experience along with no time off like nowadays. My dad did it for 48 years out there like that and I could never have lasted like that.

Seeing as how we're on the subject, hats off and props go out to any deckies on the Maumee and Saginaw for their old school work in the modern era!

[John Dunlap]

C. L. Austin, with 35 or 36 hatches. In 1964 we fit out in mid-April and laid up about December 11. June, July and August, with no tarps was ok duty. Tarp season was not. Loading red ore or pellets required removal of only every other tarp. (Plenty of the pellet dust found its way to the threads on the hatch clamps, so the butterfly sure didn't just spin right on.) After unloading if we went nearby, e.g. from Cleveland to Lorain or Toledo for coal it became an ordeal, as we deckhands, or "deck apes" stayed on duty cleaning the cargo hold then stood by for loading. After that, we tarped every last hatch then helped with the cleanup and rinsing down the deck. Of course we got the coveted overtime after 8 hours, but it felt like blood money. The payoff was that we would spend 24-36 hours unloading, plenty of time to get up the strreet at least once. We went through plenty of deckhands- small wonder.

[standuffer]

I was on the George Seedhouse (36 hatches) and sister ship Merle McCurdy (35 hatches). Steps to secure the hatches: Close and pin the hatch covers, spread the tarps, put battens in place, hammer in wedges to hold battens, put on steel stongbacks over the tarps, hook up and tighten butterfly clamps. A good crew could do it in 8 hours. A miserable crew on the McCurdy took 24 hours. The captain did eventually fired that entire deck crew for being so worthless. The union then fined each one $50 for holding up a ship.

very hard work. long hours. poor accommodations.

Yikes, 8hrs? took us 2.5 to 3.0 hrs to secure the deck.

[DavidFrank]

I was on the George Seedhouse (36 hatches) and sister ship Merle McCurdy (35 hatches). Steps to secure the hatches: Close and pin the hatch covers, spread the tarps, put battens in place, hammer in wedges to hold battens, put on steel stongbacks over the tarps, hook up and tighten butterfly clamps. A good crew could do it in 8 hours. A miserable crew on the McCurdy took 24 hours. The captain did eventually fired that entire deck crew for being so worthless. The union then fined each one $50 for holding up a ship.

very hard work. long hours. poor accommodations.

[Jon Paul]

I thought it would be more appropriate here in a separate topic. We really did run some of the same courses. I was on the Samuel Mather in '75, she was a sister to the Robert Hobson, 18 telescoping on 24ft centers. She was a real treat after the Sensibar but I learned a lot on that old self-unloader. I am sure you would agree, a hatch farm taught you teamwork and tenacity and it weeded out the slackers. The first boat I got on with an iron deckhand I thought I had gone to heaven...lol

[standuffer]

This is certainly a better place for this subject instead of the Fitz thread where we had mentioned it the other day. I sailed on/off from '71 through '75. The 'farms’ I was on were: August Ziesing ('73) a true "hatch farm" with wooden wedges, that were driven into place, hammered by hand, to secure batons and tarps. Then “J” clamps were hand tightened to secure the individual hatch leaves. The Robert Hobson ('75) had telescoping hatches but with 24' centers, and finally the Raymond H. Reiss ('75) another hatch farm but with improved clamps as shown on the Historical Perspective page. Working the tarps with an experienced crew must have looked like a ballet to an uninformed on-looker. I’m glad I can romanticize the work now because back in the day, it was just really hard, “back breaking” yet rewarding work.

[Jon Paul]

I thought it might be interesting to hear form those who had worked on boats that were "Hatch Farms", that would be ships with 30+ telescoping hatches on 12 ft centers.