An early underground worker, often a boy or older miner, employed to bail or pump out nuisance water from the active working areas and horseways. Before the advent of high-capacity electric dewatering pumps, they manually loaded water into barrels or tubs to be hauled to the main shaft sump. Keeping the roads dry prevented the haulage tracks from degrading into deep mud.
Heard on the job
The water leader spent the whole shift bailing the dip heading so the ponies could get the tubs through.