They did buck in with their funny bamboo oars, long things like bakers' bread shovels, with square or round blades tied with string to the end of a bamboo, which worked in a hemp grummet on a single wooden thole pin.
"From Edinburgh to India & Burmah"
William G. Burn Murdoch
Far ahead I could discover groups of men with shovels, hastily burying those who remained.
"My Home In The Field of Honor"
Frances Wilson Huard
Away before them were the fires of death, to which they were going very steadily, with a tune on their lips, carrying their rifles and shovels and iron rations, while the rain played a tattoo on their steel hats.
"From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917"
Philip Gibbs