I: A print by Louis Phillipe Boitard entitled
The Imports of Great Britain from France, 1757.
* Lighters were small boats which carried goods from ships to the quayside. They could land goods without paying a fee to the quay or dock owner.
The Origins of the Docks
Problems in the Port
H: London was by now the greatest port in the world and accounted for two-thirds of the country's sea-borne trade, the total quay frontage of the twenty legal quays and the twenty-one sufferance wharves was less than 1,500 feet [457 metres] - or only a third of that of Bristol.
As there was no room at the quays, ships had to be moored abreast in midstream, often four or five deep whilst more than three thousand lighters* continuously ferried their cargoes to and from congested wharves.'
Arthur Braying, Liquid History (1960), pages 19-20.
J: Another serious problem in the Port of London was recorded by Patrick Colquhoun, a magistrate, in his Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames (1800). The following extracts are taken from his writings.
'A Ship-Master who had been a stranger in the River finding himself beset by a gang of bold Lumpers (dockers), who insisted on carrying away plunder in spite of all his efforts to prevent it, while he was engaged upon deck in searching these miscreants, a barrel of sugar (his private property) which stood in the cabin, was in the course of a few minutes, emptied and removed in bags through the cabin windows, under which a Waterman with his boat lay to receive it, and got clear off without discovery, to the surprise of the captain when he returned to his cabin.'
Colquhoun also wrote about gangs who worked at night such as the 'light horsemen' who could include 'one or more Receivers, together with Coopers, Watermen and Lumpers, who were all necessary in their different occupations...
This particular system of plunder was always carried on by the connivance of the Mate and Revenue Officers, in consequence of a preconcerted (worked out beforehand) plan, and agreement to pay them a certain sum of money, for the liberty of opening and removing from such casks and packages, as were accessible (easy to get at), as much sugar, coffee, and other articles, as could be carried away in four or five ours during the dead of night.
For such a licence to plunder, from 20 to 30 guineas per night were usually paid to the Mate and Revenue Officers, who generally went to bed, while the mischief was going forward, that they might not see it.'
K: A table showing the number of ships (and tonnage) entering and leaving the Port of London in the eighteenth century.
I: A print by Louis Phillipe Boitard entitled
The Imports of Great Britain from France, 1757.
* Lighters were small boats which carried goods from ships to the quayside. They could land goods without paying a fee to the quay or dock owner.
Home |
Index |
Introduction |
Glossary |
The Origins |
Building the Docks |
In Operations |
On the Waterfront |
The Dockers|
The Strikes of 1889 |
In the 20c |
In the WW2 |
The Closure |
Contact
Nigel Sagar
Design and Technology
London Borough of Barking
and Dagenham
Email: nigel.sagar@lbbd.gov.uk
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