Tales of London's Docklands

by Henry T Bradford

  When ballast was being loaded into a ship, four men from the ship’s gang would take turns with the other down-holders between working in a barge loading ore baskets with ballast and servicing the bull-winch in the hold. This meant eight men were working in pairs, filling ore baskets, while two of the gang remained in the ship’s hold to unhook the full baskets from the crane. It was the job of the two men in the hold to attach the rings on the ore baskets to the bull-winch hook that would draw the full set of ballast across the hold to its designated stowage. They then hooked the empty basket onto the crane hooks so it could be whisked away skywards and back into the barge for the process to be repeated again and again. Each ore basket was said to hold 12 hundredweight of ballast when full. The average time given to load a basket was six minutes. This work operation continued until a barge bay was emptied. Then all the men working in the barge would go aboard the ship and back down the hold to level the ballast. This operation was known as trimming.

  As large luxury liners were mostly constructed from steel, they were always deep in the water. Centreboards, fore and aft of the ship’s hold, were not necessary to stop the ballast shifting when these big ships were at sea. It followed, therefore, that the bull-winch was not restricted in terms of the directions in which it could be operated. When we removed ourselves from the barge and climbed up onto the ship and down into the hold, we were greeted by a sight that at first made us angry – that was until we saw the funny side of the situation. The two men who had been left in the hold to service the bull-winch were both old soldiers who had served in the Essex Regiment in the North African desert with the British Eighth Army. They had decided to use the bull-winch to make sand dunes. They had made a hut out of ship’s dunnage, on which they had written ‘Rommel’s Headquarters’. They had made several graveyards in the sand with small crosses constructed from pieces of rush matting. They had used pallet-boards to indicate the positions of enemy tanks and left holes in the ballast as shell and bomb holes. Far be it for me to say the whole place was a shambles. The other men in the gang who had been involved in the desert war, after calling them every blaspheming name they could think of, soon broke down into peals of laughter. That’s when the incident occurred that could have cost me my life, and they thought that was hilarious too.

  While the rest of the gang were swearing and cursing each other over the mocked-up battlefield, I had taken it into my head to change the hooks on the ore baskets. As I coupled the crane hooks onto the rope tail of a basket it shot skywards at high speed, taking me with it. Then it suddenly stopped. Before I realized it, I was three-quarters of the way up the ship’s trunkway, about 30 feet above the level of the ballast in the lower hold. The crane had stopped its hoist and the basket was swinging from one side of the trunkway to the other like a clanger in a bell. I had two options: I could let myself be smashed against the side of the trunkway, or I could release myself from the ropes on the basket in which I had become entrapped. I chose the latter option and let myself drop down the trunkway onto the ballast below. Fortunately I landed in a pile of soft sand. It was then that one of the jesters in the gang piped up, ‘It’s just like those bloody Jerries. Here come their paratroopers.’ Of course, the down-holders thought this incident was funnier than the mocked-up desert battlefield, Rommel’s Headquarters, the tank positions, the graveyards and all. I didn’t.

  When I looked up the trunkway the ore basket was still swinging slowly by its tail in the position I had left it when I evacuated myself from it. I got onto the steel ladder that led from the ship’s hold to the deck some 60 feet above and scrambled up it as fast as I possibly could. (As a quay crane driver I was used to this ordeal, having to climb ladders several times each day.) When I pulled myself over the steel lip of the hatch I could see both of the top hands and the bull-winch driver haggling over the price of several watches that a Goanese Lascar had strapped to his arm. They were on the verge of making a purchase when I got up close to them.

  ‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing? Didn’t you see me trapped in the ore basket? I was halfway up the trunkway when you stopped the crane. Or did you think it was Tarzan of the bloody apes swinging about down there?’

  ‘We didn’t see you,’ said the top hand, who was supposed to be the crane driver’s eyes. ‘We were doing a bit of business with this geezer here.’

  ‘Sod him! You should be keeping an eye on your job. You idiots could have got me killed just now,’ I raved.

  ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake stop moaning,’ the top hand said. ‘Do you want one of these watches or don’t you? If you buy one he’ll let us have three watches for 15s each!’

  ‘Yes, OK. I’ll have that one.’ I gave the Lascar 15s, put the watch in my pocket and scrambled back down the ladder of the trunkway onto the ballast in the lower hold.

  The only comment I received when I arrived back in the hold was from the down-hold foreman. ‘Are you going to give us a hand to level out Rommel’s desert battlefield those two former desert prats over there have created? If you’re not, then sod off home,’ he said.

  That was the end of that episode. Such idiotic pranks and dangers were inherent in docking. Nothing more was ever said about the incident.

  By the way, the Tilbury dockers did win the A.W. King cup at that year’s Gravesend Regatta (1959). It was my last boat race before my luck ran out, but that will have to wait for another tale. That watch never did work and it cost me almost a whole day’s pay.

  A Tilbury dockers’ rowing team being presented with the A.W. King Stevedores and Dockers rowing cup in 1958 by the Mayor, Mr J. MacKenzie, and Captain MacKeller. The author is on the far left of the photograph. (Author’s collection)

  GLOSSARY

  ‘A’ listed dockers and stevedores men called on for employment by a Port Authority labour master; these men were from all categories, i.e. ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ registered dock workers

  ‘A’ men registered dock workers categorized as being physically fit to undertake all forms of work associated with dock work but excluding crane driving

  attendance book book issued annually to registered dock workers that, when stamped by an employer or the Dock Labour Board, registered the number of attendances for wage payment purposes.

  ‘B’ man a registered dock worker over the age of 65

  backers members of a ship’s or quay gang who carried sacks, timber or other cargo to or from working areas

  ‘C’ men registered dock workers categorized as medically fit for light duties only.

  call stand a raised platform in Dock Labour Board compounds from which ship workers or quay foremen selected their workforce

  change-over men pro-rata men employed on ships’ decks, cargo jetties or quays to transfer roped or cargo boarded freight from one purchase to another

  dabbing on a term denoting an attendance book being stamped by a Dock Labour Board clerk

  dabbing concession an excuse stamp given for reasons of sickness or for another acceptable reason for absence from work

  day-work money the basic wage payment for those not on piecework

  dockers and stevedores registered port workers who belonged to different trade unions; dockers were members of the Transport and General Workers Union (the Whites); and the stevedores were members of the Stevedores and Dockers Union; (the Blues)

  dolly-brook a large tent that could be raised hastily over a ship’s hatch to protect cargo from inclement weather.

  donkey-man an oiler or greaser in a ship’s engine room

  down-holder a member of a ship’s gang working in a ship’s hold

  fall-back money a guaranteed payment based on the number of ‘attendances’ proved for each signing-on period in any one week

  free call the gathering of dockers hoping to be picked up for a day’s work

  full-back guarantee monies paid by the Dock Labour Board to registered dock workers who had attended the ‘call on’ but had been unable to obtain work.

  job a
nd finish a payment made by an employer for the men to complete a work operation as quickly as was possible

  Lascar an Indian seaman

  LDLB London Dock Labour Board

  luff a term used when cranes’ jibs are moved in or out

  measurement rate each item of cargo being exported was measured for piecework purposes and gangs were paid by the measurement ton (although, if the weight of the cargo was greater then the measurement tonnage, then the gang (should have) received the greater weight of the two); Port Authority quay gangs were always paid either ‘dead weight’ tonnage or two-fifths the measurement rate

  NDLB National Dock Labour Board

  non-continuity jobs that either were or could be discontinued at the employer’s or a dock worker’s convenience

  OST clerk an overseas tally clerk responsible for checking and recording all freight loaded on to or discharged from working vessels

  out-of-sector allocations each dock system within the Port of London was categorized as a sector; men transferred to another dock or port were said to be ‘out of sector’

  paid off on the completion of a work operation, attendance books were given back to the dock workers, who then returned to the Dock Labour Compound to look for another job

  perm registered dock workers who were permanently employed, rather than those who sought work twice a day on the ‘free call’

  pitch the spot on the quay where the cargo was discharged to or loaded from before being transferred to a transit shed or warehouse

  pitch hand men who were members of a ship’s gang but worked on the quay, or in barges or Thames lighters

  PLA Port of London Authority

  pressed men men allocated to work an operation by the Dock Labour Board manager

  pro-rata men men, extra to a ship’s or quay gang, employed on specific work operations

  quay receiving cargo discharged from ships to quay gangs for storing in transit sheds or warehouses

  registered dock worker a docker or stevedore registered with the National Dock Labour Board under the Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act 1946

  serang Indian seaman equivalent to a ship’s bosun

  ship worker an employers’ representative (always a previous docker or stevedore) responsible for all registered men employed on a ship

  ship’s gang twelve men (plus 1 pro-rata man if working under ship’s winches) who worked together to load or discharge a ship

  tick note a chit issued daily to each gang showing the tonnage handled, the piecework rate per ton for each commodity, and any day-work time lost

  told off allocated to a work operation

  top hand the crane driver’s eyes and ears on a ship’s deck, signalling instructions to him in the crane cabin above

  a turn a 4–6-hour work period

  under plumb a point directly under a derrick’s head or crane’s jib

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