Chapter 63
section sixty-three of london labour and the london poor volume three by henry mayhew this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by gillian henry the dock labourers part three i have devoted some time to the investigation of the state of the casual labourers at the other docks and shall now proceed to set forth the result of my inquiries the west india docks The West India docks are about a mile and a half from the London docks. The entire ground that they cover is 295 acres, so that they are nearly three times larger than the London docks and more than 12 times more extensive than those of St Catherine's. Hence they are the most capacious of all the great warehousing establishments in the Port of London.
The export dock is about 870 yards, or very nearly half a mile in length, by 135 yards in width. Its area therefore is about 25 acres. The import dock is the same length as the export dock and 166 yards wide. The south dock, which is appropriated both to import and export vessels, is 1,183 yards, or upwards of two-thirds of a mile long, with an entrance to the river at each end.
Both the locks, as well as that into the Blackwall Basin being 40 feet wide, and large enough to emit ships of 1,200 tonnes burden. The warehouses for imported goods are on the four keys of the import dock. They are well contrived and of great extent being calculated to contain 180,000 tonnes of merchandise. And there has been at one time on the keys and in the sheds, vaults and warehouses colonial produce worth £20 million sterling.
The East India docks are likewise the property of the West India Dock Company, having been purchased by them of the East India Company at the time of the opening of the trade to India. The import dock here has an area of 18 acres and the export dock about 9 acres. The depth of water in these docks is greater and they can consequently accommodate ships of greater burden than any other establishment on the river. The capital of both establishments, or of a United Company, amounts to upwards of 2 million of money. The West India import dock can accommodate 300 ships and the export dock 200 ships of 300 tonnes each
and the East India import dock 84 ships and the export dock 40 ships of 800 tonnes each. The number of ships that entered the West India dock to load and unload last year was 3008 and the number that entered the East India Dock 298. I owe the above information, as well as that which follows, to the kindness of the Secretary and Superintendent of the Docks in question. To the politeness and intelligence of the latter gentleman I am specially indebted. Indeed,
his readiness to afford me all the assistance that lay in his power, as well as his courtesy and gentlemanly demeanour formed a marked contrast to that of the Deputy Superintendent of the London docks, the one appearing as anxious for the welfare and comfort of the labouring men as the other seemed indifferent to it. The transition from the London to the West India docks is of a very peculiar character. The labourers at the latter place seem to be more civilised. The
scrambling and scuffling for the day's hire, which is the striking feature of the one establishment, is scarcely distinguishable at the other. It is true there is the same crowd of labourers in quest of a day's work, but the struggle to obtain it is neither so fierce nor so disorderly in its character. And yet here the casual labourers are men from whom no character is demanded as well as there. The amount of wages for the summer months is the same as at the London docks. Unlike the
London docks, however, no reduction is made at the East and West India docks during the winter. The labour is as precarious at one establishment as at the other. The greatest number of hands employed for any one day at the East and West India docks in the course of last year was nearly 4,000, and the smallest number about 1,300. The lowest number of ships that entered the docks during any one week in the present year was 28, and the highest number 209, being a difference
of 181 vessels, of an average burden of 300 tonnes each. The positive amount of variation, however, which occurred in the labour during the briskest and slackest weeks of last year, was a difference of upwards of 2,500 in the number of extra workmen employed, and of about £2,000 in the amount of wages paid for the six days labour. I have been favoured with a return of the number of vessels that entered the East and West India docks for each week in the present
year, and I subjoin a statement of the number arriving in each of the first 14 of those weeks. In the first week of all, there were 86, the second 47, the third 43, the fourth 48, the fifth 28, the 6th 49, the 7th 46, the 8th 37, the 9th 42, the 10th 47, the 11th 42, the 12th 131, the 13th 209, and the 14th 85. Hence it appears that in the second week the number of ships coming into dock decreased nearly one half. In the fifth week, they were again diminished in a like
proportion, while in the sixth week they were increased in a similar ratio. In the twelfth week, they were more than three times what they were in the eleventh. In the thirteenth, the number was half as much again as it was in the twelfth, and in the fourteenth, it was down below half the number of the 13th, so that it is clear that the subsistence derived from dock labour must be of the most fickle and doubtful kind. The St. Catherine's Dock. Nor are the returns from St. Catherine's Dock
of a more cheerful character. Here it should be observed that no labourer is employed without a previous recommendation, and indeed it is curious to notice the difference in the appearance of the men applying for work at this establishment. They not only have a more decent look, but seem to be better behaved than any other dock labourers I have yet seen. The ticket system is here adopted. That is to say, the plan of allowing only such persons to labour within the docks as have been
satisfactorily recommended to the company, and furnished with a ticket by them in return. This ticket system, says the statement which has been kindly drawn up expressly for me by the superintendent of the docks, may be worth notice. At a time when such efforts are making to improve the condition of the labourers, it gives an identity and locus standi to the men which casual labourers cannot otherwise possess. It connects them with the various grades of officers under whose eyes they labour, prevents favouritism, and leads to their qualifications being noted and recorded. It also holds before them a reward for activity, intelligence and good conduct, because the vacancies in the list of preferable labourers, which occur during the year, are invariably filled in the succeeding January by selecting, upon strict inquiry, the best of the extra ticket labourers.
The vacancies among the permanent men being supplied in like manner from the list of preferable labourers, while from the permanent men are appointed the subordinate officers as markers, samplers and so on. Let us, however, before entering into a description of the class and number of labourers employed at St Catherine's, give a brief description of the docks themselves. The lofty walls, which constitute it, in the language of the custom house, a place of special security, enclose an area of 23 acres, of which 11 are water, capable of accommodating 120 ships, besides barges and other craft. Cargos are raised into the warehouses out of the hold of a ship, without the goods being deposited on the quay. The cargoes can be raised out of the ship's hold into the warehouses of St Catherine's in one-fifth of the usual time.
Before the existence of docks, a month or six weeks was taken up in discharging the cargo of an East India man of from 800 to 1,200 tonnes burden, while eight days were necessary in the summer and 14 in the winter to unload a ship of 350 tonnes. At St Catherine's, however, the average time now occupied in discharging a ship of 250 tonnes is 12 hours and one of 500 tonnes two or three days, the goods being placed at the same time in the warehouse. There have been occasions when even greater dispatch has been used and a cargo of 1,100 casks of tallow, averaging from 9 to 10 hundredweight each, has been discharged in seven hours.
This would have been considered little short of a miracle on the legal keys less than 50 years ago. In 1841, about 1,000 vessels and 10,000 lighters were accommodated at St Catherine's Dock. The capital expended by the dock company exceeds two million of money. The business of this establishment is carried on by 35 officers, 105 clerks and apprentices, 135 markers, samplers and foremen, 250 permanent labourers, 150 preferable ticket labourers, proportioned to the amount of work to be done. The average number of labourers employed, permanent, preferable and extras, is 1,096.
The highest number employed on any one day last year was 1,713 and the lowest number 515, so that the extreme fluctuation in the labour appears to be very nearly 1,200 hands. The lowest sum of money that was paid in 1848 for the day's work of the entire body of labourers employed was £64.07 and the highest sum, £214.06, being a difference of very nearly £150 in one day, or £900 in the course of the week. The average number of ships that enter the dock every week is 17. The highest number that entered in any one week last year was 36, and the lowest, 5, being a difference of 31.
Assuming these to have been of an average burden of 300 tonnes, and that every such vessel would require 100 labourers to discharge its cargo in three days, then 1,500 extra hands ought to have been engaged to discharge the cargos of the entire number in a week. This, it will be observed, is very nearly equal to the highest number of the labourers employed by the company in the year 1848. The remaining docks are the commercial docks and timber ponds, the Grand Surrey Canal Dock at Rotheryth and the East Country Dock.
The commercial docks occupy an area of about 49 acres, of which four-fifths are water. There is accommodation for 350 ships, and in the warehouses for 50,000 tonnes of merchandise. They are appropriated to vessels engaged in the European timber and corn trades, and the surrounding warehouses are used chiefly as granaries, the timber remaining afloat in the dock until it is conveyed to the yard of the wholesale dealer and builder.
The Surrey Dock is merely an entrance basin to a canal and can accommodate 300 vessels. The East Country Dock, which adjoins the commercial docks on the south, is capable of receiving 28 timber ships. It has an area of six and a half acres and warehouse room for 3,700 tonnes. In addition to these, there is the Regent's Canal Dock between Shadwell and Limehouse. And though it is a place for bonding timber and deals only, it nevertheless affords great accommodation to the trade of the port by withdrawing shipping from the river.
The number of labourers, casual and permanent, employed at these various establishments is so limited that, taken altogether, the fluctuations occurring at their briskest and slackest periods may be reckoned as equal to that of St Catherine's. Hence, the account of the variation in the total number of hands employed and the sum of money paid as wages to them by the different dock companies when the business is brisk or slack may be stated as follows. At the London dock, the difference between the greatest and smallest number is 2,000 hands. At the East and West India dock, 2,500 hands. At the St Catharines Dock, 1,200 hands
At the remaining docks, say 1,300 hands Total number of dock labourers thrown out of employ by the prevalence of easterly winds, 7,000 hands The difference between the highest and lowest amount of wages paid at the London Dock is 1,500 pounds At the East and West India Dock, £1,875. At the St Catherine Dock, £900.
At the remaining docks, £975. Total, £5,250. From the above statement, then, it appears that by the prevalence of an easterly wind, no less than 7,000 out of the aggregate number of persons living by dock labour may be deprived of their regular income, and the entire body may have as much as £5,250 a week
abstracted from the amount of their collective earnings at a period of active employment. But the number of individuals who depend upon the quantity of shipping entering the Port of London for their daily subsistence is far beyond this amount. Indeed, we are assured by a gentleman filling a high situation in St Catherine's Dock, and who, from his sympathy with the labouring poor, has evidently given no slight attention to the subject, that taking into consideration the number
of wharf labourers, dock labourers, lightermen, riggers and lumpers, shipwrights, cockers, ship's carpenters, anchorsmiths, cornporters, fruit and coal-meters, and indeed all the multifarious arts and callings connected with shipping, there are no less than from 25,000 to 30,000 individuals who are thrown wholly out of employ by a long continuance of easterly winds. Estimating then the gains of this large body of individuals at two shillings and sixpence per day,
or 15 shillings per week when fully employed, we shall find that the loss to those who depend upon the London shipping for their subsistence amounts to £20,000 per week. And considering that such winds are often known to prevail for a fortnight to three weeks at a time, it follows that the entire loss to this large class will amount to from £40,000 to £60,000 within a month, an amount of privation to the labouring poor which it is positively awful
to contemplate. Nor is this the only evil connected with an enduring easterly wind. Directly a change takes place. A glut of vessels enters the metropolitan port, and labourers flock from all quarters. Indeed, they flock from every part where the workmen exist in a greater quantity than the work. From 500 to 800 vessels frequently arrive at one time in London after the duration of a contrary wind, and then such is the demand for workmen, and so great the press of business,
owing to the rivalry among merchants, and the desire of each owner to have his cargo the first in the market, that a sufficient number of hands is scarcely to be found. Hundreds of extra labourers who can find labour nowhere else are thus led to seek work in the docks. But, to use the words of our informant, two or three weeks are sufficient to break the neck of an ordinary glut, and then the vast amount of extra hands that the excess of business has brought to the neighbourhood are
thrown out of employment, and left to increase either the vagabondism of the neighbourhood, or to swell the number of paupers and heighten the rates of the adjacent parishes. End of section 63
