There is yet another class of itinerant dealers who, if not traders
in the streets, are traders in what was once termed the silent
highway--the river beer-sellers, or purl-men, as they are more commonly
called. These should strictly have been included among the sellers of
eatables and drinkables; they have, however, been kept distinct, being
a peculiar class, and having little in common with the other out-door
sellers.
I will begin my account of the river-sellers by enumerating the
numerous classes of labourers, amounting to many thousands, who get
their living by plying their respective avocations on the river, and
who constitute the customers of these men. There are first the sailors
on board the corn, coal, and timber ships; then the “lumpers,” or
those engaged in discharging the timber ships; the “stevedores,” or
those engaged in stowing craft; and the “riggers,” or those engaged
in rigging them; ballast-heavers, ballast-getters, corn-porters,
coal-whippers, watermen and lightermen, and coal-porters, who, although
engaged in carrying sacks of coal from the barges or ships at the
river’s side to the shore, where there are public-houses, nevertheless,
when hard worked and pressed for time, frequently avail themselves of
the presence of the purl-man to quench their thirst, and to stimulate
them to further exertion.
It would be a remarkable circumstance if the fact of so many persons
continually employed in severe labour, and who, of course, are at
times in want of refreshment, had not called into existence a class to
supply that which was evidently required; under one form or the other,
therefore, river-dealers boast of an antiquity as old as the naval
commerce of the country.
The prototype of the river beer-seller of the present day is the
bumboat-man. Bumboats (or rather _Baum_-boats, that is to say, the
boats of the harbour, from the German _Baum_, a haven or bar) are known
in every port where ships are obliged to anchor at a distance from the
shore. They are stored with a large assortment of articles, such as are
likely to be required by people after a long voyage. Previously to the
formation of the various docks on the Thames, they were very numerous
on the river, and drove a good trade with the homeward-bound shipping.
But since the docks came into requisition, and steam-tugs brought the
ships from the mouth of the river to the dock entrance, their business
died away, and they gradually disappeared; so that a bumboat on the
Thames at the present day would be a sort of curiosity, a relic of
times past.
In former times it was _not_ in the power of any person who chose to
follow the calling of a bumboat man on the Thames. The Trinity Company
had the power of granting licences for this purpose. Whether they were
restrained by some special clause in their charter, or not, from giving
licences indiscriminately, it is difficult to say. But it is certain
that none got a licence but a sailor--one who had “served his country;”
and it was quite common in those days to see an old fellow with a pair
of wooden legs, perhaps blind of an eye, or wanting an arm, and with
a face rugged as a rock, plying about among the shipping, accompanied
by a boy whose duty it was to carry the articles to the purchasers on
shipboard, and help in the management of the boat. In the first or
second year of the reign of her present Majesty, however, when the
original bumboat-men had long degenerated into the mere beer-sellers,
and any one who wished traded in this line on the river (the Trinity
Company having for many years paid no attention to the matter), an
inquiry took place, which resulted in a regulation that all the
beer-sellers or purl-men should thenceforward be regularly licensed
for the river-sale of beer and spirits from the Waterman’s Hall, which
regulation is in force to the present time.
It appears to have been the practice at some time or other in this
country to infuse wormwood into beer or ale previous to drinking it,
either to make it sufficiently bitter, or for some medicinal purpose.
This mixture was called _purl_--why I know not, but Bailey, the
philologist of the seventeenth century, so designates it. The drink
originally sold on the river was purl, or this mixture, whence the
title, purl-man. Now, however, the wormwood is unknown; and what is
sold under the name of purl is beer warmed nearly to boiling heat, and
flavoured with gin, sugar, and ginger. The river-sellers, however,
still retain the name, of _purl_-men, though there is not one of them
with whom I have conversed that has the remotest idea of the meaning of
it.
To set up as a purl-man, some acquaintance with the river, and a
certain degree of skill in the management of a boat, are absolutely
necessary; as, from the frequently-crowded state of the pool, and
the rapidity with which the steamers pass and repass, twisting and
wriggling their way through craft of every description, the unskilful
adventurer would run in continual danger of having his boat crushed
like a nutshell. The purl-men, however, through long practice, are
scarcely inferior to the watermen themselves in the management of their
boats; and they may be seen at all times easily working their way
through every obstruction, now shooting athwart the bows of a Dutch
galliot or sailing-barge, then dropping astern to allow a steam-boat
to pass till they at length reach the less troubled waters between the
tiers of shipping.
The first thing required to become a purl-man is to procure a licence
from the Waterman’s Hall, which costs 3_s._ 6_d._ per annum. The next
requisite is the possession of a boat. The boats used are all in the
form of skiffs, rather short, but of a good breadth, and therefore
less liable to capsize through the swell of the steamers, or through
any other cause. Thus equipped he then goes to some of the small
breweries, where he gets two “pins,” or small casks of beer, each
containing eighteen pots; after this he furnishes himself with a quart
or two of gin from some publican, which he carries in a tin vessel
with a long neck, like a bottle--an iron or tin vessel to hold the
fire, with holes drilled all round to admit the air and keep the fuel
burning, and a huge bell, by no means the least important portion of
his fit out. Placing his two pins of beer on a frame in the stern of
the boat, the spiles loosened and the brass cocks fitted in, and with
his tin gin bottle close to his hand beneath the seat, two or three
measures of various sizes, a black tin pot for heating the beer, and
his fire pan secured on the bottom of the boat, and sending up a black
smoke, he takes his seat early in the morning and pulls away from
the shore, resting now and then on his oars, to ring the heavy bell
that announces his approach. Those on board the vessels requiring
refreshment, when they hear the bell, hail “Purl ahoy;” in an instant
the oars are resumed, and the purl-man is quickly alongside the ship.
The bell of the purl-man not unfrequently performs another very
important office. During the winter, when dense fogs settle down on
the river, even the regular watermen sometimes lose themselves, and
flounder about bewildered perhaps for hours. The direction once lost,
their shouting is unheeded or unheard. The purl-man’s bell, however,
reaches the ear through the surrounding gloom, and indicates his
position; when near enough to hear the hail of his customers, he makes
his way unerringly to the spot by now and then sounding his bell; this
is immediately answered by another shout, so that in a short time the
glare of his fire may be distinguished as he emerges from the darkness,
and glides noiselessly alongside the ship where he is wanted.
The amount of capital necessary to start in the purl line may
be as follows:--I have said that the boats are all of the skiff
kind--generally old ones, which they patch up and repair at but little
cost. They purchase these boats at from 3_l._ to 6_l._ each. If we take
the average of these two sums, the items will be--
£ _s._ _d._
Boat 4 10 0
Pewter measures 0 5 0
Warming-pot 0 1 6
Fire stove 0 5 0
Gallon can 0 2 6
Two pins of beer 0 8 0
Quart of gin 0 2 6
Sugar and ginger 0 1 0
Licence 0 3 6
-----------
Total £5 19 0
Thus it requires, at the very least, a capital of 6_l._ to set up as a
purl-man.
Since the Waterman’s Hall has had the granting of licences, there have
been upwards of 140 issued; but out of the possessors of these many are
dead, some have left for other business, and others are too old and
feeble to follow the occupation any longer, so that out of the whole
number there remain only 35 purl-men on the river, and these are thus
divided:--23 ply their trade in what is called “the pool,” that is,
from Execution Dock to Ratcliff Cross, among the coal-laden ships, and
do a tolerable business amongst the sailors and the hard-working and
thirsty coal-whippers; 8 purl-men follow their calling from Execution
Dock to London Bridge, and sell their commodity among the ships loaded
with corn, potatoes, &c.; and 4 are known to frequent the various
reaches below Limehouse Hole, where the colliers are obliged to lie at
times in sections, waiting till they are sold on the Coal Exchange,
and some even go down the river as far as the ballast-lighters of the
Trinity Company, for the purpose of supplying the ballast-getters. The
purl-men cannot sell much to the unfortunate ballast-heavers, for they
are suffering under all the horrors of an abominable truck system, and
are compelled to take from the publicans about Wapping and Shadwell,
who are their employers, large quantities of filthy stuff compounded
especially for their use, for which they are charged exorbitant prices,
being thus and in a variety of other ways mercilessly robbed of their
earnings, so that they and their families are left in a state of almost
utter destitution. One of the purl-men, whose boat is No. 44, has hoops
like those used by gipsies for pitching their tents; these he fastens
to each side of the boat, over which he draws a tarred canvas covering,
water-proof, and beneath this he sleeps the greater part of the year,
seldom going ashore except for the purpose of getting a fresh supply
of liquors for trade, or food for himself. He generally casts anchor
in some unfrequented nook down the river, where he enjoys all the
quiet of a Thames hermit, after the labour of the day. To obtain the
necessary heat during the winter, he fits a funnel to his fire-stove to
carry away the smoke, and thus warmed he sleeps away in defiance of the
severest weather.
It appears from the facts above given that 210_l._ is the gross amount
of capital employed in this business. On an average all the year round
each purl-man sells two “pins” of beer weekly, independent of gin; but
little gin is thus sold in the summer, but in the winter a considerable
quantity of it is used in making the purl. The men purchase the beer at
4_s._ per pin, and sell it at 4_d._ per pot, which leaves them a profit
of 4_s._ on the two pins, and, allowing them 6_d._ per day profit on
the gin, it gives 1_l._ 7_s._ per week profit to each, or a total to
all hands of 47_l._ 5_s._ per week, and a gross total of 2457_l._
profit made on the sale of 98,280 gallons of beer, beside gin sold on
the Thames in the course of the year. From this amount must be deducted
318_l._ 10_s._, which is paid to boys, at the rate of 3_s._ 6_d._ per
week; it being necessary for each purl-man to employ a lad to take care
of the boat while he is on board the ships serving his customers, or
traversing the tiers. This deduction being made leaves 61_l._ 2_s._ per
annum to each purl-man as the profit on his year’s trading.
The present race of purl-men, unlike the weather-beaten tars who
in former times alone were licensed, are generally young men, who
have been in the habit of following some river employment, and who,
either from some accident having befallen them in the course of their
work, or from their preferring the easier task of sitting in their
boat and rowing leisurely about to continuous labour, have started in
the line, and ultimately superseded the old river dealers. This is
easily explained. No man labouring on the river would purchase from a
stranger when he knew that his own fellow-workman was afloat, and was
prepared to serve him with as good an article; besides he might not
have money, and a stranger could not be expected to give trust, but his
old acquaintance would make little scruple in doing so. In this way
the customers of the purl-men are secured; and many of these people do
so much more than the average amount of business above stated, that it
is no unusual thing to see some of them, after four or five years on
the river, take a public-house, spring up into the rank of licensed
victuallers, and finally become men of substance.
I conversed with one who had been a coal-whipper. He stated that he had
met with an accident while at work which prevented him from following
coal-whipping any longer. He had fallen from the ship’s side into a
barge, and was for a long time in the hospital. When he came out he
found he could not work, and had no other prospect before him but the
union. “I thought I’d be by this time toes up in Stepney churchyard,”
he said, “and grinning at the lid of an old coffin.” In this extremity
a neighbour, a waterman, who had long known him, advised him to take
to the purl business, and gave him not only the advice, but sufficient
money to enable him to put it in practice. The man accordingly got a
boat, and was soon afloat among his old workmates. In this line he now
makes out a living for himself and his family, and reckons himself able
to clear, one week with the other, from 18_s._ to 20_s._ “I should do
much better,” he said, “if people would only pay what they owe; but
there are some who never think of paying anything.” He has between
10_l._ and 20_l._ due to him, and never expects to get a farthing of it.