I conclude with the statement of a coalbacker, or coalporter--a class
to which the term coalheaver is usually given by those who are unversed
in the mysteries of the calling. The man wore the approved fantail, and
well-tarred short smock-frock, black velveteen knee breeches, dirty
white stockings, and lace-up boots.
“I am a coalbacker,” he said. “I have been so these twenty-two years.
By a coalbacker, I mean a man who is engaged in carrying coals on his
back from ships and craft to the waggons. We get 2-1/4_d._ for every
fifth part of a ton, or 11-1/4_d._ per ton among five men. We carry
the coals in sacks of 2 cwt., the sack usually weighs from 14lbs.
to 20lbs., so that our load is mostly 238lbs. We have to carry the
load from the hold of the ship, over four barges, to the waggon. The
hold of a ship is from sixteen to twenty feet deep. We carry the
coals this height up a ladder, and the ship is generally from sixty
to eighty feet from the waggon. This distance we have to travel over
planks, with the sacks on our backs. Each man will ascend this height
and travel this distance about ninety times in a day; hence he will
lift himself, with 2 cwt. of coals on his back, 1460 feet, or upwards
of a quarter of a mile high, which is three times the height of St.
Paul’s, in twelve hours. And besides this, he will travel 6300 feet, or
1-1/4 miles, carrying the same weight as he goes. The labour is very
hard--there are few men who can continue at it.” My informant said it
was too much for him; he had been obliged to give it up eight months
back; he had overstrained himself at it, and been obliged to lay up
for many months. “I am forty-five years of age,” he continued, “and
have as many as eight children. None of them bring me in a sixpence.
My eldest boy did, a little while back, but his master failed, and
he lost his situation. My wife made slop-shirts at a penny each, and
could not do more than three a-day. How we have lived through all my
illness, I cannot say. I occasionally get a little job, such as mending
the hats of my fellow-workmen: this would sometimes bring me in about
2_s._ in the week, and then the parish allowed four quartern loaves
of bread and 2_s._ 6_d._ a-week for myself, wife, and eight children.
Since I have overstrained myself, I have not done more than two days’
work altogether. Sometimes my mates would give me an odd seven tons
to do for them, for I was not able to manage more.” Such accidents as
overstraining are very common among the coalbackers. The labour of
carrying such a heavy weight from the ship’s hold is so excessive,
that after a man turns forty he is considered to be past his work, and
to be very liable to such accidents. It is usually reckoned that the
strongest men cannot last more than twenty years at the business.
Many of the heartiest of the men are knocked up through the bursting
of blood-vessels and other casualties, and even the strongest cannot
continue at the labour three days together. After the second day’s
work, they are obliged to hire some unemployed mate to do the work for
them. The coalbackers work in gangs of five men, consisting of two
shovel-men and three backers, and are employed to deliver the ship
by the wharfinger. Each gang is paid 11-1/4_d._ per ton, which is at
the rate of 2-1/4_d._ per ton for each of the five men. The gang will
do from thirty to forty tons in the course of the day. The length of
the day depends upon the amount of work to be done, according to the
wharfinger’s orders. The coalbackers are generally at work at five
o’clock in the morning, winter and summer. In the winter time, they
have to work by the light of large fires in hanging caldrons, which
they call bells. Their day’s work seldom ends before seven o’clock in
the evening. They are paid every night, and a man after a hard day’s
work will receive 6_s._ Strong, hearty men, who are able to follow up
the work, can earn from 25_s._ to 30_s._ per week. But the business
is a fluctuating one. In the summer time there is little or nothing
to do. The earnings during the slack season are about one half what
they are during the brisk. Upon an average, their earnings are 1_l._
a-week all the year round. The class of coalbackers is supposed to
consist of about 1500 men. They have no provident or benefit society.
Between seventeen and eighteen years ago, each gang used to have
1_s._ 0-1/2_d._ per ton, and about a twelvemonth afterwards it fell
to the present price of 11-1/4_d._ per ton. About six weeks back, the
merchants made an attempt to take off the odd farthing; the reason
assigned was the cheapness of provisions. They nearly carried it;
but the backers formed a committee among themselves, and opposed the
reduction so strongly that the idea was abandoned. The backers are
paid extra for sifting, at the rate of 2_d._ per sack. For this office
they usually employ a lad, paying him at the rate of 10_s._ per week.
Upon this they will usually clear from 2_s._ to 4_s._ per week. The
most injurious part of the backer’s work is carrying from the ship’s
hold. That is what they object to most of all, and consider they get
the worst paid for. They do a great injury to the coalwhippers, and
the backers say it would be as great a benefit to themselves as to the
coalwhippers, if the system was done away with. By bringing the ships
up alongside the wharf, the merchant saves the expense of whipping
and lightering, together with the cost of barges, &c. Many of the
backers are paid at the public-house; the wharfinger gives them a note
to receive their daily earnings of the publican, who has the money
from the merchant. Often the backers are kept waiting an hour at the
public-house for their money, and they have credit through the day
for any drink they may choose to call for. While waiting, they mostly
have two or three pots of beer before they are paid; and the drinking
once commenced, many of them return home drunk, with only half their
earnings in their pockets. There is scarcely a man among the whole
class of backers, but heartily wishes the system of payment at the
public-house may be entirely abolished. The coalbackers are mostly an
intemperate class of men. This arises chiefly from the extreme labour
and the over-exertion of the men, the violent perspiration and the
intense thirst produced thereby. Immediately a pause occurs in their
work, they fly to the public-house for beer. One coalbacker made a
regular habit of drinking sixteen half-pints of beer, with a pennyworth
of gin in each, before breakfast every morning. The sum spent in drink
by the ‘moderate’ men varies from 9_s._ to 12_s._ per week, and the
immoderate men on the average spend 15_s._ a-week. Hence, assuming the
class of coalbackers to be 2000 in number, and to spend only 10_s._
a-week in drink each man, the sum that would be annually expended in
malt liquors and spirits by the class would amount to no less than
52,000_l._ The wives and children of the coalbackers are generally
in great distress. Sometimes no more than one quarter of the men’s
earnings is taken home at night.
“When I was moderate inclined,” said one of them to me, “I used to have
a glass of rum the first thing when I came out of a morning, just to
keep the cold out--that might be as early as about five o’clock in the
morning, and about seven o’clock I should want half a pint of beer with
gin in it, or a pint without. After my work I should be warm, and feel
myself dry; then I should continue to work till breakfast-time; then
I should have another half pint with gin in it, and so I should keep
on through the day, having either some beer or gin every two hours. I
reckon that unless a man spent about 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ in drink,
he would not be able to continue his labour through the day. In the
evening, he is tired with his work, and being kept at the public-house
for his pay, he begins drinking there, and soon feels unwilling to
move, and he seldom does so until all his wages are gone.” My informant
tells me that he thinks the class would be much improved if the system
of paying the men at the public-house was done away, and the men paid
weekly instead of daily. The hard drinking he thinks a necessity of the
hard labour. He has heard, he says, of coalbackers being teetotalers,
but none were able to keep the pledge beyond two months. If they drink
water and coffee, it will rather increase than quench their thirst.
Nothing seems to quench the thirst of a hard-working man so well as ale.
“The only difference between the pay of the basketman and the whipper
is the 1-1/2_d._ in the pound which the former receives for carrying
the money from the captain of the ship to the clerk of the pay-office.
He has also for this sum to keep a correct account of the work done by
the men every day, and to find security for his honesty to the amount
of 10_l._ To obtain this, they usually pay 2_s._ 6_d._ a-year to the
Guarantee Society, and they prefer doing this to seeking the security
of some baker or publican in the neighbourhood, knowing that if they
did so, they would be expected to become customers of the parties.”
I now resume my inquiry whether stimulating drinks are necessary for
the performance of severe labour.
I have already published the statement of a coalbacker, who declared
that it was an absolute necessity of that kind of labour that the men
engaged in backing coals from the hold of a ship should, though earning
only 1_l._ per week, spend at least 12_s._ weekly in beer and spirits,
to stimulate them for their work. This sum, the man assured me, was
a moderate allowance, for 15_s._ was the amount ordinarily expended
by the men in drink every week. Now if this quantity of drink be a
necessity of the calling, it follows that the men pursuing the severest
labour of all--doing work that cripples the strongest in from twelve to
twenty years--are the worst paid of all labourers, their actual clear
gains being only from 5_s._ to 8_s._ per week. This struck me as being
so terrible a state of things that I could hardly believe it to be
true, though I was assured by several coalwhippers who were present on
the occasion, that the coalbacker who had made the statement had in no
way exaggerated the account of the sufferings of his fellow-workmen. I
determined, nevertheless, upon inquiring into the question myself, and
ascertaining, by the testimony and experience of different classes of
individuals engaged in this, the greatest labour, perhaps, performed by
any men, whether drink was really a necessity or luxury to the working
man.
Accordingly, I called a meeting of the coalwhippers, that I might
take their opinion on the subject, when I found that out of eighty
individuals only four were satisfied that fermented liquors could be
dispensed with by the labouring classes. I was, however, still far from
satisfied upon the subject, and I determined, as the question is one
of the greatest importance to the working men,--being more intimately
connected with their welfare, physical, intellectual, and moral,
than any other,--to give the subject my most patient and unbiassed
consideration. I was anxious, without advocating any opinion upon the
subject, to collect the sentiments of the coal labourers themselves;
and in order that I might do so as impartially as possible, I resolved
upon seeing--1st, such men as were convinced that stimulating liquors
were necessary to the labouring man in the performance of his work;
2ndly, such men as once thought differently, and, indeed, had once
taken the pledge to abstain from the use of all fermented liquors, but
had been induced to violate their vow in consequence of their health
having suffered; and 3rdly, such men as had taken the pledge and kept
it without any serious injury to their constitutions. To carry the
subject out with the fulness and impartiality that its importance
seemed to me to demand, I further determined to prosecute the inquiry
among both classes of coal labourers--the coalwhippers and coalbackers
as well. The result of these investigations I shall now subjoin. Let
me, however, in the first place, lay before the reader the following