These are men engaged by the Trinity Company to carry the ballast in
the company’s barges and lighters from the steam dredging-engines to
the ship’s side. The corporation has fifty-two lighters and fourteen
barges, all sixty-ton craft. Each lighter carries four men, and there
are two men in each barge; so that altogether 108 lightermen and 28
bargemen are employed in bringing the ballast from the engines. These
men are not required to have a license from the Waterman’s Company,
like other lightermen and bargemen on the Thames, and that is one of
the reasons for my dealing with them at present. They form a class of
labourers by themselves, and I treat of them here because it appears
the fittest place for a statement of their condition and earnings.
Besides the lightermen and bargemen engaged in carrying the ballast
from the steam dredging-machines, there are others employed on board
what are called the working-lighters; these are vessels in which
ballast is got up from the bed of the river by muscular labour. There
are ten of these working-lighters, and six men engaged in each, or in
all sixty men employed in raising ballast by such means. There are
three steam dredging-engines employing each eight men, or twenty-four
in all; so that there are altogether 220 labouring men engaged in the
ballast service of the Trinity Company. Each of the carrying lighters
has a staffsman or master and three men. The lighters all carry sixty
tons of ballast, and make upon an average between three and four
voyages a-week, or about seven in the fortnight. There is no place of
deposit for the ballast brought up the river from the engines; it is
left in the lighter until required. The ballast chiefly consists of
gravel; indeed the ships will mostly refuse anything else. When there
is a plentiful supply of ballast they will refuse clay in particular.
Clayey ballast is what is termed bad ballast. Upon an average there
are thirty loads, or 1800 tons of ballast, brought up by the lighters
every day from the engines. In the course of the year there are between
550,000 and 600,000 tons of ballast supplied by the three steam
dredging-machines. “It is about three-and-twenty years since the steam
dredging-engine first came out,” said the party who gave me the above
information. “For the last twenty years I should think the company have
been raising about 500,000 tons of gravel from the bed of the river.
Thirty years ago I thought the ballast would soon be out, but there
appears to be little or no difference; and yet the shoals do not fill
up again after being once taken away. In Barking Reach I am sure there
is six feet more water now than there was thirty years ago; there was
at that time a large shoal in that part of the river, called Barking
Shelf; it was certainly a mile long and half a mile wide. The vessels
would ground upon it long before low water. At some tides it used to
strip dry, and at low tide generally there was about six foot of water
over it. That part of the river is now the deepest about Barking,
and as deep as the best of places in the Thames. When I first came
to London we were prevented from getting the ballast from anywhere
else than Barking, on account of the great shoals there; but now the
great ballast-bed is between four and five miles lower down. The river
has been very nearly cleared of shoals by the dredging-engines, from
Limehouse Reach to the bottom of Half Reach. The only shoal in the way
of the navigation below the Pool is what is called Woolwich Shelf:
there is indeed another shoal, but this consists of stiff clay or
conglomerate, and the engines cannot work through it.” The men on board
the carrying-lighters are paid 5_d._ a-ton for bringing the ballast
from the dredging-engines to the ships; this is equally divided among
the four men. The staffsman, in addition to his fourth share, receives
10_l._ a-year for his extra duties; but out of this he has to buy oars
for the boat and lighter, locks, fenders, and shovels. Upon an average
the cost of these will be about 30_s._ a-year. Each man’s share of the
sixty-ton load is 6_s._ 3_d._; and there are about seven loads brought
up by each lighter in the fortnight. Some weeks the men can earn as
much as 37_s._, but at others they cannot get more than 12_s._ 6_d._
“I did myself only two load last week,” said my informant. “When there
is little or no ‘vent,’ as we call it, for the ballast--that is, but a
slight demand for it--we have but little work. Upon an average, each
lighterman makes from 21_s._ to 22_s._ a-week. At the time of the
strike among the pitmen in the North, the lightermen, generally, only
did about two load a-week throughout the year; but then the following
year we had as much as we could do. The Trinity Company, whom I serve,
and have served for thirty years, are excellent masters to us when
we are sick or well. The corporation of the Trinity House allow the
married lightermen in their service 10_s._ and the single ones 7_s._
6_d._ a-week, as long as they are ill. I have known the allowance
given to men for two years, and for this we pay nothing to any benefit
society or provident fund. If we belong to any such society we have
our sick money from them independent of that. The superannuation money
is now 6_l._ a-year; but I understand,” continued the man, “that the
company intend increasing it next Tuesday. Some of the old men were
ordered up to the house a little while ago, and were asked what they
could live comfortably upon, and one of the gentlemen there promised
them that no more of us should go to the workhouse. They do not provide
any school for our children; a great many of the lightermen neither
read nor write. I never heard any talk of the company erecting
a school, either for the instruction of their men or their men’s
families. All I can say is, that in all my dealings with the Trinity
Corporation I have found them very kind and considerate masters. They
are always ready to listen to the men, and they have hospitals for the
sick in their employ and midwives for the wives of the labourers; and
they bury, free of expense, most of the men that die in their service.
To the widows of their deceased servants they allow 6_l._ a-year;
and if there be any children, they give 2_s._ a-month to each under
fourteen years old. I never knew them to reduce the lightermen’s wages;
they have rather increased than lowered them. After the introduction
of the steam-dredging machines we were better off than we were before.
Previous to that time the lightermen were getters as well, and then the
labour was so hard that the expenses of the men for living were more
than they are now.”
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