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Memories of Working on the River Thames by Tony Down – Part Four
Tony recalls the time when barges became a regular sight going up and down the Thames with waste for Mucking Marshes which was a major landfill site servicing London, it was one of the largest landfills in Western Europe and had been filled for decades with waste.
Tony found working on the river was hard work but not without its lighter moments especially if the police were involved. However, Tony was not laughing too much when he was making his way under London Bridge, the taking down of old London Bridge and the building of a new London Bridge in the 1960s and 1970s caused a certain amount of disruption on the river and caused particular problems to the tugs with heavy barges.
Recruit, Touchstone, Swiftstone, were tugs that I worked on during the 60-70s, then I was bosun at Feathers Rubbish Wharf in Wandsworth for 6 yrs loading rubbish, sheeting up and moving 200 – tonne barges at high water that were then towed down the Thames to Mucking for discharging on the marshes. The marshes were owned by a firm called Surridge, who I was told purchased the Mucking marshes in Victorian times for £25 an acre then allowed London’s rubbish to be dumped there at a cost of course. I believe they also had barges that transported rubbish to the Medway as well as bringing bricks back from the brick works in the Medway to London.
One day, all of a sudden, a number of police cars with bells clanging (this shows my age!!) came flying up the wharf and there were police everywhere. It turned out that a prisoner had escaped from Wandsworth prison in the back of a rubbish lorry. The lorry had already tipped its 6 tonne load into the pits. They stopped the crane grabbing anymore rubbish out of the pit and then a mini–bus arrived full of more police and cadets who proceeded with rakes to get in the pit and sift through and turn over the smelly rubbish. The lorry had been to Roehampton Limb Centre first and loaded unwanted old false limbs before its last pickup at the prison, every time they came across an arm or leg they thought they had found the prisoner. We stood there laughing, even more so when we found out that the prisoner had jumped out of the lorry as it came into the wharf picked up an old mac, stole a dustman’s bike and ridden off into the sunset so to speak.
I was holiday relief on many of Cory’s Tugs, the Regard which was the jetty tug at the Albert Dock towing loaded coal barges across the river to the barge roads on the south side. Now and again we would tow a barge loaded with ripe bananas from the ship in the Victoria dock. If some of the banana’s were ripe when unloading they were no good for market so around 20 to 30 tonnes were dumped in our barge and towed to land-fill at Mucking with our other rubbish craft. Not liking waste, we often used to all take a stalk of bananas home.
One day on the way home in my little 1935 Austin Seven Ruby saloon, our skipper Tom was in the back with 3-4 stalks of bananas sitting beside him. We were pulled over by a policeman in Shooters Hill Rd (in those days policemen could safely step in the road put one hand up to stop you). Tom, the skipper had just lit up his stinking pipe so when I wound my window down and the copper popped his head in to ask where we had been, all he got was a great cloud of Toms smoke wafting in his face. He quickly spluttered “ OK on your way “. When we looked round at Tom in the back he was sitting there with a big smile and his Trilby hat perched on a stalk of bananas, technically we were in fact stealing even though they were being dumped.
In the 1970s, the old London Bridge was being dismantled and the contractors sheet piled caissons around the old arch abutments which narrowed the gap that we had to tow through, making it much smaller coming down on the spring ebb tide. With six 200 ton barges behind us, it was very challenging, we would put lighterman and spare breast ropes out on the barges as we approached the bridge .
As you came through the arch, the water would drop like a step and spit you out like a cork out of a bottle. Once committed there was no turning back, no brakes !!! Breast ropes would snap and for a few seconds you had no control and all you could do is hang on, miss the Belfast and shape up for Tower Bridge. Once you got through, everyone would breathe a sigh of relief, you would get your hands back on the tug and carry on down river. We all generally agreed that going through London Bridge was more than enough excitement for one day.
Memories of Working on the River Thames by Tony Down – Part Three
Billdora- Apprentice Tony Down and skipper Con Andrews (C)Tony Down
In part three of his memories of working on the Thames, Tony is still an apprentice finding work in the Royal Docks where he helps to rescue a lighterman from the water. This incident was a reminder that working on the river and docks had its own particular dangers, but nothing could prepare Tony for the tragic news that the Hawkstone had sunk and his master and the crew were missing.
In September 1957, I was sent to Royal docks as boy on Billdora with skipper Mr Connie Andrews. This was a very busy time in the Royals and the Albert Dock basin which were always full of craft first thing in the mornings after they were locked in the night before, we had to go in there and sort out the craft we wanted to tow to the various ships in the docks.
Royal Victoria Dock 1950s
One cold and frosty morning because the tug was so small and low, we had a job to see the names of the barges. We were in the middle of all the craft when we heard a shout and there was a lighterman half in the water holding on to his forward rope after slipping over the side and he was glad to see us because nobody else could see him dangling there between all the other barges. We got him aboard, took him ashore to the PLA office because they had a fire in there and he was very cold and wet (in those days you were supposed to go to hospital to be pumped out if you fell in but I don’t know if he went) .
Sometimes we would tow 16 to 18 empty craft to ships in every corner of the docks. I worked there until I was laid off in December 1957. Through lack of work for freeman, apprentices were laid off until things picked up, we could not sign on the lighterage pool or the dole, so during these periods I would ring round other firms to seek work, if I had no joy I would go away on Dick’s tug, the Hawkstone for a 24hr shift to learn my work.
I phoned Dick on the 24th Feb 1958 and asked him if I could join the tug next day, however I blew in!! a term used when you get up late and missed the tug. At 6am when I got there she had gone, as I was already in Erith, I went into the local ‘Cosmo’ Cafe and heard that a Waterman firm called Plume and McKee were looking for a boy to crew one of their small motor-boats they used for mooring ships on buoys and wharfs in the area.
I met the two gentlemen, Mr Wally Plume and Mr Ernie McKee in The Cross Keys Pub who told me to come back the next day for an interview. Next day I went for the interview and got the job and went back to the ‘Cosmo’ Cafe for a cuppa. However when I walked in I saw the Hawkstone crew who should have relieved Dicks crew that morning all looking very glum and upset. I asked them what was up ! they then said that Hawkstone had sunk and the crew were missing. I blindly rushed round to Cory Tank offices to enquire what had happened but was politely and firmly told to go away as all the families were arriving to be informed of the sad news. The days that followed for me were a bit of a blur, yes I had got a job, but very sadly had lost my master and I should have been there!! it was a hard time and I had a strange feeling of guilt for a long time afterwards.
I started work for Plume & McKee Waterman mooring up ships on buoys, piloting up Dartford creek, Fords Jetty and Ballast Wharf, running crews ashore off ships on the buoys in the evenings this was called attendance, then taking them back at the end of the evening sometimes drunk or very merry.
I had to get the officer of the watch on a Russian ship to sign to confirm I had picked them all up and got them safely back on board. While I was waiting he insisted I had a little drink this consisted of a rather large tumbler of vodka which took my breath away, I couldn’t speak, he then insisted I had another and down it in one go. I didn’t drink a lot in those days and if I did it certainly wasn’t vodka, well it’s a good job this was my last attendance that night because I didn’t wake up till next morning still on the ship. Mr Plume, my guvnor fortunately thought it was very funny, but my head didn’t !
I did all sorts of jobs involved in waterman’s work making fenders for the boats, splicing ropes, running Pilots from Fords and other wharfs back to Erith so they could get a train back to Gravesend for another job. On one occasion I was sitting astride a mooring buoy fixing another shackle to the ring when one of the crew on the ship tightened the mooring wire and then let it go again giving me a dunking in the process, needless to say, I had a few choice words for him.
In November 1958, I was due to go to Waterman’s Hall to apply for my 2 year Licence, at Waterman’s Hall you go before the court and the members which in those days consisted of owners of lighterage and waterman firms questioning you about all the firms you had being working for over the first 2 yrs of my apprenticeship. I was standing with my back to a roaring fire and getting very hot under the collar while they all questioned me about the firms and the type of work that I had done during my 2 years . Thankfully they stopped, looked at the Master, all nodded in agreement and granted me my licence. They knew that I had sadly lost my master so the court allowed his wife Mrs Jean Knight to continue with the remainder of my time unexpired on the condition of the indentures. I was very proud and relieved to pass not only for myself but for Mrs Knight who had bravely agreed to do this only months after losing her husband. Three years later I got my freedom, a Fully licensed Lighterman Waterman and Freeman of the River Thames, something that makes me very proud even to this present day.
Isle of Dogs Life 