London dockers’ slang
When the docks left the East End they took with them a way of life and an economic base that had underpinned Wapping, Shadwell and the rest of the Tower Hamlets for 150 years and more. But along with them they took a whole language that had sprung up around ships, cargoes and the dirty, dangerous and uncertain work that serviced them.
The East and West India Docks, the Millwall and St Katharines, Blackwall, the Royals, and the Surrey Docks on the Rotherhithe bank are all history now – with large parts of the land and buildings taken over by premium-priced housing. But much of the arcane and colourful language that sprang up around the quaysides in the 19th and 20th century is with us still.
Tom Ash* started work in the Surrey Docks in 1960, and soon found it was a hard way to earn a living. ‘Bomping on money’ was just 13/- a day (65p). Bomping money was paid to dockers if they hadn’t got a job for the day – nobody was guaranteed a day’s work of course. If there was no work he’d have to go to the ‘Pool’ and get his work book stamped (or bomped). Better than the old days of waiting behind ‘the chain’ to be called forward to work or sent home with nothing, but an uncertain wage nonetheless.
The days of the chain had in turn been replaced by those of the ‘brass tally men’. Before the Dock Labour Scheme was created in 1946, bringing with it at least some guarantee of pay, the dockers were each given a brass tally, oval in shape. They would hand this in when given a job for the day, and collect it again when given their pay. If they didn’t get a day’s work they would have to sign on at the local Labour Exchange, bearing their brass tally as proof.
Even with those days gone, the dockers would still refer to a day’s work as ‘tallying’. And they would still gather each morning at the dock gates, ‘shaping up’ for work. And if you were the only person ‘on a call’ who hadn’t been taken on for work, you would be ‘left roasting’ at the gates.
For the rest, the day’s started. Each hold would have a ‘top man’ controlling the direction of the crane for the cranedriver. Right palm downward with an up-and-down movement would signify lower; touching the top of his head would have the jib raised; a clenched fist would stop the crane. The top man would shout ‘muggo’ when it was time for a tea break.
There would be extra money for different types of work. ‘Dirty money’ was the extra dockers would be paid for unloading particularly filthy cargoes, and ‘snow banging’ carried a premium too. When working in the cold storage depots or ‘cold pots’, men would be employed to bang the ice from the refrigeration pipes. Think about that next time you moan about defrosting the fridge.
For as long as there had been docks, there had been pilfering, and security was taken care of the dock policemen or ‘beadles’, which conjures up images of Dickensian London.
And there would be strikes of course. Any union member could call for a ‘show of cards’, and a manual count would be taken of the union cards held in the air. ‘White ticket’ holders, (members of the TGWU) would take precedence over those with ‘Blue tickets’ (the Stevedores Union). All this was to end with the abolition of the Dock Labour Scheme in 1989. Within a year the number of dockers fell from 9,221 to fewer than 4,000. A way of life – and a language – that had long been dying was finished off.
Childhood Days – the docks and dock slang, written and published by Thomas William Ash, ISBN 0952318407
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Some more dock slang
Beach comber
Day worker employed to keep the quays clear of broken pallets and other debris
Ceiling of a ship
Actually the floor of the vessel. When the dockers were unloading they would cry “I can see the ceiling” meaning the floor was in sight and the job was nearly done
The drink
Not refreshments, but the Thames itself. As in “he’s fallen in the drink”, very dangerous with the undercurrents swirling around the massive hulls of docked vessels
The Queen’s holiday
Dockers always got a day off work in honour of the Queen’s birthday
Ice cream man
The rat catcher, so called because he wore a white coat
Mud pilots
Tugs that brought ships in
Toke
Food
Dolly bags
Silk stocking carried by men in the tea warehouses for secreting tea inside their trousers
Light horsemen
Those who stole from barges or ships
Huffling
Steering a barge with an oar