ABSTRACT
The coalheavers, properly so called, are now no longer known in the trade. The class of coalheavers, according to the vulgar acceptation of the word, is divided into coalwhippers, or those who whip up or lift the coals rapidly from the hold-and the coalbackers. or those who carry them on their backs to the wharf. either from the hold of the ship moored alongside the wharf, or from the lighter into which the coals have been whipped from the collier moored in the middle of the river or "Pool." Formerly the coals were delivered from the holds of the ships by the labourers shovelling them on to a series of stages, raised one above the other, till they ultimately reached the deck. One or two men were on each stage, and hove the coals up to the stage immediately above them. The labourers engaged in this process were termed coalheavers. But now the coals are delivered at once from the hold, by means of a sudden jerk, which whips them on deck. This is the process of coalwhipping, and it is performed chiefly in the middle of the river, to fill the "rooms" of the barges that carry the coals from the ship to the wharf. Coals are occasionally delivered immediately from the ship on to the wharf, by means of the process of coal-backing, as it is called. This consists in the sacks being filled in the hold, and then carried on the men's backs up a ladder from the hold, and along planks from the ship to the wharf. By this means, it will be easily understood that the ordinary processes of whipping and lightering are avoided. By the process of coal-whipping the ship is delivered in the middle of the river, or the Pool, as it is called; and the coals are lightered, or carried to the wharf, by means of barges, whence they are transported to the wharf by the process of backing. But when the coals are backed out of the ship itself on to the wharf, the two preliminary processes are done away with. The ship is moored along side, and
the coals are delivered directly from the ships to the premises of the wharfinger. By this means the wharfingers or coal merchants below bridge are enabled to have their coals delivered at a cheaper price than those above bridge, who must receive the cargoes by means of the barges. I am assured that the colliers, in being moored along side the wharfs, receive considerable damage and strain their timbers severely, from the swell of the steam-boats passing to and fro. Again the process of coal-backing appears to be of so extremely laborious a nature, that the health and indeed the lives of the men are both greatly injured by it. Moreover, the benefit remains solely with the merchant, and not with the consumer, for the price of the coals delivered below bridge is the same as those delivered above. The expense of delivering the ship is always borne by the ship-owner. This is at present 8d. per ton. and was originally intended to be given to the whippers. But the merchant, by the process of backing, has discovered the means of avoiding this process, and so he puts the money, which was originally paid by the ship-owner for whipping the coals, into his own pocket. For the consumer is not a commensurate gainer. Since the merchant below bridge charges the same price to the public for his coals as the merchant above, it is clear that he alone is benefited at the expense of the public, the coal-whippers. and even the coal-backers themselves; for on inquiry among this latter class, I find that they object as much as the whippers to the delivery of a ship from the hold-the mounting of the ladder from the hold being of a most laborious and injurious nature. I have been supplied by a gentleman who is intimately acquainted with the expenses of the two processes with the following comparative account:-
For whipping 360 tons, at 8d. per ton ................................. £12 0 0 Lighterman's wages for one week engaged in lightering the
said 360 tons from ship to wharf .. .. ...... ............. ........ ..... I 10 0 Expenses of backing the said coals from craft to wharf, at
11-l-d. per ton .............................................................. 16 17 6
£30 7 6
For backing a ship of 360 tons directly from the ship to the wharf ........................................................................ £16 17 6
By the above account it will be seen that if a collier of 360 tons
is delivered in the Pool, the expense is £30 7s. 6d. But if delivered at the wharf-side, the expense is £16 17s. 6d.-the difference between the two processes being £13 lOs. Hence, if the consumer were the gainer, the coals should be delivered below bridge 9d. a ton cheaper than they are above bridge. The nine coalwhippers ordinarily engaged in the whipping of the coals would have gained £1 6s. 8d. each man if they had not been "backed" out of the ship. But as the coals delivered by backing below bridge are not cheaper, and the whippers have not received any money, it follows that the £12 which has been paid by the ship-owner to the merchant for the expense of whipping has been pocketed by the merchant, and the expense of lightering, £1 lOs., saved by him, making a total profit of £13 IOs.-not to mention the cost of wear and tear, and interest of capital sunk in barges. This sum of money is made at the expense of the coal-backers themselves, who are seldom able to continue the labour (so extreme is it) for more than twenty years at the outside, the average duration of the labourers being only twelve years. After this period the men, from having been overstrained by their violent exertion, are unable to pursue any other calling; and yet the merchants, I am sorry to say, have not even "encouraged" them to form either a benefit society, a superannuation fund, or a school for their children.
