The men who loaded the ships were the stevedores. The term stevedore comes from the Spanish ‘estivador’, meaning to stow a cargo. Loading a ship demanded special skills. Cargo had to be placed carefully in the hold to make sure that the ship did not become unbalanced and capsize. Also, it had to be loaded in the right order for when the ship unloaded at different ports.
However, the loading of ships was regarded as too important to be left to the dock companies, and in London the stevedores were hired directly by ship-owners or their agents.
The stevedores were thus the only dockworkers not employed by the dock companies.
Together with their higher earnings and more regular work, this reinforced their sense of being the aristocracy of the dockworkers. A gang of stevedores would normally be led by a Master Stevedore who would make sure that goods were correctly loaded and unloaded as quickly as possible.
Stevedores loading general cargo in a tween deck hold of the Tabaristan (1969). © NMM
