What is the difference between a waterman and lighterman?
The Lightermen (who carry goods and cargo, as opposed to watermen, who carry passengers) joined the Company in 1700.
What is a waterman on the Thames?
A waterman is a river worker who transfers passengers across and along city centre rivers and estuaries in the United Kingdom and its colonies.
What is an English lighterman?
lighterman in British English (ˈlaɪtəmən ) nounWord forms: plural -men. a man who operates a lighter or barge.
What is a Thames lighterman?
Ships anchored in the middle of the Thames or near bridge arches transferred their goods aboard or in respect of a few exports from lighters. Lightermen rode the river’s currents — westward, when the tide was coming in, eastward on the ebb tide — to transfer the goods to quay-sides.
What are the boats called on the River Thames?
A Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the River Thames in London. The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught and leeboards, were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and narrow tributary rivers.
What did a lighterman do?
Lightermen transfer goods between ships and quays (including wharves, jetties and piers) – they specifically loaded (originally ‘laded’) and unloaded (‘alighted’) the ships.
How did people cross the Thames before bridges?
It was easier to take a ferry, or a wherry rowed by a waterman. The Thames was London’s highway. After the old Roman roads decayed, goods were thereafter transported by pack-horse. Personal travel was undertaken on horseback or on foot until the mid-18th century.
What was a Thames Lighterman?
Lightermen rode the river’s currents — westward, when the tide was coming in, eastward on the ebb tide — to transfer the goods to quay-sides. They also transferred goods up and down the river from quays to riverside factories and vice versa.
What kind of boat is a lighter?
flat-bottomed barge
A lighter is a type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships.
What job was a lighterman?
What job did a lighterman do?
