A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, docker, wharfman, lumper or wharfie) is a waterfront manual laborer who loads and unloads .
As a result of the intermodal shipping container revolution, the required number of dockworkers has declined by over 90% since the 1960s.
Etymology
The word
stevedore () originated in
Portugal or
Spain, and entered the
English language through its use by
.
It started as a phonetic spelling of
estivador (Portuguese) or
estibador (
Spanish language), meaning
a man who loads ships and stows cargo, which was the original meaning of
stevedore (though there is a secondary meaning of "a man who stuffs" in Spanish); compare
Latin stīpāre meaning
to stuff, as in
to fill with stuffing. In Ancient and Modern Greek, the verb στοιβάζω (stivazo) means pile up.
In
Great Britain and
Ireland, people who load and unload ships are usually called
dockers; in
Australia, they are called
stevedores,
dockworkers or
wharfies; and, in the
United States and
Canada, the term
longshoreman, derived from
man-along-the-shore (or +
man), is used.
Before the extensive use of container ships and shore-based handling machinery in the United States,
longshoremen referred exclusively to the dockworkers, while
stevedores, part of a separate
trade union, worked on the ships operating their cranes and moving cargo.
History
Dockworkers, also known as longshoremen and stevedores, have existed since ancient times. The role of dockworkers has evolved significantly over the centuries as maritime trade has grown and modernized:
-
Ancient times: The Phoenicia, Greeks, and Roman people all relied on dockworkers to load and unload cargo from ships at port cities such as Carthage, Athens, and Ostia Antica.
-
Medieval period: In the Middle Ages, dockworkers played a crucial role in the trade networks of Europe. Hanseatic League, a powerful trading confederation in Northern Europe, employed dockworkers to handle goods at major ports like Lübeck and Bruges.
-
Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution brought Steamboat and Rail transport, leading to increased trade volumes and the need for more efficient handling of cargo. Dockworkers organized into unions to protect worker rights and improve working conditions, leading to the formation of organizations such as the International Longshoremen's Association in the United States.
-
Containerization: The latter 20th century saw the introduction of containerization, which revolutionized the shipping industry by standardizing how goods were transported, leading to faster turnaround times and increased efficiency. Dockworker use declined by 90%, with those remaining principally operating heavy machinery such as cranes.
Loading and unloading ships
Loading and unloading ships requires knowledge of the operation of loading equipment, the proper techniques for lifting and stowing
cargo, and the correct handling of hazardous materials. In addition, workers must be physically strong and able to follow orders attentively. Many longshoremen are needed to unload a ship. A ship can only be at a port for a limited amount of time, so their work must be completed quickly.
In earlier days before the introduction of containerization, men who loaded and unloaded ships had to tie down cargoes with rope. A type of stopper knot is called the stevedore knot. Securely tying up parcels of goods is called stevedore lashing or stevedore knotting. While loading a general cargo vessel, they use dunnage, which are pieces of wood (or nowadays sometimes strong inflatable ) set down to keep the cargo out of any water that might be lying in the hold or are placed as shims between cargo crates for load securing.
Today, the vast majority of non-bulk cargo is transported in intermodal containers.
Before containerization, freight was often handled with a longshoreman’s hook, a tool which became emblematic of the profession (mainly on the west coast of the United States and Canada).
Traditionally, stevedores had no fixed job but would arrive at the docks in the morning seeking employment for the day. London dockers called this practice standing on the stones,[Standing on the Stones BFI Film and TV Database, London Dockers (1964)] while in the United States, it was referred to as shaping up or assembling for the shape-up.[
]
Dock workers have been a prominent part of the modern labor movement.
Hong Kong – 2005">
File:Hong Kong 2005 auf Reede, zwei Bargen mit Kränen an Backbord fest.jpg|At anchor, two barges with cranes (floating derricks) at port
File:Ein Container wird von Deck gehievt.jpg|A container is lifted from the deck.
File:Hafenarbeiter bei ihrer gefährlichen Arbeit auf den Containern in der Luke.jpg|Dockworkers on the containers in the ship's hatch
File:Starker Gezeitenstrom, Ladungsarbeiten bei schwierigen Arbeitsbedingungen.jpg|Strong tidal current, loading work in adverse conditions
Notable dockworkers
Former stevedores and dockworkers include:
-
Crispus Attucks – American patriot
-
Harry Bridges – founder of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
-
Joey Coyle – basis for the movie Money for Nothing
-
Jack Dash – British dock workers' trade union leader
-
Peter Fraser – Prime Minister of New Zealand (1940–1949)
-
Danny Greene – American mobster
-
Eric Hoffer – philosopher and social critic
-
Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy – American businessman and grandfather of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy
-
Keith William Richards – Actor
-
Artie Lange – actor and comedian
-
Tom Mann – British trade unionist and organizer of the London Dock Strike of 1889
-
Peter MacKay – Canadian former government minister and conservative party leader (a stevedore for two summers while a teenager)
-
Bruce Nelson – labor historian, author of Workers on the Waterfront
-
Benito Quinquela Martín – painter from Buenos Aires, Argentina. His works reflect the work at the docks in La Boca, a portuary district of Buenos Aires.
-
Stan Weir – blue-collar intellectual and sociologist, founder of Singlejack Press
In popular culture
-
In 1949, reporter Malcolm Johnson was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for a 24-part investigative series titled Crime on the Waterfront, published in the New York Sun.
-
The material from Malcolm Johnson's investigative series was fictionalized and used as a basis for the influential film On the Waterfront (1954), starring Marlon Brando as a longshoreman, and the working conditions on the docks figure significantly in the film's plot. On the Waterfront was a critical and commercial success that received twelve Academy Awards nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint, and Best Director for Elia Kazan. The American Film Institute ranked it the 8th-greatest American movie of all time in 1997 and 19th in 2007.
-
Playwright Arthur Miller was involved in the early stages of the development of On the Waterfront; his play A View from the Bridge (1955) also deals with the troubled life of a longshoreman.
-
In season 2 of the HBO series The Wire, which first aired in 2003, the Stevedore Union and its members working in Baltimore, particularly Frank Sobotka, figure prominently in the second season's story.
-
The 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V features a character, Floyd Hebert, who works as a longshoreman at the city port. One of the main characters, Trevor Philips, uses Floyd's job to prepare a cargo ship robbery during the game's storyline.
See also
-
1913 Sligo Dock strike
-
Admiralty law
-
Battle of Ballantyne Pier (Canada)
-
Dockers Union (disambiguation)
-
Dunnage
-
Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union
-
History of Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh longshoremen, 1863–1963
-
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (United States)
-
Liverpool dockers' strike (1995–98) (UK)
-
Mersey Docks and Harbour Company
-
Mudlark
-
National Union of Dock Labourers
-
Scottish Union of Dock Labourers
-
Teamster
-
Weeks Marine
-
2024 United States port strike
Further reading
-
Callebert, Ralph (2017). On Durban's Docks: Zulu Workers, Rural Households, Global Labor. University of Rochester Press.
External links
