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Thought some of you might be interested in this, just typed it up from an old newspaper cutting (1930?) to send to 'new' cousin :)
" William Fishlock ( William E Fishlock my gt grandfather), his father before him (William J); and a fine well set-up man,his son,make three generations of licensed lightermen of the City of London. As a boy of 6, William often went trips on the barge 'Edith' of which his father was a skipper and he keenly remembers one voyage from Brentford to Sea Reach (nr Southend) for sand or gravel. They got down alright and when the tide had ebbed away and left them high and dry on the Bligh sand they loaded up, which has to be done by hand and shovel and is pretty hard work.
As sometimes happens, when the tide turned and the flood began to make, the wind freshened up, until by the time she was again afloat , it was blowing hard westerly and before long there was a whole gale meeting them. The skipper had his wife , daughter and young son on board and for safety sent them all below, afterwards battening everything down and locking them in. Those who have used the river know what such a gale and a strong flood tide means, and how nasty a sea can get up under those conditions, especially when a sand laden barge has to beat up to windward through it, which, however, this one did and in the end brought up off Gravesend, where there was a little shelter.
It can be guessed how the poor women folk below felt about it ,and as to the boy William Fishlock says that was the last time in his life he ever kept below deck in bad weather, preffering to take his chance on deck whatever happened.
In time and as he grew up, he kept on the river and later found himself mate and then skipper of different barges the "Lydia", "New John" and "Oliver" all about 70 tons and smaller then than now and all under sail. In those days barges were never towed; they sailed everywhere, and he recalls how it was a common sight to see a fleet of 20 or 30 of them outside Brentford and if the wind was (....erly?) or otherwise ahead, have to (.....?) practically the whole way to (...?) a distance of 50 miles at the least.
One experience that has possibly never happened to any other man. It occured later on, about middle life when it chanced that a barge he was master of, with another man as mate, was towing down the river. It was at the time when Cannon street railway bridge was building, and the craft he was on was a tank to hold liquids, having a cargo from brentford gas works and being three quarters full, everything was strongly battened down.
As they were passing through an archway of the bridge, a sudden set of tide threw her up against one of the piers, this impact caused her to heel over, which in turn made her liquid cargo surge heavily and started a roll which made her turn turtle completely and come up on the other side. Strangely the rolling motion once started, continued and again she turned turtle, again coming up on the other side. The mate, who had been forward, had jumped overboard and swum clear, but W Fishlock who was aft, had clung to a rope fixed to the craft's sidee, which steadied the tiller,and he of course went round and under water with the ship. Finally she again floated on an even keel and he was rescued as quickly as possible though at the "far end" , and into an ambulance and hurried off to hospital where he had to spend a month before getting right again after his narrow squeak.
When Thorneycrofts were busy building T.B.D. there was at launching times a great deal of traffic on the river, and there were always many Admiralty people about on their 'lawful occasions', it fell to W.Fishlock's lot to especially attend to these and to take them about in his small rowing boat wherever they wished to go. On such occasions a good deal of paint and varnish would be expended to smarten up his boat.
A lighterman's life is not an easy matter as far as working hours go and that it is a dangerous calling goes without saying. In the end that was the undoing of W.Fishlock , as in February last he tripped over the coaming of the hold and seriously damaged his knee, which at the age of 72 has but little chance of getting well. "
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That made interesting reading, Rose.
The men on my paternal grandmother's side (Tagg) were Thames Watermen & Lightermen, some being boatbuilders too, they lived and worked around the Kingston area - Thames Ditton, East Molesey, Taggs Island etc.
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Hi Karen, the Fishlocks were all from Chiswick , Isleworth area . I know East Molesey from when my brother had a flat overlooking the river there when he worked for Thames tv lol.
I love the river and when i was down in London last month stood and imagined ancestors going up and down . Nipped in to the lightermans guildhall and had a quick look at records, but needed a lot more time to go through them properly...next time!
Rose xx
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Hi RR - super article, what a wonderful piece of history - was original in local paper?
Pleased you have found another 'new cousin' - are they direct line?
J*
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Hi J* have Pmd you, but yes it was a local paper...I must find it again , took this from a copy I made, but want to look at reverse .
xx
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Thank you for that Rose..... one of OH's ancestors William Moore b. 1833 was shown on the 1881 census as a lighterman and living in Deptford.....
I was ignorant as to the work lightermen did, but I understood that they worked barges to take off goods from ships in the Thames to shore.......to lighten the load.......therefore lighter-men......
Most of OH's direct ancestors, and distant family members worked in the East End and along the Thames......the river being their main source of livelihood........they were Coopers, boilermakers making the steam boilers for steamships.......and generally anything to do with the sea....... it has all gone now.......now we have posh flats and docklands and Canary Wharf ......how times change....
sally
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