Vessels

Huge quantities of cargo were transferred direct from ships to lighters, or barges, handled by Thames Lightermen, either ‘under oars’, on the tide, or towed by tug.

Watermen were also employed in great numbers to row people, goods and equipment around the port in boats known as wherries and skiffs. Upriver, rowing boats and punts were also used for recreational purposes.

When collecting began in 1979, it was clear that some traditional Thames vessels still survived in sufficient numbers to enable a reasonably representative collection to be acquired. This now includes:

• PLA watermen’s skiff, around 1920-1930. This traditional built clinker vessel was constructed by boat-builders at William Cory’s Bargeyard, Charlton. This skiff was used by the PLA Marine Department as a wreck marker and as a salvage support vessel. She is painted overall in a distinctive signal green, the traditional colour for wreck marking boats;
• West India Dock skiff, the Thames of 1934. Of a lighter build than the PLA skiff, this boat was owned by Alf Gobbett, a Blackwall waterman, and was used in the West India Docks to help pilot ships to their berths and to bring mooring cables ashore;
• Gravesend Regatta skiff, built around 1954, this is now the oldest surviving of a number built at Gravesend since the war to help revive the once widespread regatta races between Thames watermen;
• Hammerton’s Ferry skiff, the Pax, thought to have been originally built around 1900. This large clinker built skiff, which could carry twelve passengers, belonged to the famous Twickenham watermen, Walter Hammerton, who won a long legal battle against the Dysart family, in 1915, to operate his ferry between Ham House and Marble Hill;
• Double sculling pleasure skiff, the Jilanjon, which was built in the 1880s, probably by Messum of Richmond, and ended her working life in the 1960s as both hire boat and waterman’s skiff, serving Eel Pie Island;
• Upriver pleasure punt, built at Eel Pie Island around 1920;
  Victorian clinker built single sculling shell, though to have been used on a boating lake at Barking and on the river Thames.
• Ship’s lifeboat, said to have been built at a London yard around 1920. This vessel ended her working life belonging to a Romford family, who used it for fishing in the lower estuary;
• Wey Barge Perseverance IV, built by William Steven’s at Dapdune Wharf, Guildford, in 1935. This vessel carried grain and general cargoes between the River Wey and the West India and Royal Docks until 1970s. This vessel represents the last of the centuries-old ‘west-country’ Thames barges to be built;
• PLA maintenance punt, built of riveted iron by Jones, of Brentford, around 1960. This small vessel was used to help maintain the river banks in the area between Kew and Teddington Lock;
•  Launch tug Varlet built for the London lighterage company William Vokins, in 1937, by James Pollock of Faversham. This splendid little craft operated as a craft towing tug in the West India Docks, the Royal Docks and on the River Lea;
• The ex-steam tug Knocker White, originally built as the Cairnrock for the London towing company Harrisons. This very classic Thames tug later came into the possession of the White family, of Rotherhithe, and was converted to diesel engine propulsion in 1960. She came out of service around 1984, after a 60 year working life.

With the exception of the racing shell and the Knocker White, all of above vessels have been fully restored.

In addition to these vessels there is a very large collection of associated items including oars, barge sweeps and waterman’s prize seatbacks and silver arm badges.

Also in the collection is the captain’s cabin from the Thames sailing barge Alice May built in 1899, together with a range of equipment from the dumb barges, including cabin stoves and fittings, and deck pumps etc.

One rare item is mahogany toilet cabinet containing wash-basin, slop-bucket, mirror and drinking glasses, - from a cabin on a passenger vessel.