Dockworker Explained

A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, or docker) is a waterfront manual laborer who loads and unloads ships.[1]

As a result of the intermodal shipping container revolution, the required number of dockworkers declined by over 90% since the 1960s.[2]

Etymology

The word stevedore originated in Portugal or Spain, and entered the English language through its use by sailors.[3] It started as a phonetic spelling of estivador (Portuguese) or estibador (Spanish), 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 (stevazo) means pile up.[4] [5] 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, is used.[6] 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:

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 successfully. 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 dunnage bags) 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.[16] The containers arrive at a port by truck, rail, or another ship and are stacked in the port's storage area. When the vessel that will be transporting them arrives, the containers it is offloading are unloaded by a crane. The containers either leave the port by truck or rail or are stored until they are placed on another ship. Once the ship is offloaded, the containers it leaves with are brought to the dock by truck. A crane lifts the containers from the trucks onto the ship. As the containers pile up on the ship, the workers connect them to the vessel and the other already-placed containers. The jobs involved include the crane operators, the workers who connect the containers to the ship and each other, the truck drivers who transport the containers from the dock and storage area, the workers who track the containers in the storage area as they are loaded and unloaded, as well as various supervisors. Those workers at the port who handle and move the containers are likely to be considered stevedores or dockworkers.

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).[17]

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,[18] while in the United States, it was referred to as shaping up or assembling for the shape-up.[19] [20]

Dock workers have been a prominent part of the modern labor movement.[21]

Notable dockworkers

Former stevedores and dockworkers include:

In popular culture

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dockworker. Dictionary.com. August 27, 2023.
  2. Web site: Khan . Khalil U. . Stevedoring & The Role of Stevedores in Shipping . The International Institute of Marine Surveying (IIMS) . 7 April 2021 . 15 September 2014.
  3. Book: David Maclachlan. A Treatise on the Law of Merchant Shipping. 1875. W. Maxwell & Son. 387–.
  4. Web site: Modern Greek Verbs – στοιβάζω, στοίβαξα, στοιβάχτηκα, στοιβαγμένος – I pile up. moderngreekverbs.com.
  5. Web site: Stevedores – definition of stevedores by The Free Dictionary. TheFreeDictionary.com.
  6. Web site: America on the Move collection. https://web.archive.org/web/20070612014852/http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_199.html. dead. June 12, 2007.
  7. Book: Hazzard, Shirley . The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples . 2008.
  8. Book: Horejs, Barbara . Ports of Trade: Al Mina and Geometric Greek Pottery in the Levant . 2003.
  9. Book: Casson, Lionel . The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times . 1959.
  10. Book: Casson, Lionel . Seafaring in Ancient Times . 1994.
  11. Book: Meier, Dirk . Seafarers, Merchants, and Pirates in the Middle Ages . October 15, 2009.
  12. Web site: The position of dockers and sailors in 1897 and the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers . 2024-02-14 . www.marxists.org.
  13. Web site: Labor on the Waterfront . 2024-02-14 . South Street Seaport Museum . en-US.
  14. Web site: The ILWU Story . 2024-02-14 . ILWU . en-US.
  15. Book: Container Terminals and Cargo Systems: Design, Operations Management, and Logistics Control Issues . Springer . By Kap Hwan Kim (Editor), Hans-Otto Günther (Editor) . 2007.
  16. Book: Marc Levinson . The Box, How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger . Princeton Univ. Press . 2006 . 0-691-12324-1 . registration .
  17. 1969 . Uniform Containerization of Freight: Early Steps in the Evolution of an Idea . . 43 . 1 . 84–87 . 10.2307/3111989. 3111989 . 246479077 .
  18. Standing on the Stones BFI Film and TV Database, London Dockers (1964)
  19. Web site: Random House Unabridged Dictionary . Dictionary.com . shape-up. 2008-05-15 .
  20. Web site: Blum . Howard . March 13, 1978 . The 'Shape-Up' on Piers Gives Way to 'Show- Up' . subscription . The New York Times . 2019-10-13.
  21. Web site: British History in depth: Banners of the British Labour Movement. BBC.
  22. Web site: Peter . MacKay . Peter MacKay . Peter MacKay learned to appreciate Arctic life working as a stevedore . . August 25, 2012 . March 13, 2023.
  23. Book: Rapf, Joanna E. . On the Waterfront. Cambridge University Press. 2003.
  24. Epstein, Arthur D. . A Look at A View from the Bridge. Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 7 . 1. 1965. 109–122.
  25. Warren, Kenneth W. . Sociology and The Wire. Critical Inquiry. 38 . 1. 2011 . 200–207. 10.1086/661649. 161316328.
  26. Herbert, Daniel . 'It Is What It Is': The Wire and the Politics of Anti-Allegorical Television Drama. Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 29. 3 . 2012. 191–202. 10.1080/10509200903120047. 155014315.