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This book tells the real story about Liverpool's docklands and the people who lived and worked there. Set against the background of Liverpool's unique urban experience, the author sets out to tell what conditions were actually like in one of the world's largest and most important seaports. Sometimes, this makes for harrowing reading. There was poverty and poor housing. There was massive over-crowding, and the town grew at such a rate that public health in the poorer districts was among the worst in the world. Yet migrants came from near and far in search of work. And the work they found in dockland could be plentiful and relatively well paid. Often the work was brutally hard and exhausting. Cargoes had to be unloaded manually or using modest dockside cranes. Deal porters shouldered long, heavy planks of wood, while 2 cwt (100 kg) sacks were commonly carried by one man half-running along a narrow plank from ship to shore. Only the young, agile and experienced could safely handle such loads or the great barrels of tobacco and bales of cotton. Employment on the docks was far from secure. Until quite recently workers had to stand by twice a day hoping to be picked for that half-day's work. This casual system of hiring brought no security whatever, and dockers were at the whim of the employer as well as at the mercy of trade depressions or even the weather. Not surprisingly there were strikes and industrial disputes, to which the employers' and the government's response was often harsh and uncompromising. At one low point the Royal Navy's HMS Antrim was photographed at anchor in the Mersey 'at readiness' to respond to any trouble from the striking dockers. A series of disputes and generally improving conditions did eventually lead to the abolition of the casual system, but by then the shipping container had led to the closure of many of the docks (the whole South End system closed in 1971), while the creation of a container terminal at Seaforth totally transformed the nature of the port. The traditional docklands and their way of life was gone for ever. Brian Towers was uniquely well placed to write this book. He was a professor of industrial relations whose family roots were as seamen based in Liverpool. His perspectives and insights recreate way of working and life that have now been largely lost.
Contents
List of tables viii Editor's preface ix Author's preface and acknowledgements x Introduction: From 'Black Spot on the Mersey' to European Capital of Culture 1 1 'Something wonderful': Liverpool and Empire in 1911 14 2 Building the 'Pyramids' 27 Thomas Steers and the Old Dock 31 The vanishing Pool 36 Jesse Hartley's Liverpool 42 3 Steam on the Mersey 52 George Lyster and the Age of Steam 53 Under new management: the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board 54 The Ocean Greyhounds 57 The ebbing of the tide 62 4 The other side of wonderful 68 The impact of casualism 70 Life along the waterfront 73 The Black Spot on the Mersey 75 Duncan's Liverpool 81 The 'holy trinity': housing, sewers, water 86 5 Working on the old waterfront 91 On the waterfront 93 6 'All men being brothers - ' 112 Seamen and dockers 113 Hanging together or hanging separately 115 The year 1879 118 The 'labour war' of 1890 125 The union makes us strong 128 7 'All the King's horses - ' 130 The Great Strike of 1889 132 Mann, Sexton and Larkin 137 Liverpool's long hot summer 138 'Strike for Liberty!' 141 The 'near revolution'? 153 8 War, peace and the union 156 Changing the leopard's spots: the 1912 Scheme 160 The Khaki Dockers 163 'Demented Barbarians' 167 The Liverpool Police Strike of 1919 170 The Dockers' KC 172 The One Big Union 175 9 'Send it down, J.C.': life and labour between the wars 179 Liverpool on the dole 180 The General Strike, 1926 182 Scraping a Living 188 Behind the Bread Line 193 Building the New Jerusalem 201 10 Dockland under siege: the Second World War 205 Exodus 212 Plimsolls in the villages 214 Blitzkrieg! 216 The 'acme of villainy' 225 The price of victory 227 11 Peace, politics and giant-killing 232 The 'New Men' 235 Sir William: the 'giant' killer 239 Educating Giant Ignorance 242 Treating Giant Disease 243 Attacking Giant Squalor 246 12 High hopes, false dawns - old ways, and Devlin 250 The New Dealers: The National Dock Labour Scheme 251 False dawns - 254 - old ways 257 Enter Lord Devlin 260 Devlin's 'giant' 262 13 'The greatest game no more' 269 Crisis and worse 271 From boom to bust 279 Liverpool in free fall 282 The 'sugar-coated bullet' 284 The last stand: the 1995 - 98 dispute 290 14 The Leaving of Liverpool 298 Liverpool looking forward 300 The port and the city 307 Notes and references 311 Select bibliography 356 Index 358
