Their organisation.
Drum hogsheads.
Most of these infamous proceedings were carried on according to a regular system, and in gangs, frequently composed of one or more receivers, together with coopers, watermen, and lumpers, who were all necessary, in their different occupations, to the accomplishment of the general design of wholesale plunder. They went on board the merchant vessel completely prepared with iron crows, adzes, and other implements to open and again head up the casks; with shovels to take out the sugar, and a number of bags made to contain a hundred pounds each. These bags went by the name of “black strap,” having been previously dyed black, to prevent their being conspicuous in the night, when stowed in the bottom of a river boat or wherry. In the course of judicial proceedings it has been shown that in the progress of the delivery of a large ship’s cargo, about ten to fifteen tons of sugar were on an average removed in these nocturnal expeditions, exclusive of what had been obtained by the lumpers during the day, which was frequently excessive and almost uncontrolled, whenever night plunder had taken place. This indulgence was generally insisted on and granted to lumpers, to prevent their making discoveries of what they called the “drum hogsheads” found in the hold on going to work in the morning, by which were understood hogsheads where from one-sixth to one-fourth of their contents had been stolen the night preceding. In this manner one gang of plunderers was compelled to purchase the connivance of another, to the ruinous loss of the merchant.
Long-shore men.
The total number of the mates and crews of vessels, revenue officers, lumpers, coal-heavers, coopers, watermen, lightermen, night-watchmen, scuffle-hunters, and labourers employed in warehouses was then computed at thirty-six thousand three hundred and forty-four, of whom no fewer than nine thousand six hundred were pronounced by Mr. Colquhoun as delinquents and participators in the rascality then prevailing. In addition to these, there were one hundred river-pirates, two hundred night-plunderers, two hundred “light-horsemen,” five hundred and fifty receivers of a dozen different classes, besides two hundred mudlarks, most of whom had no other calling, forming together a formidable band of ten thousand eight hundred and fifty marauders, who constituted the component parts of this great machine of organized crime, to the loss of the revenue and the infinite detriment of the best interests of commerce and navigation.
Harbour accommodation.
Towards the close of the last century the harbour accommodation for the greatly increasing amount of merchant shipping frequenting London was, with the exception of that part where small vessels discharged their cargoes between Blackfriars and London Bridge, limited to that portion of the river extending from London Bridge to Deptford, being in length about four miles, with an average width of four hundred and fifty yards. This harbour comprised—1st. The Upper Pool, from London Bridge to Union Hole, for ships of two hundred and fifty tons and under, being in length sixteen hundred yards, and capable of holding three hundred and twenty-nine vessels, coasters and other small craft. 2nd. The Middle Pool, from Union Hole to Wapping New Stairs for ships of three hundred and fifty tons, being seven hundred and fifty yards, and capable of accommodating one hundred and twenty-six middle-sized vessels. 3rd. The Lower Pool, from Wapping New Stairs to Horseferry-tier, near Limehouse, for ships of four hundred tons, being eighteen hundred yards. 4th. From Horseferry to the mooring chains at Deptford, for ships of four hundred and fifty to five hundred tons, drawing seventeen to eighteen feet water, extending two thousand seven hundred yards in length, capable of holding three hundred and twenty large ships, and these two bring Limehouse, affording accommodation besides for fifty-four ships, and Deptford about a similar number. At that time the large East Indiamen, drawing from twenty-two to twenty-four feet water, could not discharge higher up the river than Blackwall.
Not adequate for the merchant shipping.
From the foregoing account it would seem that there was not convenient space for more than eight hundred and eighty vessels in the harbour; yet it frequently happened, when the fleets arrived together, that from thirteen to fourteen hundred vessels, including coasters, were in port at the same time. As many as three hundred colliers have been seen at one time in the Pool, where there were besides usually from one hundred and fifty to two hundred sail of other coasting craft.
East and West India ships.