Thames lighters
Thames lighters and hoys
Editorial history
08/11/12: CSG, created page
Materials handling
Port trades
Thames docks and wharves
Thames shipyards in 1650s
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Examples of Thames lighters
Elizabeth Matson, owner of the lighter the Ellen and Anne
Oliver Langdon was a thirty-eight year old deal merchant from Wapping Wall. He testified in the case of Matson against Naylor that he had known Elizabeth Matson, the owner of the lighter the Ellen and Anne for the last ten years, and that he also knew the lighter, having bought ballast from Elizabeth Matson and had it shipped in her lighter. He signed his answers to the articles of the allegation with his marke, as he did the two interrogatories.
Langdon was an eye witness to the incompetence of the crew of a Thames hoy, which was upstream of the lighter the Ellen and Anne. The lighter lay moored to the Mary of Ipswich near New Crane, Wapping, where it was taking on ballast.
Seeing the hoy bearing down on them the crew of both the Ellen and Anen and of the Mary cried out to the crew of the hoy to lower their sail. The hoy ignored them and the result was catastrophic. "The said hoy ran with her bough upon the said lighter, and broke her side downe, (soe that the said side lay under water) and brake her inward and outward workes, and crushed her in peeces."
The labourers on the lighter fought to preserve the lighter from sinking. They heaved out the remaining ballast, whilst standing up to their knees in water, seeking to keep her afloat and to get her to shore. Langdon assured the court that the lighter had been strong and staunch before the collision, and provided additional details to the court: there had been other ships in the Thames, but none near enough to the hoy toe explain the incident. Furthermore, it had been an ebb tide.
Note: Deals were frequently specified in cargos of assorted timber brought to London from various ports around what we now term the Baltic, as well as from Norwegian ports on the North Sea.
- "6. Oliver Langdon of Wapping Wall Deale Merchant
7. aged 38 yeeres or thereabouts sworne and exámined.
8. To the first article of the said libell hee saith and deposeth that
9. hee well knoweth the producent Elizabeth Matson and hath
10. soe donne for theise tenn yeares last or thereabouts, and saith that
11. shee for all the time arlate hath bin and is owner of the lighter
12. called the Ellen and Anne arlate (which hee alsoe well knoweth seeing her
13. from time to time imploy the said lighter, and this deponent
14. hath severall times bought ballast of her that was taken
15. up in the said lighter./
16. To the second and third articles of the said libell hee saith and deposeth
17. that on or about the tenth day of may last the shipp the Mary of
18. Ipswich arlate rode at anchor in the River of Thames over against
19. New Crane taking in of ballast in a fitting place where shipps
20. use to ride and take in ballast, and the fore said lighter the Anne
21. Ellen and Anne lay moored unto the said shipp with labourers
22. aboard the said lighter heaving ballast out of her into the said
23. shipp, and while shee was soe doeing, there came the said day
24. (or thereabouts) in the day time
25. a certaine hoy (which was said and accounted to be belonging to one
26. Naylor of Barking) downe the river under saile, directly
27. towards the said shipp and lighter, whereupon (when shee came neere) {XXX} some of
28. the company of the said shipp Mary and of the said lighter which
29. lay moored unto her, cried or called aloud out to the company of
30. the said hoy to lore their sailes, and keepe off, telling them
31. that otherwise they would split the said lighter, and that severall
32. times repeated their crie and calling out to the said hoy, howbeit
33. hee saith the said hoyes company neglecting to take care therein,
34. the said hoy ran with her bough upon the said lighter, and broke
35. her side downe, (soe that the said side lay under water) and brake
36. her inward and outward workes, and crushed her in peeces, all
37. which hee knoweth for that this deponent was casual{l}y rowing
38. by ˹in a wherry˺ while the premisses happened, and him selfe seeing the said
39. hoy comming soe dangerously on ˹towards˺ the said lighter, called out to her company
40. to keepe off, and telling them that otherwise they would splitt
41. the said lighter, And otherwise hee cannot depose, not knowing
42. the name of the said hoy.
43. To the fourth article hee saith that the said lighter being soe broke
44. broke and her side under water, severall of the company
45. of the Mary leaped into the said lighter, and with their backs helped
46. to beare off and cleare away the said hoy, which if they had not
47. speedily"
- HCA 13/71 f.454v Case: Matson against Naylor; Deposition: 1. Oliver Langdon of Wapping Wall Deale Merchant aged 38 yeares (The marke of Oliver Langdon at the end of the deposition) Date: 12/12/1656[1]
"1. speedily donne, the labourers that were heaving ballast out of the said
2. lighter into the Mary had undoubtedly bin crushed a peeces, and the lighter
3. had bin had bin in all probabilitie sunck downe right in the River
4. and saith that by the water received (notwithstanding all the said endeavour) the
5. labourers were up to the knees in water to heave out the ballast and
6. carry her ashore to preserve her from sincking, of this deponents
7. sight and knowledge. And otherwise hee cannot depose.
8. To the fifth hee saith that the company of the hoy had timely notice
9. to prevent their comming fowle of the said ˹lighter˺, and were within
10. hearing of the said calling out unto them, and if they had donne
11. their dutie they might have prevented the said dammage.
12. To the sixth hee saith that the said lighter before and to the time of
13. the comming fowle of the said hoy as aforesaid, was a very strong and
14. staunch lighter, and that her repaire of the said dammage (as
15. the Carpenter then did it told this deponent) stood ˹and˺ the said producent
16. in seaven pounds sterling, And otherwise hee cannot depose.
17. The mark of [MARKE] Oliver Langdon MARKE, RH SIDE
18.
19. To the Interrogatories.
20. To the first hee cometh required by the said producent to testifie the
21. truth in this cause, and otherwise negatively saving as aforesaid.
22. To the second hee saith there were then other vessells turning downe the
23. river, but none were neere the said hoy, ˹(that this deponent sawe)˺, and it was tyde of ebb, And
24. otherwise hee cannot answer, saving as aforesaid.
25. [MARKE] The marke of
26. the said Langdon
27. Repeated before Collonel Cock."
- HCA 13/71 f.455r Case: Matson against Naylor; Deposition: 1. Oliver Langdon of Wapping Wall Deale Merchant aged 38 yeares (The marke of Oliver Langdon at the end of the deposition) Date: 12/12/1656[2]
Lighter delivering Copperis to a fully laden ship at Wapping Stayers
Lighter delivered twelve hogsheads of Copperis to fully laded ship
The ship the Julian was lying at Wapping Stayers, where it was being loaded prior to a voyage to Roane in France.
The sixty year old mariner and carpenter William Evans "of Newcastle upon Tine in the County of Northumberland" was on board the Julian, and watched a lighterman come to the ship's side in his lighter bearing twelve hogsheads of copperis (alt. copperas) to be laden aboard the Julian. The lighterman insisted on loading the copperis, and, in the absence of the ship's captain, the Julian's crew foolishly acquiesced.
The Julian was already fully laden, and the addition of the heavy copperis was too much for its powers of flotation. When the tide rose, the ship, failed to float, and water flooded into her hold. The copperis was badly damaged, dissolving away in the water of the Thames. Little could be recovered.
Note: Copperas (ferrous sulphate) was also known also as green vitriol. It is a dense material, which in the seventeenth century was used in the dyeing of wool and in the manufacture of ink.
- "5. To the first second and third 4th and 5th articles of the sayd allegation
6. hee saith that hee this deponent being Carpenter and aboard
7. the Julian arlate the voyage in question and bound for Roane in
8. ffrance well knoweth and remembreth that the sayd shipp being
9. then lying at or neere the hermitage stayers in Wapping there
10. sawe a lighterman with a lighter to the same shipps side in the
11. moneth of december 1653 (and as hee remembreth upon Christmas
12. Eve that yeare) and in absense of the arlate Richard Bryan the
13. Master of the sayd shipp spake to the boatswaine of her
14. and required him to take a board the sayd sayd (SIC) shipp twelve
15. hogsheads of Coppers which hee had then in his lighter and
16. were sent as hee sayd by one Mr Tether to bee shipped aboard her
17. whereto the sayd Boatswaine replyed in presense and hearing of
18. this deponent and others of the sayd shipps Company to this effect
19. videlicet that the sayd shipp was now fully laden and that her sayd
20. Master was absent and had given Command before hee went
21. from on board that her Company should take in noe more ladeing
22. aboard her and therefore the sayd Copperis could not bee taken
23. in but the sayd Lighterman sayd hee was ordered to bring it
24. thither and soe left his lighter and the Copperis aforesayd in it by the
25. sayd shipps side, and saith hee this deponent was
26. not present on board when the sayd Copperis was laden aboard
27. the sayd shipp, but saith hee hath heard that the same was ˹putt˺
28. on board the sayd shipp towards Evening that
29. day
30.
31. but by whome hee knoweth not nor hath heard and hee saith
32. that the sayd shipp being full laden before receipt of the
33. sayd Copperis was soe pressed with the weight thereof that
34. the next ˹day˺ after the same was soe putt on board her shee would
35. not floate, and thereby the tyde overflowed the sayd shipp
36. and all her ladeing this hee knoweth for that the next
37. day hee this deponent coming to goe on board her
38. found that shee was sunke and nothing of her appearing
39. above water but a little of her sterne, and the tyde being
40. fallen this deponent came aboard her the same
41. day being Christmas day and helped to pumpe her and same"
- HCA 13/71 f.265r Case: Tether against Bryan "Examined upon the allegation on behalfe of the sayd Bryan"); Deposition: 4. William Evans of Newcastle upon Tine in the County of Northumberland Mariner Carpenter of the shipp the Julian aged sixtie yeares and upwards; Date: 26/06/1656. Transcribed by Colin Greenstreet[3]
Repair of a rotten lighter in wharf at Horsey Down, Surrey
The twenty-four year old shipwright Isaac Mayers was from Horsey Downe, Surrey. He testified in the Admiralty Court that the Thames lighter the William and ffrance "was and stoode in greate neede of reparation" in November 1654.
The lighter was brought to John Mayer's wharf by the lighterman in Horsey Downe to be repaired at the request of Mr Coltman. But John Mayer found the lighter "soe much out of repaire and soe rotten, that hee refused to proceede on in her repaire till hee spake with mr Coltman who recommended the said worke unto him."
John Mayer insisted on meeting Coltman to view the lighter, who visited Horsey Downe together with "mr dandy wharfinger of the Customshouse", who confirmed that the repairs should go ahead.
- "26. The 4th of March 1655
27. Mayor and the William and ffrance}
28. and against knight. Clements. Smith.}
29. Examined upon the allegat libell.
30. Rp. .j.
31. Isaac Mayers of horsey downe Shippwright
32. aged 24 yeeres or thereabouts sworne and examined
33. To the first árticle hee cannot depose, not knowing William knight
34. or other the owners arlate.
35. To the second árticle hee saith and deposeth that within the time arlate
36. the Lighter the William and ffrance arlate was and remained in the
37. River of Thames, and was and stoode in greate neede of reparation,
38. and that in or about the moneth of November 1654 shee was by the
39. lighter man of her brought to the wharfe of the producent John Mayer
40. to horsey downe to be repaired and hee the said John (who had formerly
41. severall times repaired her) undertooke the said worke at the request of
42. the said lighterman who came in the name of the said arlate mr
43. Coltman, and when the said producent had begun to search and try her
44. defects, hee found her soe much out of repaire and soe rotten, that
45. hee refused to proceede on in her repaire till hee spake with mr
46. Coltman who recommended the said worke unto him; whereupon mr
47. Coltman accompanied with mr dandy wharfinger of the Customshouse
48. came over, and viewed the said lighter and being made acquainted with
49. her defects, hee desired the said John Mayor to goe on and to repaire
50. her in what ever was needfull, which hee accordingly did, and
51. hired men and laid out moneys for their wages and for materialls,
52. and saith the said repaires happened and were done in or about
53. the moneth of November 1654 and that the particulars thereof
54. were in all things and of the severall valewes mentioned in the schedule
55. annexed"
- HCA 13/71 f.15v Case: Mayor (?Mayer) and the William and ffrance and against knight; Deposition: 1. Isaac Mayers of horsey downe shipwright aged 24 yeeres; Date: XXXX. Transcribed by 04/03/1655(56)[4]
