Mersey Docks Research Articles

Love, laughter and solidarity on the docks in Liverpool, c.1950s–1990s

By focusing on love and humour, this article examines the role of positive emotions in the making and remaking of solidarity on the docks in Liverpool to demonstrate that solidarity was, and still is, embedded within power dynamics that shaped daily life. After outlining the persistent insecurities dock workers and their families faced due to the casual system of employment in place until 1967, the dangerous nature of work and the impact of containerisation, I assess how experiences during this period were remembered. A combination of oral history interviews and archival records of the National Dock Labour Board and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company are used to highlight the significance of family support, the dockers’ bucket and nicknames to understanding the emotional dimensions of class. Ultimately, I outline that solidarity action should not be understood as overt moments of political struggle alone as it was sustained by creating moments of happiness and joy.

Maintaining The Trust: The Mersey Docks And Harbour Board, 1858–1972

Maintaining The Trust: The Mersey Docks And Harbour Board, 1858–1972

The polyphonic spree: the case of the Liverpool Dockers

This paper is concerned with the possibilities opened up for Trade Unions by the internet age. The paper analyses forms of resistance, their preconditions and organisational backgrounds. It is argued that polyphonic organisation and, closely linked, new organisational forms, provide a strong basis for power relations and strategies of resistance. The paper starts with a brief introduction to the dispute between the Dockers of Liverpool and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. Contextualising the evolving issue in the broader picture of trade union crisis and renewal, the case study is theorised using linguistically informed approaches to management and organisation theory. Introducing these theoretical developments, the potential of new organisational forms for power relations and resistance are elaborated.

Symbols of Empire: The Buildings of the Liverpool Waterfront

The three monumental Edwardian buildings that dominate Liverpool’s waterfront stand as a testament to the city’s pre-eminence in global trade in the early years of the twentieth century (Fig. 1). These great buildings, occupying the former George’s Dock, were erected in turn for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, the Royal Liver Friendly Society, and the Cunard Steamship Company. They were the result of a long cherished vision to enhance the city’s maritime gateway. Stridently individual in character, commercially driven, and self-advertising in intent, they have given Liverpool an identity that is universally recognizable. Familiar as a backdrop in 1930s travel posters, from films of 1960s ‘Merseybeat’ bands like the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers, or in the 1970s television sit-com ‘The Liver Birds’, they have become icons of popular culture in a way that buildings rarely achieve. This paper, which has been prompted by the recent proposal to erect a further iconic building, a ‘Fourth Grace’, examines the redevelopment of the George’s Dock and reveals how the competing demands of municipal enterprise and mercantile profit were brought together to achieve a potent symbol of imperial ambition.

The Members of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and Their Way of Doing Business, 1858–1905

The Members of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and Their Way of Doing Business, 1858–1905

The Development of Port Administration in Australia: The Case of Fremantle, 1903–1939

Traces the evolution of formal port administration at Fremantle. The beginning of modern harbour management and control can be traced back to Britain in 1857, when the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board was formed. Subsequently, similar forms of organisation developed throughout the British Empire. The Fremantle Harbour Trust Act was largely based on the Sydney Harbour Trust Act, 1901 and a New Zealand Act of 1878. Throughout Australia, a great variety of port authorities has evolved with varying powers and systems of control, reflecting the impact of a multitude of factors, including geography, the nature of the hinterland, the type and volumes of cargoes, and national and state politics. The Fremantle Harbour Trust is of special interest as it has acquired the power to engage in profitable cargo-handling operations, a task left to private enterprise at other ports.

Nutrition in catering

SummaryFor the purposes of this paper, catering activities are classified into three parts: If or profit, 2 at breakeven, 3 subsidised. The second group are mainly canteens and the health service and the third group includes the armed forces and some educational authorities. However, the industry has a poor statistical base and quantitive data are only available for broad characteristics. In 1978 the industry in the UK employed 2.14 million and the industry is labour intensive. Also in 1978 the National Health Service provided 600 million meals and some 3.5 million school meals were prepared a day during school term. Overall, it is estimated that, in 1976, eating out accounted for 12 per cent of expenditure on foods.The newer systems of catering, cook freeze and cook‐chill, are described and the significance of the separation of production from service which these systems make possible are assessed with particular reference to nutrient value at the time of consumption. The most labile nutrients are vitamins C, thiamin and folic acid.The advantages of Fast Foods in encouraging the consumption of nutritious foods are discussed and particular attention is drawn to the potential risk of over consumption of salt, energy and fat and under consumption of folic acid and iron if total diets consist exclusively of specific fast foods.The potential use of institutional catering in an educational role is discussed with particular reference to a trial organised with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company as part of the Port of Liverpool Heart Health Campaign, where an attempt will be made to decrease the intake of fat and salt and to increase the intake of fibre.

Samuel Rickard Christophers, 27 November 1873 - 19 February 1978.

After a life of great physical and mental activity, Samuel Rickard Christophers died on 19 February 1978, aged 104 years, the greatest age ever reached by a Fellow of the Royal Society. He followed Bacon’s ‘Regimen of Health—to be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and of sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting’ [i.e. for prolonging life]. He lived through a century of Science in general and medical science in particular including the immense progress in tropical medicine. In the latter field he was one of the great pioneers to rank equally with his famous peers, Sir Patrick Manson, F.R.S., and Sir Ronald Ross, F.R.S. Christophers was born in Liverpool on 27 November 1873. His father, Samuel Hunt Christophers, was born in Plymouth but the family came from the small village of Maunan in Cornwall and Christophers was vastly proud of the family’s Cornish origin. His mother, Mary Selina Rickard, was born at Redruth, Cornwall, and his parents were married at St Michael’s-in-the-hamlet near Otterspool on the Mersey. His father came to Liverpool and for many years was head of the Statistical Office of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.

The Application of Computers to Ship Operations

A symposium on The Application of Computers to Ship Operations was held at the Department of Navigation, Liverpool Polytechnic, on 1, 2 and 3 March 1971.The symposium was introduced by the Head of the Department, Captain F. L. Main, who briefly reviewed the revolution in world shipping over the past twenty years involving great increases in tonnage, speed of vessels and traffic congestion, accompanied by a progressive reduction in manning scales. This had been made possible by automation and one of its logical consequences was the use of computers both at sea and in port administration. The aim of the symposium was to explore the potential of the digital computer in these fields, to define its possible limitations and to emphasize the need of adequate training for the personnel involved.Of the nine papers presented, four more directly concerned with the application of computers to navigational systems are printed below. Other papers dealt with the application of computers to cargo handling, ships' accountancy and port administration with particular reference to the recent experience of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Captain Holder and Captain Jones are both in the Marine Operations Research Unit at the Liverpool Polytechnic.

Mechanical Handling Aspects of the Tilbury Grain Terminal

The grain terminal for the Port of London Authority (P.L.A.) began commercial operation in April 1969. It is designed for discharge of ships up to about 45 000 ton dead weight (d.w.) at rates up to a maximum of 2000 ton/h. The installation provides two discharging machines of the marine tower type, 105 000 ton of silo storage capacity and an ability to handle from ships to silo, rail, road, coaster or to adjacent flour mills. It also permits loading out to coaster or barge either by direct trans-shipment or from silo. Many alternative handling routes are provided and a very large degree of remote control has been incorporated. The majority of the routes are capable of handling up to 1000 ton/h over a single conveyor. The marine towers are unique in Europe and probably incorporate a greater degree of sophistication than exists in any similar equipment in the world. This paper describes briefly the background leading to the construction of the terminal and the layout of the whole installation. Some of the more interesting points in the mechanical handling control system employed with particular reference to the marine towers, methods of routing, tripper control and dust suppression are described in detail. Comparisons are made between the installation at Tilbury and the installation at present under construction for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company at Seaforth.

The Port of Liverpool - Western Gateway. A History of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Stuart Mountfield, 228 pages, illustrations, cloth, 9·25 × 6 in., Liverpool University Press, 1965, 30s.

The Port of Liverpool - Western Gateway. A History of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Stuart Mountfield, 228 pages, illustrations, cloth, 9·25 × 6 in., Liverpool University Press, 1965, 30s.

A Survey of Requirements for Port Radar

In 1947 it was felt by the Ministry of Transport that although the radar to be installed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board at Liverpool would demonstrate the suitability of this type of equipment in meeting the requirements of the larger ports, it was probably beyond the resources of many small ports and indeed was too elaborate for their needs. It was therefore decided that the Ministry's Operational Research Group should survey representative small ports in the United Kingdom in order to estimate the advantages that could be expected if shore radar were to be fitted and to discover what limitations there were likely to be in such fittings. As a sequel to this inquiry, it was proposed to select one port as the site for a trial, to be sponsored by the Ministry, in which a simple radar installation would be employed. The vital importance of having direct radio communication between ship and radar station was fully recognized from the start, and it was assumed throughout the investigation that this facility would be ancillary to the radar, the pilots probably carrying portable transmitter-receivers.

Henry Crozier Plummer, 1875-1946

Henry Crozier Plummer was born at Oxford on 24 October 1875. He was the eldest son of William Edward Plummer, who was then Senior Assistant at the Oxford University Observatory under the directorship of Pritchard and who was subsequently (1892) appointed Director of the Observatory of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and Reader in Astronomy at the University of Liverpool. Plummer was educated at St Edmund’s School, Oxford, from whence he proceeded to Hertford College where he held a scholarship. He took first classes in Mathematical Moderations and Finals, and a second class in the Final Honours School of Natural Science (Physics). After a year as Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics at Owens College, Manchester, and another year as Assistant Demonstrator in the Clarendon Laboratory, he accepted, in 1901, the position of Second Assistant in the University Observatory under the directorship of H. H. Turner. The salary of this post was not attractive, but Plummer wished to devote his energies to astronomy, a subject to which he had already made contributions in the form of papers published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ; he had been elected a Fellow of that Society in 1899. His career as a professional astronomer lasted until 1921. During that period his published papers (most of which appeared in the Monthly Notices ) covered a wide field of topics and included several well-defined series which represented substantial contributions to natural knowledge. He always approached a problem critically and with careful attention to detail; thoroughness and solidity were the characteristics of his work.

Liverpool Observatory and Tidal Institute

AN agreement has just been made between the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and the University of Liverpool for the administration as a single institution of the Board's Observatory at Bidston and the Tidal Institute of the University. The combined institution is to bear the name of “The Liverpool Observatory and Tidal Institute” and will be governed by a joint committee of the Dock Board and the University.

The Liverpool Observatory (Bidston)

AFTER a career of eighty years, during which the Liverpool Observatory has fulfilled the purpose for which it was designed, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, which is responsible for its support and management, has decided that the time has arrived when the usefulness of the institution might be increased by directing its energies into channels additional to those originally contemplated. It may be recalled that the chief objects sought in establishing an Observatory in Liverpool were the communication of accurate time to the Port and the rating of chronometers. The action of the British Association at the Liverpool meeting in 1837 contributed largely to the adoption of the necessary measures; the meeting in 1923 might give similar encouraging support to the widened programme now under consideration.

The tidal régime of the river Mersey, as affected by the recent dredgings at the bar in Liverpool Bay

Liverpool, the premier port of the world after our metropolis, with the annual total of in-and-out tonnage, in 1904, of 32 millions of tons, had suffered, in the approach thereto, up to about 15 years ago, from a sand-bar, situate at the outer or seaward entrance into Liverpool Bay, which afforded a depth of water over it, at low water of equinoctial springs, of only ten feet. When it is borne in mind that some of the large Atlantic liners have a draft of close upon 30 feet, it is easy to conceive the amount of inconvenience, chiefly by loss of time in enforced waiting outside the Bar, which this caused —a period of waiting, which affected more or less, according to their individual tonnage, all vessels visiting the port. Attempts were made as far back as 1838 by the then Marine Surveyor of the Port of Liverpool, Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral Sir) H. T. M. Denham, to diminish the height of the Bar, by first harrowing the sand and then removing the loosened material by means of bucket-dredgers. After some years, however, it was found advisable to abandon these operations, since the effect thereof upon the Bar was so slight that a single storm from the Irish Channel often more than counteracted any deepening at the Bar, which had been effected by months of dredging. It was not, however, till shortly before 1890, that the late Mr. G. F. Lyster, then Engineer to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, was able to resume the attempt to remove any material at the Bar, by calling to his aid the newly invented form of sand-pump dredger, which by means of exhaust suction displaced the material in a semi-liquid state with such rapidity as to cause very sensible progress to be made in the removal of the material.

Chronometer Trials

THE Mersey Docks and Harbour Board have, by an Order dated November 29, 1894, modified the regulations under which they are prepared to issue certificates to those who deposit chronometers and other scientific apparatus at their Observatory for test and examination. Under the new regulations, instrument-makers can re-submit their apparatus within a twelvemonth of first deposit, without any additional fee. In the case of chronometer-makers this concession will probably be welcomed for the following reasons. Hitherto, the certificates granted have simply been regarded as a protection to the public, and the makers have had to apply their own tests to ensure accurate performance before submitting them to independent examination. But it will now be possible for makers to spare, in some degree, their own rigorous control, since the certificate granted will show the direction in which correction must be made, and a second certificate will be granted without fee to the improved instrument. If no alteration be needed, the time required for the additional trial is of course saved. Another modification, which will be appreciated by those who seek certificates for watches, is that affecting the condition under which these certificates are granted. The alteration will be best shown by an example. Suppose a watch to have a normal rate in the first position of trial of nine seconds a day, and under the various tests to which it is submitted the rate increase more than a second daily. Such a watch or chronometer, under the old regulations, would be refused an “A” certificate because the daily rate increased to more than ten seconds from mean time. But the watch might evidently be superior to one with a normal rate of two seconds, and which varied some five or six seconds in the various stages of its trial. The alteration in the regulations sanctioned by the Board will now permit the variations to be reckoned from the normal rate, and not from mean times.

Further Notes on Rock-Fragments frm the South of Scotland imbedded in the Low-Level Boulder-clay of Lancashire

I n my paper on the Drift-beds of the North-West of England, Part II., I gave certain identifications of granites from Criffel and the neighbourhood of Dumfries made by Mr. Patrick Dudgeon from specimens I forwarded to him in 1882, these being confirmatory of Mr. Mackintosh’s previous discovery of Criffel granite in the Lancashire Drift. In August of this year I had an opportunity of travelling from Dumfries through Kirkcudbright to Wigtonshire, when I paid special attention both to the rocks in situ and to the boulders lying about the country, with the following results. In Kirkcudbright there are two large and distinct masses of granite, rising through the Silurian strata, which generally rest nearly vertical and are repeated in fold after fold. The easternmost of these granite masses rises 1800 feet above the sea, and forms the grand isolated mountain called Criffel. The westernmost mass, occupying not less than 50 square miles, rises to 2331 feet in the mountain called Cairnsmore of Fleet, which is also an isolated granite boss; but the surrounding Silurians rise to a higher level than at Criffel. The Cairnsmore granite is of a coarser nature than that of Criffel; though in a vein at Creetown, no doubt connected underground with the main granitic mass, is a quarry, belonging to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, which has supplied for many years the granite used in the construction of the Liverpool Docks, which is of a more compact nature and finer grain. All round Criffel in the low country and near the coast are to be found numerous granite boulders, all of them more or less rounded, and none showing marks of glaciation either by plane surfaces or striations. At Kirkbean I took chippings of several, which were used in the building of a field-wall; among them were a dark granite and a reddish-coloured granite, no doubt all variations of Griffel granite, and such as I could match from the Lancashire Drift. Close by a road-stone quarry in the Silurian Greywackes, about 5 miles S.E. of Dalbeattie, there were many boulders of a dark red granite, which I can also match by specimens from the Lancashire Drift; and I take these also to be local variations of the Criffel granite. The Dalbeattie grey-granite quarries are also in the Criffel-granite mass, and I believe we have all these varieties of granite rocks in the Lancashire Drift.