Watermen have enjoyed the exclusive right to carry passengers on the tidal Thames since 1510. They provided the first form of licensed public transport on the Thames with Acts of Parliament dating from 1514 and 1555 passed to regularise the profession, standardise fares and protect the public from unscrupulous dealing. Most of the work carried these days by watermen is on the pleasure boats that operate up and down the Thames.

Lightermen are responsible for moving cargo on barges that have ‘lightened’ the load of sea-going vessels, delivering cargo to wharfs up and down the Thames. The lighterage trade expanded with the development of the port of London until the 1970s, when containers replaced the need to lighten ships. Today, lightermen still handle cargoes of so-called ‘rough goods’ however, such as waste or aggregate.

At present Thames watermen and lightermen have to serve an apprenticeship of between 5 and 7 years in order to qualify to skipper a boat on the stretch of the Thames between Teddington and Gravesend. They have to complete a minimum of 10 weeks of shore based training, are required to gain testimony from 6 practitioners to their practical competence and are also expected to pass 4 examinations throughout their training. They also have to have spent at least 2 years (a minimum of 300 days) of their apprenticeship working on the Thames itself in order to gain the requisite local knowledge of the river.

The new UK Boatmaster’s Licence that is being introduced this year requires a candidate to complete just 30 months of qualifying service, take one exam with a practical test and gain the testimony of just one local practitioner. The new licence also does not require candidates to undertake any shore based training in order to underpin their knowledge. The level of local experience required of new captains working on the Thames will also be markedly less than that required of existing captains: New captains will only have to complete just 60 days of local experience before being able to work in central London for example. Furthermore, the area of the Thames covered by the local knowledge assessment is being substantially reduced: No local experience at all is required of captains working in the lower Thames from the Thames Barrier to the sea. 

The revisions to the current arrangements are being made in part in order to gain compliance with a new European Union Directive on harmonising boatmasters’ licences. However the Directive does allow for the application of higher standards for watermen and lightermen on the River Thames. Indeed other European countries have already secured exemptions for their rivers such as the Rhine in Germany.