stevedore (/ˈstiːvɪˌdɔːr/), longshoreman, docker, or dockworker is a waterfront manual laborer
who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes.
After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number of dockworkers required declined by
over 90%, and the term "stevedore" has increasingly come to mean a stevedoring firm that
contracts with a port, shipowner, or charterer to load and unload a vessel.[1][2]
Contents
1Etymology
2Loading and unloading ships
3By country
o 3.1Australia
o 3.2New Zealand
o 3.3United Kingdom
o 3.4United States
4Famous former stevedores
5In popular culture
6See also
7References
8Further reading
9External links
Etymology[edit]
The word stevedore originated in Portugal or Spain, and entered the English language through its
use by sailors.[3] It started as a phonetic spelling of estivador (Portuguese) or estibador (Spanish),
meaning a man who loads ships and stows cargo, which was the original meaning
of stevedore (though there is a secondary meaning of "a man who stuffs" in Spanish);
compare Latin stīpāre meaning to stuff, as in to fill with stuffing.[4] In the United Kingdom, people who
load and unload ships are usually called dockers, in Australia dockers or wharfies, while in
the United States and Canada the term longshoreman, derived from man-along-the-shore, is used.
[5]
Before extensive use of container ships and shore-based handling machinery in the United
States, longshoremen referred exclusively to the dockworkers, while stevedores, in a separate trade
union, worked on the ships, operating ship's cranes and moving cargo. In Canada, the
term stevedore has also been used, for example, in the name of the Western Stevedoring Company,
Ltd., based in Vancouver, B.C., in the 1950s.[6]
Loading and unloading ships[edit]
Admiralty law
History
Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris
Amalfian Laws
Hanseatic League
Features
Shipping
Freight rate
General average
Marine insurance
Marine salvage
Maritime lien
Ship mortgage
Ship registration
Ship transport
International Regulations for
Preventing Collisions at Sea
Contracts of affreightment
Bill of lading
Charter-party
Types of charter-party
Bareboat
Demise
Time
Voyage
Parties
Carrier
Charterer
Consignee
Consignor
Shipbroker
Ship-manager
Shipping agent
Ship-owner
Shipper
Stevedore
Judiciary
Admiralty court
Vice admiralty court
International conventions
Hague-Visby Rules
Hamburg Rules
Rotterdam Rules
Maritime Labour Convention
International Convention on Salvage
United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
SOLAS Convention
Ballast Water Management Convention
International organisations
International Maritime Organization
London Maritime Arbitrators Association
v
t
e
Loading and unloading ships requires knowledge of the operation of loading equipment, the proper
techniques for lifting and stowing cargo, and correct handling of hazardous materials. In addition,
workers must be physically strong and able to follow orders attentively. In order to unload a ship
successfully, many longshoremen are needed. There is only a limited amount of time that a ship can
be at a port, so they need to get their jobs done quickly.
In earlier days before the introduction of containerization, men who loaded and unloaded ships had
to tie down cargoes with rope. A type of stopper knot is called the stevedore knot. The methods of
securely tying up parcels of goods is called stevedore lashing or stevedore knotting. While loading
a general cargo vessel, they use dunnage, which are pieces of wood (or nowadays sometimes
strong inflatable dunnage bags) set down to keep the cargo out of any water that might be lying in
the hold or are placed as shims between cargo crates for load securing.
