"Listen, boy. Don't think them dockers have it easy. It's dangerous, claustrophobic work, with heavy goods and high stacks, and if it's done wrong, the cargo may overbalance, perhaps even capsizing the boat. What I'm saying is, pay the Stevedores right–and if you want a boat to sink, pay them extra."
- —Aleida Fuchs, Merchant[2a]
Stevedore
Stevedores are specialist dockers, trained to properly pack and unpack cargo holds. Loading a ship is skill-intensive and dangerous work, for vessels can overbalance and capsize if packed incorrectly, and unsecured cargoes can crush the unwary. Within the claustrophobic ship interiors, Stevedores wind "stevedore lashings" (special knots) with wedges of wood to secure and protect the heavy freight.[1a] Foremen are the bureaucrats of the stevedores, either dealing with guild matters or summoning their gangs for work and war, depending on their allegiance. Some stevedores are merely enforcers, there to make sure everybody else is working hard.[2a]
Many Stevedores specialise in "porting" one type of cargo, as each good requires different skills to manipulate, stack and pack correctly. Thus, most larger wharfs have gangs of "porters" that identify themselves according to the goods they import or export, including fish porters, meat porters and deal porters (for timber). None are more famous than the black-liveried coal porters of Nuln, known for their anything-goes attitude and love of bawdy docker songs.[1a]
Stevedores are part of guilds or gangs. Stevedore Guilds have the exclusive legal right to port cargo in their town, and thus are extremely powerful. Gangs of stevedores are much more unofficial, but no less dangerous, and sometimes violently compete with each other.[2a] Their members wear distinctive cloth watch caps dyed with their gang colours, both to identify their allegiances and to protect themselves from the elements. Stevedore gangs jealously guard their wharfs from rivals, and it takes little provocation for them to dish out "lashings" of a different kind.[1a]