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Lady Mostyn Discharging Grain at Irvine (c.1901)
Dock workers unload grain from a cargo ship in Edwardian North Ayrshire.
Overview
The job of an Edwardian stevedore was back-breaking, as this film, showing cargo ship Lady Mostyn unloading at Irvine docks, makes clear. A winch loads the grain into sacks, but they are carried down a gang plank to the waiting carts on broad shoulders. It's hard not to be impressed at this physical feat: the sacks' great weight is clear from the bending of the gang planks under the men's feet.
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