Not many years past
Since traders relied on boats
Jim called them rockhoppers
.
n.b. Jimmy Smith, my shipmate during my time working on cross-Channel ferries in 1980, spent some years as a cook on a boat, not unlike the ‘Vital Spark’, travelling from harbour to harbour around the north of Britain.
The cargo changed depending on what needed moving between quays; roads then were more difficult to negotiate, the sea was the main highway.
.
CLP 25/01/2020
Voyage des Mots 