In the first six months of the year, no theatres operate on the south bank of the Thames, causing a severe decline in demand for the watermen's taxi service.
Since 1987, Stock/Aiken/Watermen had dominated the UK charts with acts like Bananarama, Dead or Alive, Hazell Dean, Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley scoring countless hits worldwide.
In 1730 he won a major annual race on the Thames, Doggett's Coat and Badge race which is contested to this day, against a number of other watermen who had recently finished their apprenticeships.
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He served his apprenticeship in the Port of London, initially working as a lighterman but eventually, in light of his physical prowess (Broughton was nearly 6 feet tall and very muscular, weighing over 14 stone, or approximately 196 pounds), working as a waterman rowing passengers on the River Thames.
In the 1990s, a microorganism outbreak on the lower river, possibly Pfiesteria piscicida, led to widespread fish kills and illness among the watermen who fish the river and Pocomoke Sound.
In 1798 watermen and other groups of river tradesmen on the River Thames voluntarily formed associations of River Fencibles.
The race had to be rowed annually on August first on the River Thames, by six young watermen who were not to have exceeded the time of their apprenticeship by twelve months.