ow the game. A hand-to-hand struggle in a swaying boat, even a fall
overboard with a desperate prisoner, does not concern them greatly.

"You see," explained a veteran to me, "if you fall out while you've got
hold of a man it's ten to one that he tries to get his breath as he goes
under. That makes matters worse for him. All you do is to hold your
breath, and let him wear himself out. He's usually quiet enough when you
come up again." Of course, every man in the division is an expert
swimmer.

There are other tricks of boatcraft in such a case which all
river-police officers know. The flashing of a light is an equivalent of
a police-whistle ashore, and will bring the assistance of any
police-boat in sight.

At the floating police-station at Waterloo Pier a dingey is always in
readiness to put off to rescue would-be suicides who fling themselves
from the "bridge of sighs." In the little station itself there is a
bathroom with hot water always ready, and every man in the division is
trained to the Schafer method of resuscitation of the apparently
drowned.

A still more grim side of the work is the finding of dead bodies. The
average number is somewhere around a hundred a year. Most of these are
suicides, a few accidents.

The duties of the patrols are to keep vigil over the river and its
banks. There are other patrols at work for the Customs and the Port of
London Authority, who see that the revenue is not defrauded, and that
the traffic regulations are kept. But this does not free the police from
all responsibility in these matters. Here are a few of the things they
have to do:--

Secure drifting barges and inform owner,

Detect smuggling, illegal ship-building or illegal fitting out for
service in a foreign State,

Report damaged cargoes or food, and offences against the Port of
London Authority's bye-laws,

Arrest any drunken person navigating a boat,

Detect cases of navigation without sufficient free-board below
Battersea Bridge,

Search all suspicious-looking craft,

Inform harbour-master of vessel sunk or dangerous wreckage adrift,

Report wrecks to Lloyd's.

There is more--much more. For instance, all manner of craft have to be
watched to see that they do not carry more passengers than their licence
permits, that obstruction is not caused by mooring across public stairs,
that more than the fixed fare is not demanded by watermen, that no b