The Thefts upon the Thames Act 1762 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, granted royal assent on 2 June 1762. It aimed to discourage theft of cargo and tackle from ships on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

and came to be nicknamed the '

Bumboat A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored away from the shore. The name comes from the combination of the Dutch word for a canoe—"''boomschuit''" ("''boom''" meaning "tree"), and "boat". In Tobias Smollett's 1748 no ...

Act' for requiring all such light vessels (used for unloading larger ships' cargoes to wharves and for meeting new ships to resupply their crews and clear their full

bilge The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull. Internally, the bilges (usu ...

s) to be registered with

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

. The act also allowed suspect boats to be stopped and searched and any items suspected to be stolen to be seized, as well as putting in place punishments for thieves and those suspected of involvement of thefts. It proved ineffectual and was superseded by the formation of the

Marine Police Force The Thames River Police was formed in 1800 to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the Pool of London and in the lower reaches and docks of the Thames. It replaced the Marine Police, a police force established in 1798 by magistrate ...

in 1798 and its switch to being a state-funded body thanks to the

Depredations on the Thames Act 1800 The Act 39 & 40 Geo 3 c 87, sometimes called the Thames Police Act 1800, the Thames River Police Act 1800, the Marine Police Act or the Depredations on the Thames Act 1800, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, granted royal assent on 2 ...

, which amended the 1762 act.William Rodolph Cornish, William Cornish, Stephen Banks, C Mitchell, Charles Christopher James Mitchell, Paul Mitchell, Rebecca Probert, ''Law and Society in England 1750-1950'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 31 Oct 2019), pages 521 and 565 The

Metropolitan Police Act 1839 The Metropolitan Police Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict c 47) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act enlarged the district of, and gave greatly increased powers to the Metropolitan Police established by the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. ...

repealed the 1762 Act.

References

Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1762 History of the River Thames Port of London