Downstream

boat capsized. The bridge was
crowded with pedestrians and
the cries for help soon
reached the Thames Police.
All three men survived; as
usual, none of them could
swim.
The job of the Thames
Police, formed in 1798 and
described as England’s oldest
police force, was to protect
property in the ships, barges
and wharves within London,
to ‘keep the river clear of