Navvies

Navvy, a shorter form of navigator (UK) or navigational engineer (US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and earth moving machinery. The term was coined in the late 18th century in Great Britain when numerous canals were being built, which were also sometimes known as "navigations", or "eternal navigations", intended to last forever.

A study of 19th century British railway contracts by David Brooke, coinciding with census returns, conclusively demonstrates that the great majority of navvies in Britain were English. He does, however, state that 'only the ubiquitous Irish can be regarded as a truly international force in railway construction' although the Irish only comprised about 30% of the navvies. By 1818, high wages in North America attracted many Irish workers to become a major part of the workforce in the construction of the Erie Canal in New York State and similar projects; they also participated in building canals in Britain, where by the 20th century they were the predominant workforce.

The construction of canals in Britain was superseded by contracts to construct railway projects from 1830 onward, which developed into the railway manias, and the same term was applied to the workmen employed on building rail tracks, their tunnels, cuttings and embankments. There were 250,000 navvies employed during the apex of British railway expansion efforts.

Navvies working on railway projects typically continued to work using hand tools, supplemented with explosives (particularly when tunnelling, and to clear obdurate difficulties). Steam-powered mechanical diggers or excavators (initially called 'steam navvies') were available in the 1840s, but were not considered cost effective until much later in the 19th century, especially in Britain and Europe where experienced labourers were easily obtained and comparatively cheap. Elsewhere, for example in the

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