that date Thames Division officers are still ranked on their service sheets using these old Inspector ranks. History 1839-1945 In 1839 the Marine Police Force was merged into the Metropolitan Police Force, retaining its Wapping base. Initially patrols continued in rowing boats, some of which remained in use until 1905. Impetus to change was provided when, on 3 September 1878, the steam collier Bywell Castle ran into the pleasure steamer in Galleons Reach, resulting in the loss of over 600 lives. The subsequent inquest and inquiry recommended that Thames Division should have steam launches, as rowing galleys had shown themselves to be inadequate for police duty, and the first two were commissioned in the mid-1880s. In 1910 the first motor vessels were introduced. Wapping and a number of ex-navy hulks were the Division's only bases until 1874, when it opened a station at Waterloo Police Pier (now Tower Lifeboat Station). A second land station was built further east at Blackwall in 1893 using land freed up from the General Steam Navigation Company's cattle wharf at Coldharbour - it was a three-storey building comprising cells, accommodation and a boat-launch. In 1907 the present Wapping station was built. 1945-present Post-war Thames Division commemorated its founders with police vessel names including the supervision launches John Harriott (1947-1963) and Patrick Colquhoun (1963-2003), and Targa duty boats in use, the John Harriott and the Gabriel Franks. Due to the decline of the docks at Canary Wharf in the late 20th century, the Blackwall River Police Station was closed in the 1970s and converted to residential properties in 1982. In November 1978, Thames Division became a specialist unit under the direct command of Assistant Commissioner "A". On 20 August 1989 the Marchioness disaster occurred when an aggregate dredger, the Bowbelle, collided with a passenger vessel, the Marchioness, near Cannon Street Railway Bridge. Four Metropolitan Police patrol boats assisted in the rescue of 87 people. Fifty-one passengers died, though, and following subsequent inquiries the government asked the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Port of London Authority and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to work together to set up a dedicated search and rescue service for the tidal River Thames. Consequently, on 2 January 2002, the RNLI set up four lifeboat stations at Gravesend, Tower Pier, Chiswick and Teddington, taking over the role of primary search and rescue service on the river from Thames Division. References External links