WHEN 16-year-old Joe Bullock is bound over as an apprentice at Watermen’s Hall next week, he will be the latest in a family line stretching back nearly 500 years.

It will be the start of a five-year apprenticeship, during which the youngster, from Canvey, will learn every nook and cranny of the tidal Thames, between Teddington in the west and the estuary in the east. He will then become a fully-qualified boatmaster.

Only boatmasters, or watermen as the profession used to be known, are able to captain boats along the 70-mile stretch of the river.

Joe’s uncle Colin Bullock, and grandfather Barry “Buzz” Bullock, still work on the boats of the Thames as qualified watermen. They have traced their family history back to 1555, when the role was founded by King Henry VIII in a bid to tackle congestion on the river.

Colin, 40, of Ivy Road, Benfleet, said: “I am very proud of the family tradition, so I was pleased when Joe said he wanted to do it. It’s the best job in the world.”

Buzz, 63, who works on tug boats and barges transporting goods up and down the river, agreed.

He said: “It’s not a working life, it’s a way of life. I love the community on the river, river people are like a family.”

Buzz, who lives in Metz Avenue, Canvey, added: “Joe is in a very long line in what is probably the oldest working family on the Thames.”

In 2005, Transport for London introduced changes to the qualification period and changed the name to boatmasters.

As well as learning every inch of the river, Joe will become an expert on tides, currents and how its flow is affected by the weather.

Colin, who runs a firm of pleasure boats called River Thames Boat Hire, will be Joe’s master when he is officially apprenticed at London’s Watermen’s Hall on Monday.

The apprenticeship’s ancient rules state that the novice must pay all earnings to their master and avoid drink, women and dice.

Luckily for Joe, who left Canvey’s Furtherwick Park School a couple of weeks ago, his uncle will not be imposing such strict rules.

Joe, of Seaview Road, said: “I’m glad to be carrying on the tradition. Until a few years ago I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I’m looking forward to working up in London on the boats.”