Regular ferry services across the Derwent existed by 1810, and the first known licensed ferryman were Urias Allender and John Nowland in 1816. By the 1830s these ferrymen were known as "watermen" in official records and the term continued to be used until the last licensed watermen retired in the 1940s. The heyday of Hobart Town's watermen was from the 1840s to the mid-1850s, when over 200 licences were issued to different individuals, but with improved steam ferry services the numbers declined and in 1896 only 21 were licensed. By this stage they mostly operated water taxi and excursion services around the port. They were held to be distinct in official records from other categories of maritime workers such as the "boatmen", "craftsmen" or "bargemen" who operated sailing vessels in the river trade, and those men operating on the steam ferries and river steamers that also operated out of the port.