noun. A dockhand; a longshoreman.

noun. A person who works on the dock of a harbor or shipyard, usually employed to load or unload freight.

noun. a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port

"Brett's Holmes could not have been anything but a detective, whereas Rathbone could easily have been a violinist, a dockworker, an actor."

dockworking  

jack  laborer  labourer  manual laborer  

Pharaoh  Reilly  artilleryman  deadspeak  dry-mouthed