THE world’s oldest maritime charity, the Marine Society & Sea Cadets, celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. Formed to address a serious shortage of seafarers, with the nation at war and conflicting demands for labour by the Merchant and Royal Navies, the original aim of the society formed under the aegis of the energetic merchant Jonas Hanway was to “recruit the nation”.
The society would encourage men to volunteer for service at sea but would also offer a sea career to the orphans and street boys of London, who in another age would be described as “feral” children and would fall too easily into a life of crime.
It was a group of 22 merchants, mariners and philanthropists that established the society in 1756 and had been brought together by Hanway’s vision. Within weeks the first youngsters had been identified, fed, fitted out with their kit and despatched to their ships.
The society “united charity and policy” and, by proving adaptable, prudent, flexible and responsive to the changing needs of successive ages in peace and war, has managed to remain relevant to the needs of those it has assisted.
Amazingly two families, the Earls of Romney and the Thorntons, have continued their association with the society throughout this long history.
The continuity they have provided has clearly helped to maintain the society through changing times.
Incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1772, the society had by 1763 recruited more than 10,000 men and boys for the sea.
In 1786 the society commissioned the world’s first pre-sea training ship and five years after the new century began the Marine Society was supplying, equipping and training 15% of the Royal Navy’s manpower. For a privately funded charity, it was an extraordinary achievement.
Throughout the 19th century, at a time when the Royal Navy and merchant marine were huge and influential, the Marine Society continued its work, operating training ships and supplying thousands of young people to the RN and to commercial shipping.
In a sea-conscious age when sail was giving way to steam and the advantages of sea power and marine technology were regarded as self-evident there was clearly less of an “awareness” problem or difficulties in promoting the sea career. These were to come later in the second half of the 20th century which saw Britain’s maritime significance greatly diminish.
The society was nearly one hundred years old when in 1856 sailors returning from the Crimean War began “Naval Lads’ Brigades” in towns throughout England. These were to become the Sea Cadets and the youth training organisation which in 2004 was to merge with the Marine Society to form the Marine Society & Sea Cadets.
Throughout the 20th century, in war and peace, the society continued its training and charitable roles. It was instrumental in establishing residences for seafarers in port, produced bursaries and grants and lent its name and support to a number of important initatives.
In 1919 Albert Mansbridge, a pioneer in adult education, formed the Seafarers’ Education Service, which supplied libraries to merchant ships and was to be joined by the College of the Sea in which seafarers were offered all sorts of educational opportunities their calling would otherwise have made impossible.
The SES was to merge with the society in 1976. The Ship Adoption Society, which encouraged schools to establish links with ships to their mutual benefit, was another useful initiative.
This was to evolve into Sea Lines and, with the arrival of the world wide web, provide direct electronic links between ships and young people in schools ashore.
The Nautical Institute, established in 1971 to encourage greater professionalism among deck officers, owes its very existence to the support and encouragement of the Marine Society. The merger in 2004 of the society and the Sea Cadets Association is a logical and sensible development that provides the organisation with additional strengths.
Both had been involved in sea training , although the costs of operating the elderly Marine Society vessels had become insupportable.
The Sea Cadets, with some 400 units, operate a number of craft including the brig Royalist and the 24 m motor vessel John Jerwood. Both organisations are committed to the education of both adults and young people.
The organisation, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, remains an organisation for its time, just as Hanway’s vision addressed contemporary needs in a practical and efficient fashion.
The Marine Society was born out of a crisis, of manpower shortages that could be addressed in a pragmatic way. Today it is arguable that there is still a manpower shortage, one that is created more by the invisibility of the shipping industry and the general lack of awareness of the continued importance of the sea to the United Kingdom.
The MS&SC of the 21st century addresses these problems head on. Hanway saw the orphans and urchins of the London streets as potential seafarers, and in 2006 scarcely a day goes by without some reference to bored and rootless urban youth.
Some 185,000 young people are sea cadets, enjoying marine pursuits and “serious fun” with some 6,000 volunteer adults. There is, says MS&SC chief executive Mike Cornish, a valuable and important “social dimension” in what the Sea Cadets provide. With the resources of the combined charity, the organisation can address the awareness issue more forcefully. “As a maritime nation,” says Cornish, “we cannot afford sea blindness.” The educational role of the Marine Society remains strong. “We are still there for professional seafarers,” emphasises Cornish, pointing out that the College of the Sea has a record number of seafarers undertaking some form of higher education.
The merger has made the college facilities available for those within the Sea Cadet Corps, with a range of vocational training courses specially tailored for those who train Sea Cadets
Seafarers, by virtue of their itinerant lifestyles, require special consideration and support for their further and higher education needs.
The SES established a legacy of care in this respect and in Brian Thomas, director of education of the College of the Sea, there is a huge amount of knowledge and understanding of the seafarers’ problems that make education a challenge.
The college has always been able to attract first class tutors for a whole range of different courses, and under Thomas a number of important partnerships, with educational providers such as the National Extension College, North West Kent College, the Open University and OU Business School, Middlesex University and Lloyd’s Maritime Academy have been established.
The College of the Sea is a Learning and Skills Council college with the quality delivered audited by the government’s Adult Learning Inspectorate.
Seafarers who take advantage of the college’s services speak of the expert guidance and confidential advice that is available, while costs are often discounted for serving seafarers. Some suggest that in this electronic age printed books may be on their last legs. But the charity still supplies many hundreds of libraries to merchant vessels and warships and offshore units, with 100,000 books in circulation at any one time.
The Ship Adoption Society became Sea Lines and now Webships provides an insight into contemporary life at sea. Users are able to trace the progress of voyages, with a regular link from BP’s LNG carrier British Traderand the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Wave Ruler.
This programme links directly into the National Curriculum so that 11-14-year-olds are given this valuable insight into life aboard. Some 28,000 schools are able to participate at no cost to themselves. With the centenary celebrations this year — of which the high point was the reception earlier this month aboard HMS Albion with the Queen —- an important fundraising appeal has been launched.
Sea training is at the root of this appeal, the aim being to raise £2.5m ($4.5m) for a new powered training vessel, along the lines of the TS John Jerwood, which would be based in the London River.
According to P&O’s Robert Woods, who is spearheading the appeal, it is hoped that this sum can be raised within two years.
The craft will be able to take 12 cadets or trainees with two adults and a permanent crew of four.
Based in London, the craft will address a very real need, providing experience afloat and the opportunity to work as a crew members with its requirement for discipline and teamwork.
In addition to providing the Sea Cadets with these opportunities, the little ship could also earn money forthe charity with others having an interest in maritime training such as the Watermen and Lightermen, who have a need for boatmaster’s licences.
And, just as the two earlier Marine Society ships provided some useful experience for people such as Lloyd’s List staff, the new vessel, when not engaged on six-day voyages with Sea Cadets, could be similarly employed.
The decision has been taken to raise the cost of the new ship from charitable donations rather than the reserves of the charity and individual approaches will be made to principal national sources of charitable funding.
Donations, therefore, will be gratefully received. This ancient charity, says Mike Cornish, is in a state of change but is firmly committed to its two founding strands, now incorporated in its name.
It is looking forward, extending its educational remit, expanding the social dimension of its work and promoting an awareness of the sea and its relevance to everyone living in these islands.
