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Introduction•
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The evil arising from the want of it is very apparent ; the remedy seems to lie with themselves. In the Shipping World of July, 1887, there appeared a paragraph stating that Mr. Thomas H. Ismay, head of the White Star Line, had suggested to the Mayor of Liverpool the foundation of a Seamen's Pension Fund, and promised to give it a start with the princely donation of ,£20,000. The object of the fund would be to provide pensions for British sailors who have sailed out of Liverpool, or in Liverpool-owned ships, and who have been unable to make adequate provision for their declining years. The pension would be fixed at .£20 a year, and on no account would be given to other than a British sailor, and no seaman to be eligible for a pension who had not attained the age of fifty years, and could prove twenty-five years' service at sea, either as captain, deck officer, or seaman. The fund, Mr. Ismay suggests, might be invested in the name of the Mercantile Marine Service Association, who will have the power of selecting suitable candidates for the pension. No great home to be erected, the whole of the fund to be applied to the object in view.
One can scarcely wonder at the style or sentiment of these Sailor Chanties, seeing that they are really, in many cases, the true expression of the feelings of the men who originate them—the strangest men perhaps, taking them all in all, one can meet with; though, certainly, I think Jack is somewhat less black than he is painted. As Lord Brassey in his work on "British Seamen" says: " Sailors spend their life for the most part far removed from the best influences which can elevate human nature, far from their native land, far from their hearths and homes, on the broad and lonely sea, where the |
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