Month: July 2025

The Sailor’s Creed at the Ecclesiastical History Conference, 15-17 July 2025

Posted on by hilary.carey

It was exciting to present new research on the religious beliefs and practices of British sailors to the Ecclesiastical History Society conference, held in Edinburgh this week from 15-17 July 2025.

The theme for this year’s EHS conference was Creeds, Councils and Canons in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, held in 325 AD. Presenters chose to address the theme across the full span of Christian history, and was vigorously debated by historians of the early Christian world, and all later periods up to the present.

For my paper, I wanted to tackle one of the more challenging issues facing the Mariners project team – namely, what did sailors believe about religion? We know quite a bit about what other people, including missionaries, shipping companies and the state wanted them to believe, and the various ways they sought to improve their living and working conditions and moral standing, but what the sailors felt about these interventions is a much harder nut to crack.

My research looked at the image of ‘Jack Tar’ as a careless and largely irreligious simpleton, with far too much interest in drink, sex and violence. Writers of popular songs and caricatures, such as Dibdin and Rowlandson, wrote stongs with titles such as ‘The Sailor’s Prayer’ and ‘The Sailor’s Creed’ which assumed sailors had no religion or moral scruples other than looking out for their shipmates and hoping for a good captain, a rich prize, and fair weather.

Yet missions to seamen sought to elevate the poor sailor, provide them with greater dignity and self-worth, and abandon their wanton ways. In their attempts to reach this body of men, marine missionary societies adopted a flexible strategy which minimised doctrinal differences, and promoted a simple message couched in salty language.

There were some variations. The Anglican agencies such as the Missions to seamen generally stressed that they were providing a national service regardless of other divisions. Dissenters who supported the Non-denominational movement, such as the British and Foreign Bible Society, followed the model of the London Missionary Society, affirming that they promoted a pure Christianity without concern for class or creed. This was illustrated by missionary promotional images, such as the BFBS ‘Gospel Ship’.

Having presented my paper in the first session of the conference, this left me free to enjoy other speakers. EHS President Sara Parvis provided the essential grounding for the conference theme with a rich account of the canons of the Nicene Creed and their reception. Other highlights for me was the paper by Gemma King on teaching the Church of Scotalnd’s Shorter Catechism in religious fiction; Angela Berlis on the Old Catholics resistance to the First Vatican Council, and Ivan Broisson on the great Etienne Gilson and his influence on the Second Vatican Council.

I followed several panels on missionary and ecumenical gatherings in Africa and India. Brian Stanley outlined the challenges of the attempt to integrate the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches at the Ghana Assembly of the IMC in 1957-8. the My fellow Australian, Nicole Starling, was enlightening on the conflict between deaconesses and high church sisterhoods in the diocese of Sydney. I was privileged to chair two fine papers on African missions by Alison Zilversmit on the Southern Rhodesia Missionary Conference, and Deborah Gaitskell on Ecumenism in 1940s South Africa.

The weather was gloriously warm for Edinburgh; the company and the conversations rich and enjoyable. There was a warm reception to my new work on sailors’ religious mentality and it was profitable to be able to present with so many other scholars working at the cutting edge of religious history today.

Mariners Exhibition moves to Liverpool

Posted on by hilary.carey
The Mariner’s exhibition is now on display in Liverpool Record Office (3rd Floor Central Library, William Brown Street, L3 8EW). It is displayed on smaller panels to fit the space. It will be there until early Autumn.
Lucy Wray will circulate the closing date when the curator confirms this.
The larger display will remain in St Stephen’s Church ( 21 St Stephen’s Street, Bristol, BS1 1EQ) until next Monday 21st July.

Mariners at the Black Country Museum

Posted on by hilary.carey

I have just got back from a trip to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley for the 2025 Social History Society annual conference.

Victorian streetscene, Black Country Living History Museum

It was my first visit to the living history museum, and found it very hard to tear myself away from the recreated worlds of the Victorian, Edwardian and – most recently – post-WWII eras to get back to the conference. I wandered in and out of the cottages showcasing the work of women chain makers, the noisescape of the machine press, and the canal with its retinue of coal barges and attendant ducks. There was a strong evocation of the industrial scene (though of course without the squalor, smoke and smells) and I was particularly impressed with the abandoned anchor, a remnant of the anchor makers who used to work in this area. In its own building was a recreation of the mighty Newcomen engine which, having once lived in a street (in Newcastle NSW) named after the great engineer, I found particularly impressive.

Anchor making was one of the Black Country industries on display in Dudley.

The conference was a packed schedule with up to five parallel streams around these broad themes, each curated by experts in their field.

  • Bodies, Sex and Emotions
  • ‘Deviance’, Inclusion and Exclusion
  • Difference, Minoritization and ‘Othering’
  • Heritage, Environment, Spaces & Places
  • Inequalities, Activism and Social Justice
  • Life Cycles, Families and Communities
  • Politics, Policy and Citizenship
  • Work, Leisure and Consumption

I enjoyed catching up with Emily Cuming, who gave a splendid paper on ‘sailor’s daughters’ which analyzed working class women’s memoirs of absent, and sometimes abusive, sailor fathers. Other highlights were presentations by four curators from different ‘living history’ museums: Simon Briercliffe, director of the Black Country Museum, Kate Hill, from the Cregneash Isle of Man Folk Museum , Natasha Anson, on the Beamish North East England museum, and educationish Megan Schlanker on the use of living history in schools. While we spoke, the Dudley museum was full of teams of school children so it was clear new learning memories were being laid down in these places. The curators pushed back robustly on calls to avoid nostalgia, or to answer calls to highlight or ignore particular aspects of the past. I was also very happy to listen to papers by Bristol colleagues, Marianna Dudley (on the history of wind turbines), and Will Pooley (on queer magic in 19th century rural France).

Kate Hill from the Isle of Wight Living Museum discussing the challenge of representing the past.

As part of the ‘inequalities, activism and social justice’ theme, my paper was in the last session of the last day, and I was grateful to those who stayed the course. It was a privilege to talk about the Mariners project to this engaged and active group of researchers. My topic was ‘Missions to Mariners’, and I spoke about the challenge for reformers of pushing back against the old stereotype of ‘Jack Tar’ in order to promote the value of the pious sailor. There is a wealth of printed and archival sources relating to the movement, much of which we have been exploring for this project, but it is much more difficult to understand the values of working sailors themselves. This is part of my conclusion:

The maritime mission movement would leave a visible mark on British port landscapes, with its floating chapels, on shore seamen’s churches, institutes and bethels, and provision for education, housing and other forms of welfare. Although very little of this religious infrastructure remains, it initiated a revolution in the image of the sailor, from ‘Jack Tar’ to sober worker, which by the end of the century had largely displaced the drunken caricature of an earlier era.

My paper will be included in the Special Issue of the Social History Society journal, Cultural and Social History. The revised papers from the Mariners conference held on the ss Great Britain are now coming in and we hope the whole collection will soon be available, online and fully open access.