Author: hilary.carey

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

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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

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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

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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.

Mariners Exhibition Launch 7 May 2025

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There was high excitement in Bristol’s Mount Without as curator, Lucy Wray, led the launch of the Mariners exhibition: Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports.

Lucy Wray

The exhibition is the final, flagship event for the Mariners project and will be touring to Hull and Liverpool before returning to Bristol for a week in time for the Bristol Harbour festival, 18-20 July.

As Lucy explained, the exhbition includes a series of panels that highlight the major themes of the project – Race, Religion, Ports, and Gender – with biographies of key figures in the 19th century marine mission movement.

The exhibition features the work of three artists commissioned to interpret the themes of the project in their own individual ways. At the exhibition launch, the artists provided guests with some words of explanation about their own background, and how their artwork reflected on the historical themes of the project. As this was the first time any of them had seen the scale of the panels which featured their work, it was exciting to see their reactions to full-scale of the displays.

Exhibition Launch: Mariners: Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports

In her piece, award-winning artist Charlotte Jones incorporated elements of her family history. As she explained to us in her original brief: ‘I have a personal connection to this fantastic project as both sides of my family worked in the Liverpool docks at the later end of this era. One great grandfather was a cooper, and one grandfather was in the Merchant Navy.’ For the exhibition, Charlotte created a series of illustrations inspired by photographs of working lascars and merchant seamen that focus on community, race and empire. This has been realised in a series of stylised images in sepia colours evoking both nostalgia and empathy for their hard-working lives.

The study by Kremena Dimitrova incorporated her signature story-book sequences, using archival images and text, to visually narrate the experiences of merchant seamen of all nationalities.

In his contribution, Will Lindley focussed on maritime buildings and institutions, including floating chapels, missions, Sailors’ homes and orphanages, from across the project’s four case study ports. Many of these no longer exist. Reading from west to east, these were Bristol, Liverpool, Hull and London. Will’s illustrations were blown out in some cases to show the internal features of the buildings. In front of the Liverpool Seamen’s Orphan Institution, Will sketched the ghostly and poignant images of seamen’s orphans attending a church service. In his brief, Will explained: ‘My work is rooted in drawing and emerges from historical and contemporary explorations and research… drawing on training and experience in architecture, regeneration, heritage and engagement.’

The launch was a great opportunity for colleagues, students, artists and members of the Advisory Board, including Professor Brad Beaven from Portsmouth, and community historan, Asif Shakoor, to join us in appreciating these artists’ vision for our project.

In case you were wondering how we chose our three artists. The framework was laid out in the Mariners grant proposal, as funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. We knew that we wanted to engage professional artists, with a portfolio of work, and that the budget allowed us to offer to pay for ten days’ work in line with the rates recommended by the UK Artists’ Union.  The initial brief was reviewed by the project team in March 2024. We put out a call for artists as widely as possible, including the Arts Council’s Arts Jobs UK and the Mariners website, and chose those which aligned best.

Thanks to all – but especially to Lucy Wray whose imagination and enthusiasm brought the exhibition together. Look out for the progress of the exhibition as it moves to Hull, Liverpool and back to Bristol over the next few months.

The exhibition will be travelling to the following sites – with some adjustment depending on local circumstances:

Hull: 13th May- 26th June

Venue address: Hull History Centre, Worship St, Hull HU2 8BG 

Liverpool: End of May to end of July.

Venue address: Liverpool Record Office, 3rd Floor Central Library, William Brown Street, L3 8EW

Bristol: 7th July- 20th July 

Venue address:  St Stephen’s Church, 21 St Stephen’s St, Bristol BS1 1EQ 

 

 

You’re invited: Mariners exhibition launch, 7 May 2025

Posted on by hilary.carey
The Mariners exhibition, curated by Lucy Wray and featuring work by commissioned artists, will open in May in Bristol before touring to Liverpool and Hull later in the year.
You are warmly invited to the launch of the Mariners: Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports 1801-1914 project exhibition.
When: Wednesday 7th May, 14:00 – 15:30
Location: The Mount Without, Upper Church Ln, Bristol. BS2 8FN.
This UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project (AH/W009803/1), explores the histories of missions to sailors in British ports. It examines the experiences of both British sailors and ‘Lascars’, a term used for largely South Asian seafarers who became an increasingly significant labour force within the merchant marine.
This travelling exhibition will be displayed in Liverpool, Hull and Bristol in 2025.
It features project research and commissioned artwork from Kremena Dimitrova, Charlotte Jones, and William Lindley.
There will be light refreshments served, and the bar will be open for guests to purchase drinks.
Please RSVP via our Eventbrite page here.
Best wishes,
The Mariner’s project team. 

Smith and the New Sailor’s Magazine

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Back to the BL

After a long time waiting for the British Library to recover from the cyber attack earlier this year, it was exciting to be back and able to order in advance. On 4 December, I arrived early and found my orders waiting for me. Thank you BL staff!

British Library

Smith and the New Sailor’s Magazine

This time my principal target was the original – and undigitised – copies of the G.C. (‘Boatswain’) Smith’s issues of the Soldier’s and New Sailor’s Magazine (NSM), which was published by Smith from his headquarters in and around Wellclose Square in London from 1828 and continued, though with many changes of name, until Smith’s death in 1863. I was intrigued because historians have differed over the significance of this journal and Smith’s place in the marine mission movement.

Smith launched the New Sailor’s Magazine as an act of defiance following his dismissal as editor of the Sailor’s Magazine and acrminomious split from the main dissenting mission for seamen in London, the Port of London Society and Bethel Union (PLSBUS).New Sailor's Magazine

According to Kverndal (1986: 271), Smith was entirely the injured party, and had every right to take his talents elsewhere. He argues that Smith had triumphantly created the Mariner’s Church and its numerous satellite welfare and mission work for sailors’ and their families, while all Smith’s dissenting and Church rivals floundered without support or effectiveness. But was it really the case? Is it correct, as Kverndall (1986: 274) states, that the PLSBUS was motivated by sheer jealousy of Smith’s ‘continuing success, coupled with their own diminishing support’?

In fact, this is rather less than the whole story, as I soon discovered by reading Smith’s New Sailor’s Magazine, which proudly proclaimed Smith as the ‘late editor of the Sailor’s Magazine’.

As with all of Smith’s publications, marketing and branding were key features with attempts to entice subscribers and supporters through calls to patriotism, religion and national pride. The first volume included three separate publications, The Soldier’s Magazine and Military Chronicle, aimed at soldiers,  The New Sailor’s Magazine and Naval Chronicle, for supporters of maritime missions, and a monthly brochure for the Sailor’s Asylum and New Brunswick Institution, the precursor to the London Sailors’ Home.

The Soldier’s Magazine was brashly patriotic and included an engraving of Smith’s most important patron, Admiral Lord James Gambier (1756-1833). The cover was embellished with a header including flags, cannon, helmets, a trumpet and drum to the left, with naval emblems of an anchor, sails and masts to the right. Beneath was the logo: ‘Fear God. Honor the King’. It would take a wise reader to realise that the main business of the magazine was not to serving members of the military, but rather former soldiers and sailors of the merchant service and their urban patrons.

The cover of the New Sailor’s Magazine is less showy, but there are indications that Smith’s resources were rather less than he claimed. Unsurprisingly, there are no stories from the PLS and Bethel Union, and Smith instead resorted to publishing the sermon delivered by the Rev. William Scorseby, Anglican chaplain to the Episcopal Society for Sailors at Liverpool. Scorseby would soon become celebrated in his own right, as an Arctic explorer, and patron of Anglican missions to seafarers, especially deep sea fishermen.

With the editorial licence of The New Sailor’s Magazine, Smith would  denigrate the efforts of the Episcopal floating chapel in Liverpool and London, and the successful efforts of Anglican Evangelicals to make a success of the London Sailor’s Home, but for now he was dependent on Church rather than Chapel sources to fill the pages of his new magazine.

BFSSFS debt

The first sign of serious problems for Smith and his enterprises appear with the financial report published in the June 1828 issue of the New Sailor’s Magazine following the annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Seamen’s & Soldier’s Friend Society, or Mariners’ Church & Watermen’s Bethel Union (BFSSFS). While each monthly issue  always included a gratifying and minutely detailed list of all donations, big and small, this was the first set of fully audited accounts, as signed by William Hodge, W.G. Barnard, and R. Ward. These showed that from 17 May 1827 to 15 May 1828, income received had reached almost £2000, but there was a heavy debt of almost £800 for printing, stationers and ‘agents’ salaries’, ie payments to those employed full-time to collect funds for the society. Smith could not afford his grand publications, or his vision for a charitable empire based on the Mariner’s Church, nor could he afford to alienate the wealthier patrons who had earlier flocked to the Port of London Society and its signature floating chapel.

FS Accounts 1827-28

The ‘agents’ salaries’ are a particularly worrying feature of the cash account. They show that about 25% of all donations had been expended in salaries to those responsible for raising funds. Moreover, ‘travelling expenses’ amounted to over £200 – more than a year’s salary for many clergy – much of which would have been incurred by Smith on his relentless promotional and lecture tours. This was not sustainable, and the reality was that Smith’s Mariner’s church enterprise, conducted in belligerent rivalry to that of like-minded dissenting and Anglican Evangelical supporters of the same cause, was a white elephant. Yet Smith continued to attract admirers and donations, which the following year, 1828-29, were reported by the Missionary Register as no less than £3462. Twelve months later, the same journal reported that the BFSSFS debt stood at £1500, inflating to £2500 in 1831 and to £3000 by 1832. (Adjusted for inflation, this is the equivalent of over £420,000 today). This was a colossal burden for any small, voluntary society, even today, but was an overwhelming and alarming liability in 1832. Smith’s solution was to exclude any mention of the debt from the New Sailor’s Magazine,  while continuing to solicit new donations and make a show of transparency by listing everyone who made a contribution.

These were heady days for the marine mission movement, with handsome donations and subscriptions recorded by the Missonary Register (1830: 517) for a range of maritime missionary causes, including £3393 for the venerable Naval and Military Bible Society, £597 for the Merchant Seaman’s Bible Society, and £1700 for the Sailors’ Home. Smith’s main dissenting rival, the Port of London Society received a modest £884, reflecting the competition for support especially in London, but was managing to survive and – importantly – remained solvent.

Smith’s legacy

I have scrutinised Smith’s legacy as the leading figure in the maritime mission movement for an article forthcoming in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. Smith’s personality has divided critics, with those from within his own Baptist and dissenting tradition, including Kverndal (1986) and Dray (2013) keen to overlook his financial improprieties. I am more critical, not least because hundreds of people of very small means contributed to the cause, and were entitled to know that their donations were spent helping sailors, not chasing Smith’s grandiose and debt-laden ambitions.

It may not be possible to untangle the details at this distance in time, but there is a smoking gun, and a pattern of over enthusiastic promotion, unexplained or inadequately explained debt, and the reality that Smith would eventually be imprisoned four times for debt.

Sources

Dray, Stephen. 2013. A Right Old Confloption Down Penzance (Carn-Brea Media: n.p.).

Kverndal, Roald. 1986. Seamen’s missions: their origin and early growth (William Carey Library: Pasadena, Calif).

CMS. Missionary Register, 17-20 (1829-1832). Yale Mission Periodicals Online

NSM. Soldiers’ Chronicle and New Sailor’s Magazine, 1-2 (1828-29).

 

Mariners at Treefest

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It is the season for – Christmas trees!.

St Mary Redcliffe from docks
St Mary Redcliffe from the Bristol city docks.

The Mariners team is excited to be planning a contribution to Treefest Bristol 2024

What is Treefest?

Treefest is a spectacular festive display of Christmas trees held within the splendid gothic church of St Mary Redcliffe.

Treefest is an opportunity for local people, schools, businesses, charities, community groups and other organisations to decorate a tree and display it  in the atmospheric gothic surrounds of St Mary Redcliffe. It’s a good opportunity to tell our 1000s of visitors about your organisation for free, while helping to raise money for local charities.

So far, our research administrator, Abi Freeman, has bought a tree and acquired bunting from our project partner, the Hull History Centre. We are having fun creating maritime-themed decorations, with a research cutting edge.

Look out for more upates on Treefest in coming weeks.

Word on the Waters – from the Mariners conference

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The following post is written by Claire Weatherall, the archivist responsible for  the Mission to Seafarers collection at Hull History Centre and a member of the Mariners Advisory Board. In the post, they explore the question: What can we glean about the lives of sailors from the first publication of the Missions to Seamen? This was presented as part of the Mariners conference, at the ss Great Britain on 12-13 September.

Introduction 

Whilst cataloguing the archive of the Mission to Seafarers I learnt much of the lives of the chaplains and lay readers who undertook the daily work of the organisation. Regular reports and correspondence from port stations to head office capture the activities of these missionaries in ports across the world. We might similarly expect to find the archive littered with references to individuals aided by the organisation. However, details of the lives of seafarers that the Mission sought to help are rarely captured in the official record. 

We must think creatively to uncover the lived experiences of seafarers as revealed through interactions with missionary organisations. When cataloguing a series of publications produced by the Mission, I noticed that extracts from chaplains’ diaries, since lost to time, were often included in the early magazines. These extracts record encounters between chaplains and individual seafarers. 

The Mission’s first known magazine, The Word on the Waters, was published in 1858 (Hull History Centre Reference: U DMS/13/1/1). It was intended for circulation amongst seafarers and supporters of the Mission’s aims. With this in mind, we should consider that content was likely selected to demonstrate successful outcomes from the Mission’s work and to expound its Christian objectives. Nevertheless, the details captured in chaplains’ accounts can help us piece together narratives of seafarers’ lives.

First volume of The Word on the Waters  1 (1858) and illustrated issue from The Word on the Waters, new ser. 33 (1897) whoiwing ‘A mission-cutter at work’. MTS Archive, Hull History Centre.

The lives of seafarers 

So, what kind of details can we learn? 

Firstly, we find that life in port away from home could leave seafarers vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals. An extract from the correspondence of the Mission’s first chaplain describes meeting a sailor in a ‘forlorn’ state whilst walking in the street. The sailor is said to have recounted coming ashore with several months of wages, being helped to buy new clothing and find somewhere to stay, where he was plied with alcohol and women, before receiving a huge bill that he was having to go back to sea to work pay off (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.34-35). The description matches a practice known as crimping, which many seafarers in port are known to have experienced. Whilst the anecdote is used to caution against the dangers of drunkenness and lewd behaviour, the details help us understand how easily sailors in a strange port could be taken advantage of. It also helps us understand factors contributing to financial hardship faced by some individuals. 

Extract from Word on the Waters: ‘Surely the owners of ships should have more regard to the lives of seamen’.

We can glimpse details of physical conditions endured by seafarers. For example, a Bristol Channel chaplain records encountering a man onboard ship who was placed in irons and kept to a prison diet for striking the ship’s mate, thus revealing something of punishment at sea in practice (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.68). The same extract also notes that the chaplain was able to help secure the man’s release. Another extract highlights the lack of medical care available to seafarers: In the extract, a chaplain to the English Channel recounts visiting a vessel whose crew had been struck down by fever. The chaplain states that he found one man to be particularly ill but that the captain refused to allow him to be taken ashore for medicine. He describes rowing back at night with a surgeon friend and medicine to help the man (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, pp.116-119). Incidentally, in both examples, intervention by a chaplain led to physical improvements in the individual’s situation, suggesting that missionaries had a role to play in safeguarding the physical welfare of seafarers as well as their spiritual welfare. 

Extracts also reveal details of working conditions experienced by some seafarers. For example, an extract from the journal of a Bristol Channel chaplain recounts the plight of a shipwrecked Scottish crew. He notes that the loss of their ship ‘was occasioned by overloading, and especially by having pine logs on the deck, which, getting adrift in a gale, stove in and carried away everything, rendering it dangerous and impossible also for the men to work the pumps steadily’, continuing ‘owners of the ships should have more regard to the lives of seamen. It is the overloading of vessels which causes a considerable part of the destruction at sea and loss of life’ (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.68-69). 

We see evidence of literacy amongst seafarers. For instance, a Bristol Channel chaplain records meeting a sailor from Calcutta who had been baptized and educated by British missionaries. He notes that the two shared a book to read prayers and exposition during a service (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.67). Another example is given by a chaplain working on the Mersey, who recounts meeting ‘a black cook who had learnt to read English at Demerara’ having ‘obtained an old Bible from a sailor’ (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.187). The same chaplain also describes visiting an American ship and meeting a crew eager to receive reading material and converse with him: ‘All the sailors were blacks… I believe they could all read; they were very civil and respectful’ (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.255). As the above instances relate to seafarers of non-British origin who appeared to engage with Christianity, it is possible their inclusion is part of a narrative informed by missionary colonialism. Nevertheless, the accounts are evidence of reading ability amongst seafaring populations. Indeed, there are numerous instances describing British sailors reading religious texts and discussing the content with chaplains. 

Extracts from the archives reveal how remote seafarers’ lives could be. For example, the honorary chaplain for Plymouth recounts a visit made by himself and female helpers to deliver books to the crew of a lightship. His description suggests such crews had no visitors and welcomed their visit for the conversation and company it brought (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, p.191). Similarly, the description of a visit by a chaplain at Great Grimsby to the lightkeeper and lifeboat crew at Spurn Point states that the inhabitants were 5 miles across sand to the nearest house, that they never had visitors, and the lighthouse keeper complained that ‘no one cares a straw for us poor souls, we may die and the sea bury us for ought others care’ (The Word on the Waters, Vol.1, 1858, pp.85-86). In both instances, the chaplains describe difficulties reaching their destinations and the isolation in which lightkeepers lived. Reading between the lines we can see that missionary staff might have been the only regular company received by some isolated seafarers. 

Final thoughts 

To summarise, the brief entries we find in magazines such as The Word on the Waters can help us reconstruct the lived experience of both British seafarers and sailors of non-British origin. The surviving evidence reveals details of the dangers of life in port, working conditions, literacy, physical welfare, health care, and social contact, in addition to seafarers’ experience of interacting with missionaries. We don’t have space here to consider what conclusions we might draw from such evidence as regards the project’s themes of colonialism, race and religion, but hopefully this quick look has done enough to highlight that missionary magazines are a valuable research resource allowing us to explore these subjects. 

Mariners conference sails away

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Researchers from across the UK, the US, Europe, Australia and India came together  in Bristol to talk and debate issues of race, religion and empire among maritime workers on 12-13 September 2024. From the conference venue we enjoyed a view of the iconic ss Great Britain and, on Friday, followed guides around Brunel’s landmark iron passenger liner.

Delegates took a tour of Brunel’s ss Great Britain.

Over seven lively panels, we encountered the trial of an enslaved black seaman in Victorian London (Umberto Garcia), the pre-history of the Cardiff race riots (Hassam Latif), and the religious background to Birkenhead’s Mere Hall Indian Seaman’s Home (Haseeb Khan). For the British strand, there was a touching account of the emotional lives of children in sailors’ orphan homes (Emily Cuming), and the place of Roman Catholics in the Royal Navy (Michael Snape). Workers’ religious politics in late colonial Calcutta were discussed by Prerna Agarwal, and Florian Stadtler  considered the unique record of Aziz Ahmad and his mission to lascars in Scotland. Justine Atkinson took us to Australia, and the diverse seamen’s missions in the colonial port of Newcastle, NSW, while Houda Al-Kateb provided a rivetting account of passengers on the ss Great Britain – a great way to introduce us to the ship beckoning out the window. Ting Ruan spoke on lighthouses in China, drawing attention to the extreme disparity in the salaries of European and local Chinese workers. The two teams for the Mariners project presented on religion, race and the lascar body, and the soul of the sailor in missions to British seamen.

Haseeb Khan on Birkenhead’s Mere Hall Home for Indian Seamen.

The final session was made up of panels, beginning with archivist extraordinaire, Claire Weatherall, enlightening us on the challenges of knowledge exchange for archives and archivisrts, with examples from the Anglican Missions to Seafarers collection at the Hull History Centre. Asif Shakoor gave a moving presentation on the lascar legacy from the point of view of a community historian, and Brad Beaven and Valerie Burton enlightened us with wit and accumulated wisdom as maritime and social historians of port cities.

We have grand plans for publication, and hope to gather these rich contributions to maritime and religious history into a journal special issue as well as blog posts and contributions to the Mariners website.