The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-23 00:00:00

Shipwrecked Mariners' Society-

The Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of this most excel-
lent Institution, established under the authority of the
legislature to represent the charity of the British pablic to
shipwrecked sailors of all nations cast upon the coasts of
the United Kingdom, was held at the United Service 'ln-
stitution, Whitehall Yard, Admiral the Earl of Shrewd mry
and Talbot, V.P., took the chair, in the unavoidable h bst tnce
of his Grace the Duke of Marlborough, President of th e
Society.
- - '

We observed. among the company present :—Admirals
Sir William Bowles, G.C.8., V.P., and C. H. M. Buckle,
C.B. ; CaptainS Royal Navy, Honourable Fras. Maude,
G. F. Westbrook, E. G. Fishbourne, C. 8., C. A. Bed-
ford, of the Board of Trade, Alexamier Henning, and
W. H. Symons (Second Secretary); Capt. V. Budd, Capt.
Leckie, Capt. Harris ; G. A. Brograve, Esq., V.,P., Edmund
Pepys, Esq., R. Sweating, Esq., J. H. Lydall, Esq., and
Richard Lewis, Esq. ; Messrs. Hughes, Edwards, and
Flavel ;. Lieut.-Colonel Miles, Rev. E. J. Speck, Rev. Dr.
Cumming, Rev. Thomas Ray (Peckham Collegiate School),
Rev. George Wilkins, Chaplain of the British and Foreign
Sailors' Society, and the Rev. Mr. Armistead, R.N. There
wero also a number of ladies present.

The noble VICE-PRESIDENT with great clearness and
much feeling put before the meeting the objects of the
Society, and in a most excellent speech intro-
duced the secretary, Mr. Lean, who read the
report of the committee, wherein it was stated that, during
the past year, the society had relieved 4,472 shipwrecked
persons, natives, and foreigners of the following nations,
viz., America, Austria, France, Hanover, Prussia, Spain,
Turkey, and Germany ; and 3,882 widows and orphans of
fishermen and mariners, making a total, since the forma-
tion of the society in 1839 of 139,564 ; that 48,245 mariners
voluntarily subscribed 3s. each per annum; that the income
had been £16,594 4s. 10d. in connection with which certain
large donors were mentioned, viz., Messrs. Coutts and Co.,
£25 ; the Rt. Hon. and Very Rev. Viscount Middleton, Dean
of Exeter, per Hon. Capt. F. Maude, R.N., £25 ; Miss West,
£25 ; Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons Im-
prisoned for Small Debts, 3d contribution, £3OO ; Edmund
Clowes, Esq., in lieu of legacy, £lOO ; the Misses Dorset,
of Reading, £5O ; Miss C. Turner, £5O ; the Hon. Rustom-
jee Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, per R. W. Crawford, Esq., M.P.,
£3OO ; Mrs. H. Kemble, £25 ; the Misses Frend, £3l 10s. ;
Capt. Mark Huish, £5O ; Fred. Sheppard, Esq., £5O.
In fulfilment of one of its objects, the encouraging gallant
efforts to save life on the high seas and coast of our colo-
nies, the committee' had awarded during the past year seven
gold and silver medals for saving the lives of shipwrecked
persons. That one of the gold medals was given to Edward
Cleary for swimming with a rope to the Govindpore during
the height of the cyclone at Calcutta in October last, by the
means of which the whole of the crew were saved, the me
dal being presented at Calcuttaby the Lieutenant Governor
in the presence of the Viceroy and a large assembly.
Tho report also stated that a large and influential public
meeting had been held at the Mansion House in April last
—the Lord Mayor in the chair—at which meeting the
Duke of Marlborough andVice-Admiralthe Earl of Shrews-
bury and Talbot, C. 8., were elected Vice-Patrons, Mr.
Thomas Baring, M.P., President, and the following
noblemen and gentlemen, Vice Presidents, viz., Arthur
Anderson, Esq., Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Packet Company ; M. Wolverley Attwood, Esq.,
Chairman of the General Steam Navigation Company ;
Jas. Blyth, Esq. ; Thos. Chapman, Esq. ; the Right Hon.
Lord Henry Cholmondeley ; Alderman Dakin ; Alder-
man Finnis ; Alderman Hale ; Rear Admiral W. H.
Hall, C. 8., F.R.S. ; Captain the Hon. Francis Maude,
E.N. ; Captain C. E. Mangles, H.C.S. ; Vice Admiral
Right Hon. Lord Clarence Paget, M.P. ; William
Phillips, Esq. ; Joseph Somes, Esq. ; William Stuart;
Esq., and Money Wigram, Esq., with a very influential
number of directors, the institution being named the "Bel-
vedere Institution for Worn-out and Disabled Merchant
Seamen," who have no relative ties and to whom a pension
would not suffice in the hands of hirelings. To the direc-

tora thus appointed the committee had had much pleasure
in handing over the tables for a pension fund for worn-out
merchant seamen called " The Mariners' National Pension
Fund," with an annuity fund for mariners' widows accom-
panying it, together with the benevolent supplemental fund,
by the means of which it is hoped the directors will be able
to preserve our worn-out and aged seamen from the work-
house, either by pensioning them out or by taking them
within the walls of the institution (if without wives, &c.)
as circumstances direct.

The report concluded with an earnest appeal to the no-
bility, gentry, and public at large, for help to carry out the
great objects of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society, which
has 792 honorary agents acting as its representatives round
the entire coasts of the United Eingdom, with its central
office at Hibernia Chambers, London-bridge, S.E., and ex-
pressed much confidence that the institution was eminently
calculated to bind our seamen and fishermen to their coun-
try, of which they are its outer and principal wall of de-
fence.
The report was unanimously adopted, and the claims of
the institution were very eloquently advocated by several
of the above-named speakers.