The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-19 00:00:00

The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society.

The 27th annual meeting of this benevolent so-
ciety was held yesterday at the United Service In-
stitution ; Admiral the Earl of Shrewsbury and
' Talbot presided. The objects of the society are to
board, lodge, clothe, and forward to their homes or
' to their nearest consuls, if foreigners, all wrecked
sailors, soldiers, or other poor persons of all nations
cast destitute upon the coast ; to assist seamen and
others, subscribers to the society, to replace their
losses by storm or other accident of the sea, and to
relieve their widows (after their own decease), or-
phans, and aged parents ; and to give medals and
other rewards for endeavours to save life from ship-
wreck. The report, read by the secretary, stated
that the terrible storms of the past winter, with
,traoncvdohnessseeci es
vaesureatnlhceotl—hosemsr afiodnfeethmveeosLrseeolssntdroiokini,necigwuibtayhi
such
r souls,
oaa
uwt
ha
sful
size, in addition to the fearful disaster at Torbay,
where eight vessels went down at their anchors with
all their crews, and where 50 others were driven on
the beach and numbers Of men perished--had stirred
up the hearts of the benevolent to aid the society in
their Christian labour. Her Majesty, besides her
donation of 100 guineas, had added an annual sub-
scription of £25 ; the Princess of Wales had ex-
pressed her sympathy by a donation of £5O ; and a
large number of additional donations had been re-
ceived, so that, notwithstanding the heavy demands
on the resources of the society, the need had been
met without trenching on its small invested pro-
perty. The gross income for the year ending the 31st
of December, 1865, amounted to £16,060 4s. 3d.,
d theonototal to £15,964 7s. Bd. The number
of dsubscribers was 22,200, and of
a nrsand outlay
fishermenntimber of vessels rebinwgted was
each),
between 49, mariners 4 "4,0
The
and
00 and 5,000 annually. During
Colonies,to
the past year 5,348 shipwrecked Persons had
been relieved and forwarded to their homes, in_
of vrietssisehlsAbraeleorintng
America,F . Aus-
tria,France,
elad i
Belgium,ng crews
B
Hamburg, Hanover, Holland,
Italy, Prussia, Russia,
Spain, and Turkey. Relief had been given to 3,806
widows, 'orphans, and aged parents. The whole
number of persons relieved
in 1865 was 9,154, mak-
ing a total of 148,718 • since the formation of the
society in 1839 • 33
1 gold and 178 silver medals, and
a sum of £896, had been awarded for assisting at
the saving of 547 , 0 persons since 1851. The chair-
man regarded the report as being highly satisfac-
tory, but said h.e could not help expressing his re-
gret at the very thin attendance of members on thatis
occasion. In a great maritime country like hth
whose commercial relations extended throughout
the guut
the world, and to whose mercantile marine, there-
fore, it was obvious an increasing number of
•acci-
dents, as its population increased, must happen,
such a society was a necessity, and required a pro-
portionate development. in No charity the coun-
try was more entitled to
the support of the public,
in conjunction with
the National Lifeboat Institu-
tion, which had pretty nearly the same objects in
view. The report was
then received and adopted,
and tft ards addressed by Mr.
G. A. he
rograve, meeting
was
Generala
mr. afterwards
Sir Edward Cust, Rear-
B
T. A. Fieldwick, Capt.
Admiral Buckle, C. 8.,
Lieber.
and,
R vote.N., Rear-A nura
d' l h
• a and
and a of thanks to the cßoultbeeirm an 'closed
others,
the proceedings.