542 FISHERIES AND FISHERMEN 



the personal sufferings of those by whose labour that wealth 

 is gained, there is nothing we can more profitably impress 

 upon the imagination as a farewell picture. At Hibernia 

 Chambers, London Bridge, close by historic Billingsgate, 

 whither for a thousand years the fish of every sea have made 

 their way, stand the offices of the Society brought into exist- 

 ence for the relief of shipwrecked mariners and fishermen. 

 That admirable Institution, established now for more than 

 forty years out of the thousand, and supported by the sub- 

 scriptions of fifty thousand fishermen and mariners, has four 

 objects in view ; to board, lodge, clothe, and generally assist 

 all wrecked seamen or other poor persons of all nations, cast 

 destitute upon the coasts ; to help seamen, whether of the 

 Royal Navy or Merchant Service, fishermen, coast-guards- 

 men, pilots, boatmen and apprentices, subscribers to the 

 Society, towards replacing their clothes and boats when lost 

 by storms or other accidents at sea, and to relieve their widows 

 and orphans, or dependent aged parents ; to award gold 

 and silver medals, and other honorary or pecuniary rewards, 

 for any praiseworthy endeavours to save life from shipwreck 

 on the high seas, or coasts of the colonies ; and to give 

 small gratuities to its old and necessitous members in 

 extreme and special cases. Already more than three 

 hundred thousand persons, including not only mariners, 

 fishermen, pilots and boatmen, but, alas, what is yet more 

 urgently required, the widows, orphans, and aged parents 

 of those whom the sea has claimed, have experienced its 

 benefit in their hour of need. How deep that need must 

 be, may soon be seen from a brief inspection either of 

 that most melancholy of documents, the Annual Wreck 

 Chart published by the Board of Trade, or of the equally 

 significant statistics oftentimes the blank and passionless 

 records of the most passionate and personal sorrows 



