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Mariners:
Race, Religion and Empire
in British Ports 1801-1914

Bristol's Sailor Quarter

Marine missions and charities in relation to Bristol's floating harbour 

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Port of Bristol

Between 1801 and 1914, the Port of Bristol, located in Bristol and nearby Avonmouth, was a thriving site of shipbuilding and commerce, particularly benefitting from the engineering efforts of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Written by Freya Malhi

Between 1801 and 1914, the Port of Bristol, located in Bristol and nearby Avonmouth, was a thriving site of shipbuilding and commerce, particularly benefitting from the engineering efforts of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In this period, and at the height of the British Empire, the port saw travel between and trade with the Americas, Oceania, Africa, India, China, and many other parts of the world. As shipping moved towards steam from the Age of Sail, Bristol was the home of the trailblazing steamships the SS Great Western and SS Great Britain.  

Bristol has a long history as a centre of shipping. From its beginnings as an inland port on the river Avon in the medieval period, Bristol became a hub of maritime activity. In the 15th century, it would become not only a site of trade with Wales, Ireland, and continental Europe, but also a starting place for voyages to the Americas. Following this, the city's notoriously prominent role in the transatlantic slave trade had its peak in the early 18th century.  

A painting of a ship moored in Bristol harbour.

The Floating Harbour, Bristol Charles Parsons Knight (1829–1897) Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.

Citation for this article

Freya Malhi, 'Port of Bristol' Mariners: Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports 1801-1914, https://mar.ine.rs/where/bristol/
Retrieved 19 May 2024

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Port of London
1782 – 1863
Biographies

A profile of G.C. Smith, known as ‘Boatswain’ Smith, the most celebrated of all pioneer marine missionaries.

1782 - 1863
Port of Bristol
1800 – 1899
British Sailors
Sailors’ Homes

Marine missions and charities in relation to Bristol's floating harbour 

1800 - 1899
Rev. John Ashley (1801-1886)
Port of Bristol
1801 – 1886
Biographies

Pioneer marine missionary and founding figure for the Bristol Channel Mission and Missions to Seafarers.

1801 - 1886
Port of Liverpool
1814 – 1880
Biographies

William Henry Giles Kingson, who published as W.H.G. Kingston, was a successful writer of novels and adventure stories for boys promoting Christian hardiness. He was the main motivating force behind the creation of the first national church mission to seamen, the Anglican Missions to Seamen, now the Mission to Seafarers. 

1814 - 1880
Port of London
1818 – 1832
British Sailors
Missions

The Merchant Seamen's Bible Society was founded in 1818 to supply British merchant ships with copies of scripture.

1818 - 1832
Source: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. PAH8470.  (CC BY-NC-ND)
Port of London
1818
British Sailors
Missions

The Port of London Society (PLS) was founded in London following a meeting held at the City of London Tavern on Thursday 5 February 1818, ‘to consider the best means for affording religious instruction to British Seamen while in the port of London’.

1818
Port of London
1822 – 1899
Biographies

Joseph Salter was one of the most prolific missionaries and writers to address ‘Asiatics’ in nineteenth-century Britain.

1822 - 1899
Port of London
1828
British Sailors
Sailors’ Homes

The London Sailors’ Home was the first short-stay, purpose-built home for sailors, and it set the model for scores of others that followed in British and colonial port cities.

1828
Episcopal Floating Church, London.  
Port of London
1829 – 1846
British Sailors
Missions

The Episcopal Floating Chapel Society was the first attempt by the Church of England to provide a maritime church in the Port of London. 

1829 - 1846
Port of Bristol
1836 – 1857
British Sailors
Missions
1836 - 1857
Hull seaman and orphan asylum
Port of Hull
Port of London
1836
British Sailors

Working seamen lived dangerous and peripatetic lives which left families and dependants unprotected. Orphanages were created to provide opportunities for those left behind.

1836
1837
British Sailors
Missions
Sailors’ Homes

The Sailors' Home was established in 1837 to protect British seamen from crimping and local drinks that the colonial authorities considered pernicious for European constitution, and to 'civilise' them so that they would not destablise the ideology of white racial superiority that underpinned British colonialism.

1837
Maharajah Duleep Bassi dressed for a State function, c. 1875, oil painting by Capt. Goldingham of London.
1838 – 1893
Biographies

Duleep Singh was the last Maharaja of the Sikh empire. He lived in England for most of his life and provided financial support for the Stranger's Home for Asiatics, Africans and Soutsea Islanders. 

1838 - 1893
1843
British Sailors
Missions
Sailors’ Homes

The Wesleyan Seamen's Mission opened in 1843. It was succeeded by the grand Queen Victoria Seamen’s Rest in 1902.

1843
Port of London
1848
British Sailors
Missions
Sailors’ Homes

The Seamen’s Christian Friend Society (1848) had its origins in the ‘Thames Revival’ which emerged among common seamen around the Port of London on the final years of the Napoleonic wars.

1848
Port of Liverpool
1850
British Sailors
Sailors’ Homes

The Liverpool Sailors' Home operated in Canning Place from December 1850. This establishment provided board and food, and carried out additional responsibilities such as medical assistance, religious instruction, and moral, intellectual and professional improvement opportunities.

1850
Port of London
1856
Lascars
Missions
Sailors’ Homes

The foundation stone for The Strangers’ Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders was laid by Prince Albert on 31 May 1856.

1856
The Mission to Seafarers logo
Port of Bristol
Port of London
1856
British Sailors
Missions

Mission to Seafarers was established in 1856 as a national Society, incorporating the Bristol Channel Mission and the Thames Church Mission. The Society provided chaplains to serve vessels and seamen afloat and ashore.  

1856
Port of Bristol
Port of Hull
Port of Liverpool
Port of London
Lascars
British Sailors
Sailors’ Homes

A guide to all the sailors' homes in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland based on a parliamentary return in 1860.

1860
Port of London
1864 – 1939
British Sailors
Missions

St Andrew's Waterside Church Mission was a high church mission at Gravesend catering not just for seamen but fishermen and emigrants.

1864 - 1939
Port of Liverpool
British Sailors
Sailors’ Homes

The prevalence of drunken seamen had far-reaching social consequences in nineteenth-century Liverpool. The annual reports of the Sailors Home state many seamen signed the temperance pledge but the figure never crossed 20 percent.

1864
1840 – 1918
British Sailors
Biographies
Sailors’ Homes

Biography of Dame Agnes Weston

1868
Port of Liverpool
1869
British Sailors

The Liverpool Seamen’s Orphan Institute was established in August 1869 in a temporary accommodation in Duke Street. Supported by leading shipowners and philanthropists it provided protection and education for the mercantile marine’s orphaned children.

 

1869
Port of London
1887 – 1905
Lascars
Biographies
Missions
1887 - 1905
Port of Liverpool
1900
Lascars
Missions

In 1900, a mission room for lascars was established at Morpeth Docks, liverpool. It was known as 'The Birkenhead Mission to Asiatic Seamen'.

1900
Port of London
1903 – 1920
Lascars
Sailors’ Homes

In 1903, a new Japanese Seamen's Home was opened by the Bishop of Osaka at 31 Elizabeth Street, North Woolwich, near the Royal Albert Docks.

1903 - 1920
Port of Liverpool
1910 – 1923
Lascars
Missions

A Lascar Institute in Birkenhead is mentioned in the annual general meeting minutes of the Mersey Mission to Seamen, held at the Liverpool Record Office. This appears to be a continuation of The Birkenhead Mission to Asiatic Seamen. The minutes first mention the Institute from 1910 and continue up into the 1920s, when a new building was constructed.

1910 - 1923
Finished garments for sailors. Source: Ladies Work for Sailors.
Port of Hull
British Sailors
Missions

Women have contributed in many significant ways to the work of missions to seafarers. Marine industries were and are isolating and dangerous, and the risks were endured by families at home as well as those at sea. Women and children were associated with marine missions initially as subjects of charity, but by the 20th century they were playing a more assertive role.

1913