The Marine Society is well known for supplying boys to the Navy in the eighteenth century, but apprenticeships to merchant ships became a key function of charity by the mid-nineteenth century.
Using the registers and correspondence of the Society, data has been gathered on 25,000 ‘forgotten’ boys to develop not only a missing piece of maritime history, but to also shed light on a number of interesting social and economic issues.
Where did these boys come from? Who employed them? Where were they sent? What was life like for these boys? Did they succeed in obtaining a better life? Did they survive?
Dr Caroline Withall will present some answers to questions like these, together with some fascinating individual tales.
Venue Details
BLAYDES HOUSE,
Maritime Studies Centre,
6 High Street,
Hull,
HU1 1HA
Blaydes House was built around 1740 as the home and business premises of the Blaydes family. The family included shipbuilders, shipowners, merchants and local political figures who played a leading part in the commercial and civic life of eighteenth-century Hull. The house, with its elegant panelled rooms and sweeping carved staircase, demonstrates the prosperity and self-confidence of the town’s mercantile elite. It is a typical Georgian merchant’s house, among the most impressive of several such buildings that have survived on the High Street. The house has been sympathetically restored, with period colour schemes. Since 2001 Blaydes House has been the home of the University of Hull’s Maritime Historical Studies Centre.
