Priest in deep water : Charles Plomer Hopkins and the 1911 seamen's strike /R.W.H. Miller.

A biography of Charles Plomer Hopkins (1861-1922). As cathedral organist in Rangoon, Hopkins became increasingly involved with the local church's ministry to seafarers. Following his ordination, he became a seamen's chaplain in Burma and then India where he founded a seamen's union and, dedicated to the welfare of seamen, used the Merchant Shipping Acts to take court action against captains and ship owners. Accusations of impropriety, murder and financial malpractice followed him when he returned to England in 1894. He founded an Anglican Benedictine monastery at Alton Abbey in Hampshire and established priories in Greenwich and Barry to continue his work with the maritime community. Then, working with the National Sailors' and Firemens' Union (NSFU) and as Secretary of the International Committee of Seamen's Unions, he called the first international strike of merchant seamen in 1911. After the strike was over he was appointed a trustee of the NSFU, serving until 1922, and was Joint Secretary of the National Maritime Board founded in 1917. He continued to write and campaign for improvements in safety and conditions at sea, publishing Altering Plimsoll's Mark in 1913 and in 1920, The National Service of British Seamen, 1914-18, an account of the role of the merchant navy during the First World War.