George Charles 'Boatswain' Smith and the Wreck of Floating Chapels

The Rev G.C. Smith was a Baptist minister and former midshipman on HMS Agamemnon who served with distinction under Nelson in the battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and enjoyed the patronage of Admiral James Gambier. 

Smith is credited as the founding father of missions to seamen, beginning with the creation of floating chapels on the Thames and other British ports. In reality, he was a disruptive, overbearing and financially dubious chancer, who did more than anyone to shipwreck repeated attempts to uplift the working conditions and moral standing of ordinary seamen. 

This talk will examine the battles with Smith over the creation of Port of London Society's Floating Chapel on the Thames, and others created for Bristol, Hull, Liverpool and elsewhere. It will consider the evidence for Smith's influence, based largely on his self-authored accounts in the stream of pamphlets and magazines that he produced to promote himself and the sailor's cause, including the Sailor's Magazine. It will consider the extent to which Smith deserves credit for the creation of the movement for Sailors' Homes, the foundation of the Sailor Society, the earliest attempts to organise temperance work among working sailors, and the network of missions, floating chapels, homes for orphaned sailors' children, and rescue work for prostitutes in port districts. 

While respecting Smith's legacy as, at one point, one of the most popular preachers in London, and a man venerated by many working sailors, it will draw attention to other influential figures in the creation of missions to seamen, but whose contribution has been neglected in favour of the dominant role of Smith and his admirers. 

Why should we worry about Smith and his legacy? What do we learn by studying Smith's publications? How does this matter today? 

About the speaker: Hilary Carey

Hilary Carey is a religious and cultural historian whose research interests lie in the history of religion and imperialism. She is interested in big historical questions such as how religion serves to tie empires together, or tear them apart. She has published widely on religion and punishment, the history of religious orders, missions and missionaries, missionary linguistics, the history of the colonial Bible, and ‘colonial’ missions to British settler colonies. Her most recent book, Empire of Hell, provides a religious history of the campaign to end the transportation of British and Irish convicts and won the Kay Daniels prize. Her current projects include a collaborative history of missions to seamen.

Header image: The Chapel for Seamen, moored off Wapping Stairs in the River Thames (PAH8470) © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London