Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/65

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nations for securing the due qualifications of masters and seamen, or for providing institutions for their benefit in sickness and old age. With the exception of Greenwich Hospital, created for the benefit of seamen serving in the Royal Navy, England possesses no State institution appropriated exclusively for the education of our merchant seamen, or for their benefit in sickness or old age. The Merchant Seaman's Fund was abolished in 1851; and I know of no institution in this country where the aged seaman can find refuge, except one which was recently established, and is maintained by voluntary subscriptions. There are, of course, numerous charitable*