ABSTRACT
The conduct of many publicans and lodging-house keepers increases the evil, for possessing themselves of the Seamen’s money and clothes, they keep them in their power until the whole of their means are exhausted, and they are then left pennyless and without friends. To the successful establishment of the Hospital may probably be traced in a great degree the commencement, some fourteen years later, of Sailors’ Homes, of which those whose thoughts and labours from year to year are especially directed towards Seamen, can never speak too highly. The hospital lending library, for in-patients, was mentioned in several annual reports; gifts from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Religions Tract Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society had significantly boosted numbers of books. The temperature of the River Thames water was the subject of considerable interest, the precise reason remaining unclear.
