Charity and Philanthropy in a Coastal World: Scottish Fishing Communities and the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society, 1839–1848

Abstract

Using the concepts of coastscapes and small worlds, and introducing a coastal and environmental perspective to the history of welfare, this chapter examines the networks established between Scottish fishing communities and the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariner’s Royal Benevolent Society (SMS), a maritime charity founded in 1839 during the Victorian age of philanthropy. By investigating its first decade, this chapter argues that the SMS was dependent upon coordination and mutual support between the Central Committee in London and local agents and elites in coastal regions of Scotland, who operated local branches, and advocated for and assisted fishing communities in times of distress brought on by extreme weather. Two case studies are examined: that of the loss of Shetland fishermen in 1840 and the Moray Firth Disaster in 1848.