FREE central London event
17:15-18:30, 20 February 2018
Wolfson Room I, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, London, WC1 7HU
Dr Caroline Withall will explore the lives of poor boys who went to sea during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Meet apprentices like Edward Kelly, who was beaten so badly he lost the use of his arm, William Cakebread, who was jailed for smuggling, and William Brook, a ‘boy of colour’ recommended by the Lord Mayor of London.
Where did these boys come from? Who employed them and how were they treated? Where were they sent? Did they find better lives at sea? Did they run away? How many of them survived?
The Marine Society is well known for sending boys to the Royal Navy but, as this seminar will show, supplying apprentices for merchant ships became the society’s main focus. Dr Withall will also address broader social and economic issues within British and maritime history, drawing upon data on over 22,000 of these ‘forgotten’ boys.
This talk is free, open to all and there is no need to book.
Lucy Dale (Royal Museums Greenwich)