MARITIME CHARITY REMEMBERS WARTIME CONTRIBUTION WITH NEW FILM
May 2015
Seventy years after the guns fell silent in Europe, a national maritime charity is marking VE Day (8 May) by launching a new video looking back at the work it undertook during the Second World War, and how its role has changed in the years since.
During the six years of conflict the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society gave financial support to thousands of shipwrecked survivors; not just sailors but soldiers, airmen, nurses and civilians who were landed at British ports after being rescued.
To mark the anniversary, the Society has released an appeal video, featuring its Vice President and former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, filmed on-board Britain’s most iconic ship, HMS VICTORY, a ship, which co-incidentally, was launched 250 years ago on 7 May 1765.
During WW2, the Charity helped over 60,000 people with assistance ranging from providing money for clothing, food, accommodation and rail passes to survivors arriving back in Britain, to financial support for the bereaved families of some of those lost.
In Cardiff alone, one of the 21 ports across the country where survivors were landed during the Battle of the Atlantic – Britain’s worst maritime conflict, the Society helped 104 people and made relief payments of more than £825, the equivalent of around £33,000 in today’s money.
Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society Chief Executive, Commodore Malcolm Williams, said: “During the conflict, the number of people we assisted was immense, difficult for us to comprehend in today’s world.
These days, with shipwrecks being much rarer (usually single-manned fishing vessels) the Society’s name is more of a metaphor for our work – but our primary purpose remains the same – to provide financial help to ex-merchant seafarers, fishermen and their dependants who are in need. They may be retired or unable to work at sea owing to an accident, ill-health or for compassionate reasons or they may have found themselves unemployed often in their late 50s and unable to get a job after only knowing a working life at sea.”
In the last year the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society handled 612 new applications for assistance and distributed £1.4million across 2,200 cases of need.
The new video, which features more information on the Charity and its contribution during WW2, can be viewed in the news section of its website here: www.shipwreckedmariners.org.uk
