WEBVTT - Samuel Plimsoll, the ‘Sailors’ Friend’ 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:13.880 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:18.079 Frye and I'm Crazy v Wilson. I mentioned this in 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.080 our Sneakers episode, so it's not going to be any 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.360 surprise that we're doing this. We also came up in 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.520 another one that it was definitely going to happen today 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.240 is Samuel Plimsoll Day at Last. And when I looked 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.839 up Samuel Plimsol while I was working on a Sneaker 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:39.800 episode because it referenced a part of his life's work 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.040 that we will talk about today, I found out that 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.440 he seemed to be a pretty great guy. He was 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:49.599 an advocate for better working conditions for sailors and an 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.199 advocate for better conditions for a lot of things. A 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.960 lot of write ups and newspaper mentions about him from 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.360 his own time call him an agitator because of this, 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:04.480 because he was not shy about telling people they were 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.520 really doing it wrong when it came to taking care 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.600 of others. So it's just a perfect topic for Stuff 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:14.640 you missed in History Class. Listen. Uh, There's always a 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.560 possibility when you're working on one of these that the 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.840 person that you're talking about had some sort of secret 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.039 ugliness in the dark corners of his life. But if 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.400 he did, I sure did not find it, which was 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:31.360 a huge relief because often secret racism and I did 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.840 not encounter any such stories about Samuel Plimsoll. It so 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.720 often shows up so late in the process, yes, that 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:40.959 it's like, well, now I have to take a totally 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.880 different direction with this episode, yeah, or we have to 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:49.120 have this big caveat about Yeah. Seemed like seemed like 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.640 it was great, honestly wanted to make the world a 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.960 better place, and then it took a turnt so. Samuel 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.760 plimsl was born on February tenth, eighteen twenty four, in Bristol, England, 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.639 which is in the southwest part of the country, about 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.960 one hundred miles west of London. The River Avon runs 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.240 through the center of Bristol and out the nearby Bristol 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:16.280 Channel that connects to the Atlantic Ocean. His father, Thomas Plemsil, 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.919 was an excise man, and his mother was Priscilla Willing Clemson, 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.400 and her father had been a shipwright. The family was large. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.560 Samuel had twelve siblings, although several of them died in childhood. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.960 He was Thomas and Priscilla's seventh child and was described 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.880 in one writing about him as quote an old head 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.200 on young shoulders. When Samuel was three, the family moved 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.240 to the town of Penrith in Cumberland. They moved again 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:49.679 when he was fourteen, to Sheffield. Samuel's activist proclivities evidenced 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.760 themselves very early on in his life. When he was 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.040 a young teenager, he wrote a pamphlet for social reform 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.560 while still in school, titled A Plan to have Fatherless 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.200 and motherless children cared for instead of being consigned to 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:09.000 the workhouse. Uh. Basically, he didn't want kids to have 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.320 to go through dredgery just because they had already had 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:16.000 a family tragedy. And this little pamphlet might have been 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.640 inspired in part by the serialization of Oliver Twist, which 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:23.200 was published monthly in the magazine Bentley's Miscellini starting in 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.760 eighteen thirty seven. There's been a lot of speculation that 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.280 he read that and was very moved to try to 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.560 make an effort to create better conditions for orphans. When 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.760 Thomas died, the family fell into poverty, and that of 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.720 course had a significant impact on Samuel, who was sixteen 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.080 at the time of his father's death. Although he was 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.920 still just a kid, he was the oldest son at 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.840 home and that meant he was responsible for the family's 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.240 welfare and he had to take care of his mother 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.200 and his five younger siblings. Initially, he was kind of 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.040 hustling to make ends meet by managing a widow's pension 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.240 that his mother received, and that included saving a little 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.320 bit on the side so that he could buy hair 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.360 pelts and send them to his older brother in London 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.560 to resell for a profit. Then Samuel left school to 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.520 start working as a lawyer's clerk. He moved on to 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.640 a clerking position at the Pond Street Brewery a couple 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.799 of years later. He also wrote speeches for Thomas Burks, 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.479 who was a partner in the brewery and also the 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:28.719 mayor of Sheffield. But although he was not attending regular school, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.279 he knew he had to get a complete education, and 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.080 he started going to night classes at the People's College 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.640 of Sheffield after it opened in eighteen forty two. What 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.800 would a mid nineteenth century English episode be without the 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.160 inclusion of the London Great Exposition of eighteen fifty one. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.640 I feel like it's a recurrent character on Stuffian Bison 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:54.159 history class, and that's fine by me. Plimsol worked to 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.880 ensure that Sheffield was well represented there at that expo. 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.479 He also got to show off several of his own 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:05.280 inventions there. Biographer Nicolette Jones, writing in two thousand and six, 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:10.680 put Samuel Plimsel's inventive tendencies this way quote. Samuel specialized 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.320 in simple logical solutions that someone else should have thought 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.599 of before. One that was on display at the expo 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.880 was an umbrella that had no handle. It was designed 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.640 to attach to a walking stick that somehow reminds me 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.560 of the tents that are made by things that connect 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.919 to people's hiking poles. Yeah, just cutting down on the 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.200 amount of stuff that you got to carry around. That 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.520 seemed to be a lot of his inventions were very like, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.960 why don't we just simplify this a little bit? Yeah. Great. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.240 On December twentieth, eighteen fifty one, the warren Vale Colliery 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.320 at Swinton, Yorkshire had an explosion that was at six 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.760 point fifty five am. Fifty one people died, and roughly 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.360 half of them were teenagers really on the younger side 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.000 of their teen years. While an investment stigation looked into 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.839 the cause of this blast, plem Cell saw a more 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.000 immediate need, which was help for the survivors and the 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.760 families who were dealing with this loss. Just as the 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.240 pamphlet he wrote as a teenager had shown, he thought 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.200 there were better ways to help orphaned children than to 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.039 put them in a workhouse, and he started a fund 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.120 to ensure that these children and widows who were left 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.840 behind would have their needs met as they grieved and 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.159 as they tried to rebuild their lives. Over the course 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.039 of the next decade, Plimsel carefully built up his finances, 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.160 but he also used his energies to help people in 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.440 his community. In fact, he later said quote I was 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.240 desirous of wealth as a condition of devoting myself to 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.680 public service. Through the connections that he made through working 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.920 with Thomas Burks, he was able to become a coal merchant, 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.120 working with railway companies to secure transport deals, and he 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.719 moved to London in eighteen fifty three to support this 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.360 new career. This was a departure from the way that 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.279 coal had been transported for centuries, which was of course 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.919 largely by sea and then sometimes by horse cart. He 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.480 left his job at the brewery and he invested in 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.320 the Great Northern Railway as part of this business move, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.040 and that was a bad idea. He trusted the wrong 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.520 people and this investment led to bankruptcy because he kind 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.360 of got cheated out of that investment, but he did 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.680 still believe in the idea of rail transport for coal. 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:29.840 Because of his financial problems, he had to live in 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.320 a charity house in London. He'd later described feeling ashamed 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.720 of being in such a position, but that the months 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.400 that he lived alongside the city's poorest residence gave him 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:46.040 a valuable education about compassion and care. He wrote about 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.840 the way people with very little formed community and took 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.560 care of one another with shared resources and with kindness. 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.520 This experience gave him an even deeper resolve to help 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.600 people who were in need, and that became the guiding 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.160 principle of his life. He started working as a coal 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.600 merchant again, building up a clientele by asking satisfied customers 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.320 to tell their friends about him. As he built up 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.680 his financial reserves, he also purchased some property along the 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.040 planned route of a new underground railway. He knew that 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.280 the railway company would have to purchase these properties. Even 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.800 though it seemed like a safe bet, this was still 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.560 risky because he had to borrow money for a lot 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.520 of these purchases. But this time the investment paid off 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.280 and plumsall made a lot of money. He also patented 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.160 an invention for the coal industry as he was getting 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.439 back on his feet financially. It was a coal drop 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.280 that enabled workers to empty out wagons without damaging the coal. 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.840 Prior to this, a lot of this would end up broken, 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.240 and that meant losses for the company, and it also 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:55.800 meant more work for the laborers. Plimshall's invention improved his 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.520 own coal business, it helped him continue to grow his fortune, 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:04.000 and it also became fairly standard in the industry. Coming up, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.480 we'll talk about Samuel Primzel's one arrest, but first we 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:20.840 will pause for a sponsor break. Samuel Plimsel very clearly 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.360 had a well developed sense of right and wrong from 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.840 a young age, but that did cause problems on occasion. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.760 In eighteen fifty six, when Plimsoll was thirty two, he 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.000 got into a bit of legal trouble when he was 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:37.439 arrested for assault. This had occurred late in the evening 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:41.000 on Waterloo Bridge where Samuel and a friend were crossing. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.240 It was something that they had to pay a toll 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.920 of a halfpenny to cross. Plimsell's friend had paid a penny, 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.400 covering them both, but while the friend walked through the turnstile, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.360 Plimsol walked around it and proceeded on the carriageway instead 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.000 of the footpath. It was kind of like they were 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.240 walking side by side, and he didn't want to stop 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.000 their conversation and to get in single file line. He 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:06.960 just kept going, Uh. It's a little bit unclear because 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.160 it seems like because it was late and the bridge 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.560 was quiet, he just wanted to, like I said, maintain 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.559 his side by side walking with his friend rather than 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.800 having to shift their arrangement. But the tollkeeper did not 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.680 enjoy this. He yelled at Plimsol and said he had 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.800 to come back and walk through the turnstile. Plimsole refused 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.080 to do it, insisting that the toll had been paid 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.280 he was entitled to cross that bridge. However, he pleased. 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.120 It is unclear what the nature of the assault was. 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:38.880 As this conflict escalated, but after he was released on bail, 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.679 Samuel Primsol returned to the bridge, paid a halfpenny and 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.680 asked the tollkeeper to show him the legal documentation that 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.719 said that he could not cross the bridge on the carriageway. 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.480 He knew that no such law could be produced, uh, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:56.520 and so it was kind of just his way to 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.520 make his point and be a little bit spiteful. Three 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.120 days later, though, Plimsol was before a judge arguing that 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.480 he had paid for access to the bridge and that 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:09.240 the tollkeeper had been insolent. This case did not go 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.440 Plimsol's way. He was fined three pounds. But I really 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.040 like that story. I like it too. It's so funny 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:21.199 to be like the tollkeeper's insolence was not a legal matter. Really, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.320 he was a jerk. So I wasn't going to go back. 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:27.440 I paid my thing. I didn't do anything wrong. There's 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.680 no law. There's not even a sign that says I 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.560 have to do it this way. Yeah, why do I 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:38.640 have to pay three pounds? A horrible tragedy played out 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.080 in Womwell, South Yorkshire, on February nineteenth, eighteen fifty seven. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:47.360 A colliery that sat between Womwell and the nearby village 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:52.360 of els Gar had a catastrophic explosion. There were two 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.480 hundred and twenty people in the mine when this explosion happened, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.120 and one hundred and eighty nine of them were killed, 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.360 as well as all of the horses. Some of the 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.880 workers who died were experienced miners in their fifties, but 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.079 some of them were children as young as ten years old. 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.720 According to the Northern Mind Research Society, ninety women were 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.240 widowed that day and two hundred and twenty children were orphaned. 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:20.880 Once again, Plimsoll led the relief effort and raised more 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.880 than ten thousand pounds to help the families and to 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.440 keep people out of workhouses. In addition to raising money, 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.360 he also did his own analysis of the conditions in 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.880 the minds and made recommendations regarding a number of early 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.680 warning safety measures that could be adopted. It's not clear 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.599 if any of these were ever used. Yeah, his fundraising 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:43.920 got really really famous. Like there are a lot of 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.080 very famous people that are noted as having donated to 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:52.680 this fund, in particular, including Queen Victoria. Later in eighteen 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:57.440 fifty seven, Plimsoll married Eliza Ann Rilton on October first, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.160 and this was a match that appeared to be very good. 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.480 Both emotionally they were very close in a great match 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.719 for each other, but also situationally because Eliza was Samuel's 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.760 best friend, his partner in his decisions, and a tireless 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.920 supporter of his work, and because her stepfather was a 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.920 partner in a coal mining company, he made a lot 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.160 of good business connections. With this marriage, Eliza and Samuel 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.360 wanted children, but they had difficulty. After seven years of marriage, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.120 they finally had a baby girl, but she died soon 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.360 after she was born. Later, they adopted Samuel's great niece, 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.360 Nelly after her father died, and by all accounts they 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.200 doated on her. In eighteen sixty four, Plymsel had an 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.400 experience while he was a passenger on a steamer that 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.400 really shifted the trajectory of his life and gave him 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.000 a passion for labor activism. He was on this steamer 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.920 overnight in an intense storm. The next day, as they 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.720 traveled north along the coast of Yorkshire from Flameborough Head 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:03.360 to the River Tees, saw four shipwrecks. He noticed that 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.640 while these ships had been lost in the storm the 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.880 night before, a lot of them looked old and rited out, 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.280 and he realized that a lot of people lost their 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.800 lives simply because they had been sent out on poorly 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:19.480 maintained vessels. When he arrived home late at the dock, 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:23.760 his wife was there and obviously very worried, and she 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.920 greeted him tearfully and was just grateful that he had 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:31.600 made it home. He later recounted that moment in a speech, saying, quote, 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.040 I mingled my tears with hers because I was thinking 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.800 of those other women who had also spent a sleepless 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.840 night and who would never see their husbands again. I 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.880 was thinking of good and brave men who would never 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.840 return home. And I resolved, deep down in my heart 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.600 to devote myself to this work. What was the difference 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.480 between me and these poor drowned sailors. He also stated 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:58.640 that since that moment quote, my wife and I have 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.960 regarded everything we put us as held in trust for 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.680 the sailor. If it is necessary, we will spend it 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.480 for them as freely as our sailors would shed their 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.520 blood for their country if we got into trouble. Witnessing 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.600 so much needless devastation really got Samuel Plumsel fired up, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.200 and he started his own investigation into maritime business. He 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.520 met with a lot of shipowners, and while there were 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.920 definitely many of them who were conscientious and were happy 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.440 to meet and speak with him about their work, there 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:31.800 were also a lot of them who were really shady, 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.440 and they were happy to cut corners in every single 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.920 way if it meant that they could make more money. 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:42.000 It actually benefited these unscrupulous operators to let their ships 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.680 go without maintenance and to overload their cargo holds to 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:50.040 a dangerous degree. They would take out insurance policies on 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.400 their ships, run them really hard without spending any money 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.920 on upkeep, and then collect their insurance payouts when the 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:02.960 ships inevitably fell apart. Rationally, most merchant ships only carried 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.560 two life boys on board two because they were expensive, 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:11.040 and some captains apparently said that having more of them 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.520 would make their ships look weak. Now, it was not 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.480 like Samuel Plemsoll was the first person ever to discover 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.880 this problem. Just the poorer conditions of the ships and 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:25.080 the overweight loads should have gained condemnation, But that you 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.440 add in the insurance scam aspect of all of it 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.720 that makes it seem unconscionable. People should have seen this previously, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.120 and people did know all about it, But there was 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.120 a tricky aspect to talking about and calling out these problems. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:45.000 The book Good Men and True Biographies of Workers in 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.160 the Fields of Beneficence and Benevolence, written by Alexander H. 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:53.400 Japp in eighteen ninety, explains the legal issue that held 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.600 people back with this quote. The tricks of the trade 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.680 of ship owning were very well known before mister plemsol 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.080 and merged prominently into public view. The Lifeboat Journal had 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.480 frequently dwelt on them and exposed them, and even the 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.679 reports of the Board of Trade had acknowledged the existence 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.680 of the evil. Newspapers of a more independent turn had 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:19.119 often made their readers shudder by suggestions of horrors that 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.920 could not be detailed. But the law of libel, though 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.480 very loose in some respects, is very tight in others. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.119 And general statements somehow made no more impression on the 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.320 public mind than the blow of a baby's hand on 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.639 a feather pillow. It seems to yield easily to the impact, 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:43.040 but no lasting impression is produced. General statements alone were safe, 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.000 and if you are to do any good in a 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.680 case where vested interests are so directly involved, you must 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:54.720 come to very close quarters. Indeed, so unless papers and 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.800 reports named names and gave specific details, nothing was really 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.760 going to have enough impact. But because of libel laws, 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.960 if a newspaper or magazine actually did that, it would 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:10.639 almost certainly be put out of business. Plimsoll, armed with 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.560 the information that he had gathered, dedicated his life to 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.560 making a change, and that meant running for a seat 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.840 in Parliament. In eighteen sixty five, he ran to be 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.200 the representative of the constituency of Darby, but he did 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.320 not win. He didn't give up though. He ran again 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.560 in eighteen sixty seven, and that time he won and 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.040 became a member of the House of Commons in eighteen 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.639 sixty eight at the age of forty four. His early 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.760 efforts in the Chamber were in defense of trade unions, 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:42.159 although his speech skills were considered quite poor at that 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.880 point and he didn't have a huge impact with them. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.960 He started really advocating for a legislation that would benefit 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.719 sailors in eighteen seventy. One of his proposals was marking 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.800 the side of a ship to denote the maximum load level. 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:00.280 This wasn't a new idea, but it had never been 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.800 really pushed very hard. And Plimzel decided he would do it. 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:06.720 He put forth a bill for a safe load line 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:11.360 and regular ship inspections in eighteen seventy one, but it failed. 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:16.560 In eighteen seventy three, Plimsol published a scathing criticism of 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.440 the state of the maritime business, noting that a lot 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:23.000 of sailors were working on ships that were barely seaworthy 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:27.439 and precariously dangerous. Plmzell pointed out in this writing that 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.960 often these ships had huge insurance policies, so the owners 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.200 knew that if they fell apart at seat, they would 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.920 be well compensated, but they didn't have any financial protections 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.639 in place for the sailors or their families. He referred 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.240 to these boats as coffin ships. That book, which has 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.200 the somewhat less than ideal title of Our Seamen An Appeal, 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.160 opens with quote, everybody knows that there is a great 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.680 loss of life on our coasts annually, and nearly everybody 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.280 deplores it. I am sure that if the English public 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.080 equally knew how much of this loss is preventable and 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.440 the means of preventing it, no long time would elapse 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.919 before means would be taken to secure this end, it 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.800 is with the view of giving this information so as 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.280 to enable each person who reads these pages to pronounce 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.000 with decision upon this question, that this pamphlet is submitted 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.240 to the public. He goes on later to state, quote, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:27.760 A great number of ships are regularly sent to see 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.679 in such rotten and otherwise ill provided state that they 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.359 can only reach their destination through fine weather, and a 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.320 large number are so overloaded that it is nearly impossible 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.600 for them to also reach their destination if the voyage 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:47.520 is at all rough. This whole writing is supported by receipts. 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:52.280 Clemsel reprints government reports in his book, calling attention to 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.639 details that make it clear that these problems were known 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.040 early on. He wrote, quote, the next statement is made 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.080 by no less than a third already than the government itself, 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:04.639 for the page you see before you, as part of 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.159 the annual report of the Board of Trade. And I 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.439 beg your attention to the words which I have underlined, 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.639 the section with the underlined text and the report read quote. 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.160 In eighteen sixty eight, there were one hundred and thirty 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.280 one res and casualties to spacks and other fishing vessels. 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.800 Excluding these, one hundred and thirty one fishing vessels. It 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.800 will be seen that the number of vessels employed in 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.439 the regular carrying trade that have suffered from wreck or 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:35.520 casualty during the year is two thousand. If this number 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.200 is again subdivided, it will be found that about half 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:44.320 of it is represented by the unseaworthy, overladen or ill 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.480 found vessels of the collier class chiefly employed in the 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:52.880 coasting trade. For the six years ending eighteen sixty eight, 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.320 the number is more than half. So for clarity, half 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:01.720 of the shipwrecks that happened that were recorded by the 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:06.240 government were because the boats were not up to the task. 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.160 And if you're hearing all of this and you think, wow, 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:11.159 it sure is odd that everybody knew that the shipping 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.520 industry had problems, but no one was doing anything about 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.120 it before this, So did a lot of Plimshole's contemporaries. 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.320 In the book about Benevolent Men by jap that we 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.320 mentioned earlier, which was written while Plimsol was still alive, 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.359 the author also mentions the various reports that had been 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.760 made about shipping's dangers to workers, and then stated, quote, 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:35.000 it seems odd that a government which could year after 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.760 year make such records as that did not bestir itself 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:42.920 to end the evil or to lessen it. Materially very 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:45.560 odd that agitation for change should be left to a 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.719 private member of Parliament who had to undergo no end 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:53.320 of toil, anxiety, loss, and even of opposition, and worse still, 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:58.320 positive abuse from many quarters. Mister Plimsol was assailed on 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:03.200 all sides by shipowners and their friends or agents. Plmsall 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:07.440 became a hero to sailors everywhere almost instantly, while his 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.960 detractors in Parliament pointed out that he had no experience 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:15.119 as a sailor or a shipowner himself. Actual sailors and 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:18.679 shipowners who ran above board operations were glad to have 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.920 somebody in the government advocating for better practices. The same 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.040 year his book was published, the Walter Hood and Company 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:29.240 Shipyard named one of their new merchant sailing ships, the 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.320 Samuel Plimsoll. All of this led to legal trouble for 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.439 Plimsol because a lot of people were really angry that 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:40.320 he was calling out their shifty business practices. We're going 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:42.399 to get into all of that after we hear from 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:44.800 the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class, 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:57.560 going as the issue of shipping reform got a lot 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:01.280 more attention through Plimsoll's work. He was sued for libel 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:05.640 by a dozen different shipowners, but the most high profile 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:08.119 of them went nowhere. There were a couple that really 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.000 tried to press it, and after they failed, the rest 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:15.520 of those suits were withdrawn. At the same time, as 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.080 more people heard about this work and the conflicts it 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:22.520