The Sailor's Home Liverpool 1877
From Graphic Illustrated newspaper 1877
Near to the docks is a building which affords a gratifying proof of the fact that the merchants and shipowners of Liverpool do not as a body regard their seamen as simply so many engines for the accumulation of wealth.
The Sailor's Home originated in the desires of this class to lift their servants from the vice and filthiness which characterise the "longshore" haunts of seamen.
A great deal has been said, and especially by local satirists and in the columns of the local press, concerning the horrors of the local dancing rooms which abound in the lower parts of the town. It may be difficult to deny the truth of these objurgations, but at the same time when the friendless and homeless condition of the sailor who lands in a foreign port is considered, it is hard to blame him very severely if he yeild to the attractions held out to him to those who live by pandering to his worst nature
Since this home was opened, however the excuses to be made for the lapses of seamen from the right course have very considerably diminished. Anything much more comfortable or appropriate can hardly be desired
The sailor who visits the port finds himself within a few minutes walk of a really magnificent building, where on payment of a very moderate sum - 15s a week for adults (AB's and ordinary seamen) and 11s. 6d for apprenctices - he may obtain all the comforts of a decent home.
The house is excellently and solidly built, and is so arranged as to provide all that is necessary in the way of light air and ventilation.
Offices are provided where the men can transact business with the agents of the ships to which they belong: the common room affords a place where they can smoke, read, write, play at non-gambling games, and take reasonable refreshment, while the thoughtfullnessof the managers gives them an admirable reading room library, Navigation school, Savings Bank and Bank of Deposit under the sanction of the Board of Trade
How far the seamen frequenting the port appreciate these advantages may be judged by the fat that some eight thousand of them use the home every year, whilst between two and three thousand make it their habitual head-quarters while in Liverpool