The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society

The Society, which operates through a national network of volunteers known as Honorary Agents, deals with over 2,000 cases of need a year and is based in Chichester, West Sussex.

The society was founded at the instigation of Mr. John Rye, (married to Ann, a daughter of Sir Berney Brograve, 1st Baronet), a philanthropic retired medical man of Bath, Somerset and his servant Mr. Charles Gee Jones, born in Weston-super-Mare, a former Bristol pilot and landlord of the Pulteney Arms in Bath, following the tragic loss of life from the Clovelly fishing fleet in a severe storm in November 1838.

The society's first President was Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, who in the War of 1812 cruised Chesapeake Bay and captured and burnt Washington on 24 August 1814.

From 1851 until 1854 it operated lifeboats at Lytham, Rhyl, Portmadoc, Tenby, Llanelly, Teignmouth, Hornsea and Newhaven but it was subsequently agreed that it would be wiser if one organisation concentrated on rescuing lives at sea while the other helped the survivors or their bereaved families ashore, so in 1854 the Society transferred its lifeboats to the RNLI.

[5] Submitters are asked for pictures that capture the UK’s connection with the sea, including subjects as merchant ships, fishing vessels, the coastline, harbours and ports.