Dr Martin Wilcox M.Wilcox@hull.ac.uk
Lecturer in History
‘We Are Making No Sailors’: Apprenticeship and the British mercantile marine 1840–1914
Wilcox, Martin
Authors
Abstract
For more than a century and a half, apprenticeship was of fundamental importance to the recruitment and training of British seafarers. From the introduction of compulsory apprenticeship in 1703, through the removal of compulsion in 1850 and up to the outbreak of the First World War, tens of thousands of boys and young men served apprenticeships on British ships, making up a substantial proportion of the maritime labour force. Apprenticeship in the merchant shipping industry has received little attention and the whole question of maritime training remains under-researched. This article opens by revisiting the debates of the 1840s over the Navigation Laws and argues that shipowners’ attitudes to apprenticeship were ambivalent. It provides a survey of the decline and evolution of apprenticeship in the six decades following the repeal of the Navigation Laws, highlighting the unevenness of its decline and the existence of countervailing factors in some sectors. Finally, it examines the widespread concerns over the quality and skill of British seafarers and the impact of apprenticeship on recruitment to the Royal Navy.
Citation
Wilcox, M. (2024). ‘We Are Making No Sailors’: Apprenticeship and the British mercantile marine 1840–1914. Mariner's Mirror, 110(2), 190-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2024.2331916
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Acceptance Date | Mar 14, 2024 |
| Online Publication Date | Apr 29, 2024 |
| Publication Date | Apr 1, 2024 |
| Deposit Date | Mar 14, 2024 |
| Publicly Available Date | Oct 2, 2025 |
| Journal | Mariners Mirror |
| Print ISSN | 0025-3359 |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 190-209 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2024.2331916 |
| Keywords | Apprenticeship; Mercantile marine; Merchant shipping; Sailing ships; Maritime labour; Fishing industry; Navigation laws; Royal Navy |
| Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4590060 |
Files
This file is under embargo until Oct 2, 2025 due to copyright reasons.
Contact M.Wilcox@hull.ac.uk to request a copy for personal use.
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