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The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society
The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society or the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society is a natioanl charity founded in 1839, which operates throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, whose purpose is to provide financial help to ex merchant seamen, fishermen and their widows and dependants who are in need. It was founded at the instigation of Mr John Rye, a medical man of Bath and Mr Charles Gee Jones 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 Novemeber 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. The Society's first Patron was Queen Victoria and it has had a Royal Patron ever since, today it is HRH The Princess Royal. One of its first Vice Presidents was Sir Robert Peel Bart. The Society was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1850.

The Society's flag, a St George's cross with the letters SFMS in the quadrants and a number was displayed by ships and their position reported by the coastguard to the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette in London. 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, so in 1854 the Society transferred its lifeboats to the RNLI.

The Society 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.