NAUTILUS P01 OCTOBER 2010.qxd - Nautilus International

26 | telegraph | nautilusint.org | October 2010
SHIPS’ LIBRARIES
Fully booked: a seafarer picks a title from the library supplied by the Marine Society
“ The
initial
aim was
sending
tools of
learning
to sea
”
p
Why is a book like a ship
Because both take you
on a voyage — in the
book’s case, it may even transport
you to the innermost shores of
the human imagination, or the
outermost reaches of human
knowledge.
Many seafarers we note are under the illusion that to qualify for the 100%
foreign earnings deduction, all they have to do is spend 183 days out of
the country on foreign going voyages.
Many have found to their cost, when investigated by the Revenue that it is
not that straightforward and of course it is then too late to rectify.
Make sure you are not one of them by letting Seatax Ltd plan your future
claim step by step.
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OUR FEES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Which may be why many seafarers
eagerly love immersing
themselves in a good book while
away at sea. As Brian Thomas,
director of the Marine Society
charity — whose ships’ library
service marks its 90th anniversary
this year — recalls: ‘I know from
The first ship’s library was onboard Alfred Holt’s Aeneas
my time at sea in the Royal Navy,
when you’re leading a very busy
life — great hardships, constant
noise, constant vibration, and
perpetual motion — just get into
a bed, pull the curtain and put the
light on and curl up with a book,
you’re in your own little space and
whatever the subject matter of
that book, you can escape.
‘You can’t choose your neighbours,
and you can’t choose your
shipmates either, so it’s a great
way of escaping from reality,’ he
adds. ‘It’s one way of looking at the
service that we provide.’
But only one way, because a
core function of the ships’ library
service remains to provide educational
and instructional books —
the very reason it came into being
90 years ago.
Annual Return ......................................................................................................... £175.00 including VAT at 17.5%
The write
service to
seafarers
The Marine Society marks the 90th anniversary of its
ships’ library service this year. MIKE GERBER finds out
about some exciting new developments…
p
Brian relates the history:
‘Seafarers’ libraries were
part of the brainchild of
Alfred Mansbridge, who founded
the Workers’ Educational Association
in 1903.
‘Having suffered from TB in
1912, he took himself off to sea to
recover, but when he was on that
voyage — thinking that he was
going to die — he resolved that
if he got off the ship alive, he was
going to do for seafarers what he
had already achieved for the main
population.
‘He realised that seafarers were
denied access to the tools of education,
and education itself. Most
seafarers at that time were illiterate.
He did survive, and he was
true to his word.’
So in 1920, Mansbridge
founded what became the Seafarers’
Education Service. ‘The initial
arm was the idea of sending the
tools of learning to sea,’ Brian
explains. ‘Those tools were books.
He believed that if everybody had
access to books, then they could
become self-taught, as he himself
was.’
With shipowners’ support,
the first library — onboard the ss
Aeneas — was established that
same year and the idea caught on.
‘It was so successful that in
1926 he realised that seafarers
needed something a little more
than simply books to educate
them, so he introduced what he
called the College of the Sea — and
this was to be the other arm of the
SES,’ Brian adds.
The College, officially inaugurated
in 1938, introduced course
texts to help seafarers study to
advance their careers.
Following merger with the
Marine Society in 1976, the SES
name was dropped, and that, says
Brian, brings us to the present day.
‘We make tremendous efforts on
the education side, through what
used to be the College of the Sea,
and through the seafarers’ libraries,
to find out what our readers
need, and we take great pains to
provide for them.’
p
In January this year, the
Society appointed a new
book services manager,
Mark Jackson. An Oxford graduate
in English language and literature,
Mark has spent most
of his career in the book trade
— including time as manager
at the Museum of Modern Art,
Hammicks, Ottakar’s, and Waterstones.
Latterly, he worked at the
House of Commons Parliamentary
Bookshop and he continues
to run book events for Langtons,
his local independent bookshop
in Twickenham.
Mark’s love of books is palpable:
‘A book to me represents
potential — it’s nothing until you
read it, but once you read it, it’s a
gateway into new experience, a
new world, a whole dimension of
knowledge. And books to me are
always linked to opportunity and
going forward, and I like the idea
of people having books in their
hands and having these opportunities.’
At the Marine Society, besides
the library service, he runs the
charity’s new online bookstore
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NAUTILUS members in the UK sailing under a foreign flag agreement on gross remuneration can obtain a 10% reduction
on the above enrolment fee by quoting their NAUTILUS membership number and a 5% reduction on re-enrolment.
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Library service founder Alfred Mansbridge