Samuel Plimsoll (1825-1898) gave his name to the Plimsoll line on the hull of ships that marks overloading but few remember that he was a campaigning MP. Failing as a coal merchant, he was destitute for a while but retained an interest in ship safety when elected MP for Derby in 1868. For years, ship-owning MPS blocked what eventually became the Merchant Shipping Act.
This memorial, to Plimsoll, is placed on the Embankment next to the River Thames. A fitting place to a man that through his efforts brought an extra margin of safety to seafarers. The memorial was by Ferdinand Victor Blundstone and was unveiled in 1929. It was paid for by the National Union of Seamen.
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Plimsoll was born in Bristol and soon moved to Whiteley Wood Hall, Sheffield, also spending part of his childhood in Penrith, Cumbria. Leaving school at an early age, he became a clerk at Rawson's Brewery, and rose to be manager.
In 1853 he attempted to become a coal merchant in London. He failed and was reduced to destitution. He himself told how for a time he lived in a common lodging for seven shillings and two pence a week.
Through this experience, he learnt to sympathise with the struggles of the poor, and when his good fortune returned, he resolved to devote his time to improving their condition.
His efforts were directed especially against what were known as "coffin ships": unseaworthy and overloaded vessels, often heavily insured, in which unscrupulous owners risked the lives of their crews.
In 1868, Plimsoll was elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Derby, and endeavoured in vain to pass a bill dealing with the subject of a safe load line on ships. The main problem was the number of ship-owning MP's in Parliament.
In 1872 he published a work entitled Our Seamen, which became well known throughout the country. Accordingly, on Plimsoll's motion in 1873, a Royal Commission was appointed, and in 1875 a government bill was introduced, which Plimsoll, though regarding it as inadequate, resolved to accept.
On 22 July, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, announced that the bill would be dropped. Plimsoll lost his self-control, applied the term "villains" to members of the House, and shook his fist in the Speaker's face.
Disraeli moved that he be reprimanded, but on the suggestion of Lord Hartington agreed to adjourn the matter for a week to allow Plimsoll time for thought. Eventually Plimsoll made an apology. Many people, however, shared his view that the bill had been stifled by the pressure of the shipowners, and popular feeling forced the government to pass a bill which in the following year, was amended into the Merchant Shipping Act.
This gave stringent powers of inspection to the Board of Trade, and the mark that indicates the safe limit to which a ship may be loaded became generally known as Plimsoll's mark or line.
Plimsoll was re-elected for Derby at the general election of 1880 by a great majority, but gave up his seat to William Vernon Harcourt, believing that the latter, as Home Secretary, could advance sailors' interests more effectively than any private member.
Offered a seat by 30 constituencies, Plimsoll was an unsuccessful candidate in Sheffield Central in 1885. He did not re-enter the house, and later became estranged from the Liberal leaders by what he regarded as their breach of faith in neglecting the question of shipping reform.
He was for some years the honorary president of the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union, and drew attention to the horrors of the cattle-ships, where animals were transported under appalling and over-crowded conditions.
[edit] Later life
Later he visited the United States to try to secure the adoption of a less bitter tone towards England in the historical textbooks used in American schools. He died in Folkestone, Kent in 1898.
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The inscription, on a bronze plaque, reads:
"Samuel Plimsoll / Born 1824 - Died 1898 / Erected by the members / of the National Union of / Seamen in grateful / recognition of his / services to the / men of the sea / of all nations".
The memorial has a white granite base and central column with a bust of Plimsoll on top. The bust, cast from bronze, is about three times life-size. There are two life-size bronze figures stood on the lower part of the plinth with the inscription between them. Each of the figures is holding a wreath. The figure on the left is a seaman and that on the right, holding a sword, is Justice. The central bronze plaque is surmounted by a sailing ship. To the left and right of the memorial are bronze railings and there is a backdrop of white stone.