Watts,[3] Watts & Company, of
London, have for many years carried apprentices aboard their
steamers, and the grand old Blythman who adorns the City of
London commercial life with all that is ruggedly honest and
manly, has just purchased, at great cost, a place in
Norfolk, which his generous son, Shadforth, has agreed to
furnish, and then it is to be endowed as a training-field
for sailor-boys. The veteran shipowner is well known by his
many unostentatious acts of philanthropy to have as big a
heart as ever swelled in a human breast; but, knowing him as
I do, I feel assured that his philanthropy would have taken
another form had he not been convinced he was conferring a
real national benefit by giving larger opportunities to
British lads to enter the merchant service.
I give two other notable examples of success because of the
care taken in selecting the boys and the care adopted in
training them. Mr. Henry Radcliffe, senior partner of
Messrs. Evan Thomas, Radcliffe & Co., of Cardiff, has taken
a personal interest in boy apprentices for years. His
experience of them has long passed the experimental state,
and his testimony is that this is the only way the merchant
navy can be adequately and efficiently maintained.
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