Dreadnought

Catalogue Reference:(NMM) D2949

An illustration from the 1877 Christmas edition of The Illustrated London News, a paper founded in 1842 by a Nottingham printer, Herbert Ingram, who had realised the value of using pictures to sell news. The image shows the men at the Seaman's Hospital at Greenwich, south east London enjoying their Christmas dinner. Lascars or Asian seamen coming to London were isolated and especially vulnerable to crime and exploitation. There was no provision for them until, in 1857, the "Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders in London" was opened to provide lodgings and help for men waiting for ships.