biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1824–98)
|
| biography:
| Social reformer, known as ‘the sailors' friend’, born in Bristol, SW England, UK. He became an MP in 1868, and having accumulated a large file on the unseaworthiness of ships, caused the Merchant Shipping Act (1876) to be passed. Every owner was ordered to mark upon the side of a ship a circular disc, with a horizontal line drawn through its centre (the Plimsoll line), down to which the vessel might be loaded. This convention was legally enforced in 1894. |
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