About The Marine Society & Sea Cadets

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets was established in 2004 from a merger between The Marine Society and the Sea Cadet Association and is now Britain’s largest maritime charity.

The role of The Marine Society & Sea Cadets is to provide personal development opportunities and support in a maritime context for young people and professional seafarers from all the sea services.

This is done by:
Managing the activities of the Sea Cadet Corps:

• The aim of the Sea Cadet Corps is to promote the development of young people in achieving their physical, intellectual and social potential as individuals and as responsible citizens by the provision of education and leisure time activities using a nautical theme. 
• There are currently 386 Sea Cadet Units nationwide with a total of 13,000 cadets and 9,300 volunteers.

Promoting careers at sea and highlighting the opportunities for employment that exist in the maritime sector

Enhancing the well being of those at sea through the provision of a range of services:

• The College of the Sea, which provides of a comprehensive educational support programme including distance-taught packages tailored for seafarers and maritime professionals; financial support to UK seafarers; plus expert impartial advice and guidance on all aspects of life at sea.
• The library exchange service – the provision of books to ships at sea
• The promotion of scientific or other research of particular benefit to seafarers and the publication of the useful results of such research

Our history

The Marine Society

Founded in 1756 by the philanthropist Jonas Hanway, The Marine Society is the world’s oldest public maritime charity, set up initially to recruit and train seaman for the Royal and Merchant Navies.  The work of the Marine Society in assisting aspiring and serving professional seafarers has evolved over more than 250 years.

The Sea Cadets

With a hundred years of heritage, the SCA was the parent charity of the Sea Cadets, the uniformed voluntary youth movement established in 1899, building on the work of groups set up in the aftermath of the Crimean War to help orphans in the seaport backstreets.  From those early Naval Lads Brigades a thriving youth movement grew, drawing on the ethos of the Senior Service to provide training and adventure with a nautical theme for young people.