Captain Josiah Bacon, the founder of Sailors’ Snug Harbor of Boston, was not a sailor but an individual interested in providing a home and comfortable existence for sailors who were “broken down by infirmities brought on by diseases in foreign clinics, expenses, and hardships.”  Established in 1852, Sailors’ Snug Harbor was committed to serving a population whose lives changed when they could no longer serve as active seamen.  It was the wish of the founding Trustees to offer seamen comfortable “asylum, a Snug Harbor, secure from storms or shipwrecks.”

With the assistance of friends, Captain Bacon opened a retirement home for needy sailors in the Germantown section of Quincy.   This operation ran for many years, and then was continued in Duxbury.  In time, the need for retirement homes diminished and the Trustees sold the Duxbury property, dedicating the funds to support nonprofit charitable programs serving seamen.  In 1970, the Trustees voted to extend their grantmaking to support agencies serving elderly men and women.

In recent years, SSH has made grants to support the needs of low-income elderly in Greater Boston, but the Trustees’ first funding priority continues to be programs that assist seamen and their families.  Since 1995, the Trustees have focused funds specifically toward programs addressing the needs of Massachusetts fishing families, primarily in Gloucester, New Bedford, and Cape Cod.  The Trustees will continue to consider proposals from agencies serving elderly men and women at their meeting in February, and proposals targeting the fishing community at their October meeting.