Chatham Chest - Difficulties

Difficulties

During its long life the Chest experienced many difficulties. In the early days income exceeded expenditure and the balance was invested in property. However, it was not always easy to ensure that the contributions deducted from seamen's pay at the end of voyages actually reached the Chest. By 1660 the Chest had serious financial problems, because the number of pensioners had increased during the First Dutch War and the war against Spain, but when peace returned and the ships were paid off, the Chest's income dramatically decreased. The first expedient adopted was to offer pensioners voluntary commutation of their pensions, based on 2 years' purchase, but still the Chest found it difficult to pay the remaining pensions. Samuel Pepys, Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board, took a great interest in the affairs of the Chest and reported in his diary (18 June 1667) that there was no money to pay the pensioners 'at their public pay the 14th of this month, which will make us a scorn to the world'. However, the money was found and taken down the Thames by barge to Chatham, and the immediate crisis was staved off. From about 1673 onwards it became tacitly accepted that the Government would meet the excess of expenditure over income each year on a "pay as you go" basis. This principle remained in force, though sometimes the Government was late in paying and pensions fell into arrears. In 1690 some pensions were as much as three years outstanding. The Chest experienced a substantial increase in the number of pensioners during the Napoleonic Wars, rising to 5,205 in 1802.