 An estimated 45,000 seafarers were visiting the port of London annually and the Society moored a former sloop of war on the River Thames, the "Mars", renaming it the "Ark", and repurposing it as a floating chapel where seafarers could congregate and pray.Social reformer Elizabeth Fry asked the charity to send books for her to pass on to men posted at coastguard stations and the First Lord of the Treasury Robert Peel made a grant of £500 to help the organisation's cause.In 1834 Sailors' Society appointed its first full-time chaplain Benjamin Prynn, as its Thames missionary, followed by a full-time missionary in Cape Town.