Between labour and moral duty: social conflicts, volunteer work and the moral economy of life-boating in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (1850–1914)

The history of humanitarianism in the nineteenth century, and more specifically of the lifeboat movement, has so far paid limited attention to the role of rank-and-file, working-class volunteers and the ways in which they interacted with the broader moral framework of humanitarian causes. In order to contribute to this history, this article looks at social conflicts between lifeboat crews and local committees as related in inspection reports of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It argues that these conflicts hinge on the double nature of lifeboat work as both labour and moral duty, the incommensurability of these two aspects and the ways in which different social actors interpret them. It frames these tensions under the concept of moral economy and argues that the practical implementation of the humanitarian imperative of lifesaving at sea is partly a result of tensions and negotiations of mutual monetary and non-monetary obligations of the various actors at play at station level.