The Chatham Chest was a fund set up in 1588 to pay pensions to disabled seamen from the Royal Navy. It was financed by regular deductions from seamen's pay, which were deposited in a chest held at Chatham Dockyard and disbursed upon proof of a sailor's disability. The fund ceased operation in 1803 when it was merged with an equivalent pension scheme run by Greenwich Hospital. The actual Chatham Chest has since been displayed at the National Maritime Museum in London and at The Mast House at Chatham Historic Dockyard. Origin Originally conceived as a charity, the Chatham Chest was established after seamen who had been disabled in the war against Spain petitioned Queen Elizabeth for relief and maintenance. Credit for its founding may belong to Charles Howard, the Lord High Admiral of England, who promoted the concept at court. The Chest itself was a strong iron box with five locks, located at Chatham Dockyard under the protection of the Chatham Division of the Royal Marines. Keys for the Chest were held by five separate officials to reduce the risk of individual embezzlement. Payments and rates Payments into the Chest were made as compulsory deductions from the pay of each Royal Navy seaman. From 1594 to 1649, deductions were set at of a seaman's wages, equivalent in 1626 to a sixpence from the monthly pay of fifteen shillings. In 1649 the standard seaman's wage was increased to nineteen shillings and a differential deduction introduced, of sixpence a month for ordinary seamen, eight pence for surgeons and ten pence for chaplains. Pensions were granted on a fixed scale, ranging from £6.13s.4d per annum for the loss of a limb to £15 per annum for the loss of both arms. In addition each pensioner was granted an immediate lump sum, generally equal to one year's pension, called "smart money". Difficulties During its long life the Chest experienced many difficulties. Until the late eighteenth century, and particularly before 1660, seamen's wages were often significantly less than the official rates while payments to the Chest remained fixed. As a consequence many seamen were required to contribute amounts exceeding of their pay. Despite the mechanism of five separate officials being required to open the Chest, large quantities of funds went missing. Further, in the early 1620s King Charles I simply appropriated the Chest's contents for payment of unrelated debts. By 1660 the number of pensioners