 From 1705 to 1865 , the Greenwich Hospital for Seamen provided medical care to injured seamen and lodgings for those injured sailors who had been pensioned off or were unable to work on ships . Directed by an admiral , " it was more like a ship in port than a clinical facility ... its residents all wore navy uniforms ; food was identical to that served on vessels ( a weekly four pounds of meat and gallon of beer ) ; the seamen received a full ration of tobacco each week ; and time was told by the number of bells " . The facility was established by Royal Charter and led by a group of commissioners . Captain Thomas Baillie was a respected sailor who , after retirement , had been appointed Lieutenant @-@ Governor of the hospital . Here he found corruption , in breach of the Hospital 's Royal Charter , and endeavoured to bring it to the attention of the directors hospital , the hospital 's governors , and eventually the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty . 
