White earthenware oval meat plate, with a green printed badge showing the hospital ship HMS 'Dreadnought' with 'SEAMEN'S HOSPITAL SOCIETY' on a ribbon below . There is an impressed printed mark on the underside of the rim with the name 'Yates & Sons, LONDON' who are likely to be the retailers.The Seamen’s Hospital Society was founded in 1821 to serve the merchant marine and fishing communities and was incorporated in 1833. It used several hulks moored in the Thames off Greenwich as floating hospitals, including the ‘Dreadnought’ (the second ship, from 1827 to 1856), before moving ashore to occupy the former infirmary of Greenwich Hospital in 1870, after the main buildings were converted for use as the Royal Naval College.This type and size of plate is likely to have been the largest meat carver used for food service in the former Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, which since 1999 has been the Dreadnought Library of the University of Greenwich.