Who were the chapel’s nautical symbols for?

Thomas Ripley built the original hospital chapel from designs associated with Christopher Wren, but a fire later gutted it. James 'Athenian' Stuart rebuilt the space with stronger nautical decoration intended to make naval pensioners feel at home. Most residents were long-serving sailors and chief petty officers rather than commissioned officers. The classical motifs raise a question about whose idea of the sea they represented. Literate veterans could understand them, but their visual language may have spoken more directly to the officers, politicians, and patrons who funded the rebuilding.