A SEA STORY

Press, 21 August 1976, Page 13

A SEA STORY

In the Cathedral we have the First Four Ships portrayed at least four times—in mosaic on the floor of the choir, and again on the floor of the Sanctuary, in material on the banner, and in metal on the memorial to F. G. Britten.

On the Selwyn pulpit there are five ships, if you look carefully: On the first the bows of a Maori canoe and a ship’s dinghy, on the second the rigging of a ship at Lyttelton. and at the right of the third a rowing boat and a ship on Auckland Harbour.

Noah’s Ark was the first ship mentioned in the Bible, and the Baptism service speaks of “Receiving children into the ark of Christ’s Church.”

The part w’here the congregation sits is called the nave W the Latin, navis: a ship. The pulpit and the font could be said to commemorate sailors.

Selwyn rowed in the first Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 1829. and later navigated his own schooner round the

coasts of New Zealand and the islands of Melanesia.

Captain Owen Stanley sailed the Britomart to Akaroa four days before the arrival of the French. The wooden statue on the left of the High Altar of Archdeacon Henry Williams also has a touch of the sea. In 1814, in the British war with America, he was a naval lieutenant and part of the prizecrew of a captured frigate.

During a violent storm in which the American prisoners escaped he made a vow. If he got safely home he would give 'his life to God. He did, and became a missionary to the Maoris. In the North Transept there is the house flag of the Charlotte Jane (first of the First Four 5 ips) and next a White Ensign, laid up in 1968 after our navy had adopted the New Zealand Ensign. Next is a historic flag, the White Ensign presented by Lord Jellicoe in 1919; it had been flown at the mast-head of H.M.S. New Zealati when the German Fleet surrendered at Scapa Flow. This battle cruiser was the gift of the New

Zealand nation to the Royal Navy, and first sailed in New Zealand waters in 1913.

At one port a Maori chief gave the captain a piu piu (Maori cloak) and a greenstone tiki, with the request that they should be carried or worn by the captain when the ship went into action.

It is saiu that this was done by Captain Lionel Halsey and Captain J. F. E. Green in the actions of Heligoland Bight, the Dogger Bank, and the Battle Jutland.

At Jutland there was not a single casualty on board. Speaking of Jutland there is the story of the flag officer of the Iron Duke which is told in the book “No Earthly Command.”

In the middle of the battle he was said to have received a direct signal from God. As a result he entered the Ministry in 1931, and for 20 years was chaplain to a seamen’s hostel in the slums of London. All who knew him believed he was a saint. He was ViceAdmiral the Rev, Alexander Riall Wadham Williams.

A move from Ministry to Navy occurred in the Second World War when

the Archdeacon of Fiji took command of a naval vessel. He is Commander the Ven. Mayo Harris of Auckland. Nelson Cathedral has three White Ensigns — one flown by H.M.S. Queen at Gallipoli was presented by Admiral Sir Cecil Fiennes Thursby; and two flown by the warships Colne and Chelmer at the Dardanelles, given by Rear Admiral the Hon. Douglas Edward Harry Boyle.

What names these admirals had! Shackleton v.as present in the Cathedra! in 1909 for the thanksgiving service when his ship, the Nimrod, returned from the Antarctic.

A memorial service was held for Captain Scott in 1913; another naval explorer was present in the person of Admiral George Dufek when the Antarctic plaque was unveiled in 1955.

There have been many naval and merchant navy occasions in the Cathedral. But the building stands firmly on dry land — exactly 20.314 ft above sea level, as the bench mark in the porch clearly shows.