VICAR OF SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 28

VICAR OF SHIPS

A WELCOME CALLER The vicar of Tilbury Docks, the Key. William Charles Bown, who is spiritual pilot to thousands of seamen, all overj tho world, is also skipper of the motorlaunch Sir Edward E. Cooper, in which j he visits ships in the Thames, from the Mouse Lightship to the training ship Worcester. The masts and funnels of ships can be, seen from the vicarage windows, and the wail of sirens in the night preventdj tho vicar from ever forgetting hi 3 parishioners. j Mr. Bown has the clear, far-sighted eyes of a mariner, and if it were not for his black cassock one might well take him. for a captain of a merchantman. "I have 18,000 parishioners," he said, "as well as a large visiting population of sailors who come to my church.. "In my launch I visit incoming ships and talk to the seamen. It is essential to understand their psychology and to talk to them individually. The parson who asks, 'Are you saved?' or who attempts to distribute tracts cuts no ice with sailors. "Sometimes I deal with lascars and talk with them in pidgin Hindustani. I have never found my visits unwelcome on board, nor have any seamen ever boon rude to me." Mr. Bown visited Australia a year ago, to study emigration conditions, and travelled 6000 miles through Australia, visiting hundreds of emigrants who had passed through his hands at Tilbury. "I have often been asked by seamen," he added, "to keep my eye on their girls or their wives while they are at sea, and I have special arrangements here for speedy weddings. "We hold Communion services ai unusual hours to suit seamen. We have a new church hall and club which was opened a fortnight ago bj Princess Mary, and we make every effort to make life ashore happy and pleasant for the seamen." A tattered white ensign hangs in Mr. Bown's church. It flew on H.M.S. Tilbury whea sho led the attack iv the Dardanelles.