THE FLYING ANGEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22084, 13 April 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FLYING ANGEL

d BY MATANGA

1 WHERE SEA AND LAND MEET

On a summer's day in 1835—the fc- exact date has no sure record, but the is year is certain—a young clergyman of the Church of England stood on a cliff looking out over the Bristol Channel. A r- small boy, his son, was at his side. '• Two little islands—Steep Holme and y Flat Holme —lying midway between the ® English and Welsh coasts —drew their ** gaze, and from a house-window on one n of these islets came a glint of the sun, reflected. Quickly the boy, prompted by the thought of a few homes clustering r there away from the 'mainland, asked, 0 " Where do the people go to church?" s> Out of that question came The Missions n to Seamen and the good done under its v flag of the Flying Angel in many a e land and in all the great waterways of s the world. d The young clergyman was John d Ashley, LL.D., whose parish was there- >- about:;, a man with a warm heart and k a lively conscience as well as a cultured mind. So next day he hired a boat and visited the handful of islanders, to dis- :- cover that they had no church at all. s To constitute himself their chaplain, s going to and fro, became at once a glad r duty. He won a welcome. •" Soon came another day of thoughtful l ~ venture. Out there on one of his visits ° he saw, in the roadstead beyond, a 1 great fleet of sailing vessels —about four I hundred —at anchor, waiting for a fair f wind. Day after day, still wind-bound, ,] they stayed; and that warm heart and £ lively conscience bade him go out to t them before his return home. Once more r he wen a welcome, all the more ardent - because in those days 110 one thus f visited a fleet in the offing; and when 3 he left it, after some hours of cheery s religious contact, he had formed a great - purpose. In his pocket Dr. Ashley had - the offer of an attractive living which 1 he had meant to accept: instead, he would give himself to visiting sailors on their ships. The desirablo offer was 5 therefore declined, and for fifteen years, s until the -work wore him down, his new 3 purpose was carried on. He left it 1 behind him for others to fulfil, and they fc have not failed it. John Ashley's Enthusiasm At first John Ashley worked singlcs handed. Afterward, when an organised n mission was founded, with him as its 0 managing secretary, there was support; ? but even then his personal resources were the mainstay of the enterprise. If funds ran out he went without salary, but he never shortened work. No stress 1 of weather, it is said, could keep him 3 ashore. Out he would go, sailing his _ little cutter to the ships, and then in i *an open boat collect sailors for his 3 service in the chapel fitted below in the - cutter. Often, when the little vessel's 1 accommodation was packed to over- - flowing, other sailors, in boats from 1 their ships, would gather round the ' cutter and join in the hymns. He was a man's man. Blessed with ' a powerful voice, plenty of pluck and ■ an enthusiasm that never wilted, he was ' gifted also in ready wit. "I'd sooner i have a chaw of tobacco," said a second mate when Ashley offered a Bible. "And quite right, too!" was the missioner's quick reply, to the mate's 1 amazement. ''Ah, now!" he weakly rejoined, "I don't see that.". Ashley's answer left him all standing—"Why, you know the pleasure there is in tobacco, but you don't know what's in the Bible." Then he turned to talk to the men gathering curiously round the capstan, and soon many were rummag- . ing for money to buy Bibles. Of what used to be called "sanctified common sense" John Ashley's store 1 seemed endless, matching his vigour and 1 enthusiasm, but one man, even of his ' type, tfas not able to do everything required. Still, he did wonders. By 1 1850, when he had to relinquish this ] work, he had boarded more than ' 14,000 ships at sea or in the open road- ' stead, sold upward of 5000 Bibles and [ Prayer Books to British seamen, and . sent his lendyig library for sailors to" - all parts of the world. I Kingston and the Flag t After his retirement two years : passed without anj' effort to continue the work. Then, at the time of the Crimean War, it was revived, with two centres instead of one—at Ryde as well ' as in the Bristol Channel. The idea j of a, movement still more widely organised was next given effect, and | thus The Missions to Seamen came into being. Naturally, its centre was 1 London, but the union with it of John Ashley's former mission made the historic chain complete from 1835. One of the early leaders of this extended enterprise was W. H. G. Kingston, celebrated as a writer o_f sea stories. He urged its having a flag, and came home one evening to find lying on the floor the first design of the Flying Angel, made by his womenfolk. It had little merit, so the story goes, as. either a work of art or an examplo of heraldry in bunting, and its present-day outcome is not generally deemed beautiful by landsmen. But by sailors, realising the sincerity in its symbolised message of a hastening ministry of good cheer, its annunciation of a far-speeding Gospel, it is revered as second only to the flag of their country. They know by experience what it means of friendship on the shoreline where seamen and landsmen meet. At the first it was agreed by the organisers of the new society that the object was to be the spiritual welfare of seamen at home and abroad, and they took John Ashley's work afloat as their model. "We anticipate," says , a minute of 1857, " greater results ' from visiting seamen in their ships than from expecting fheir visits on : shore." Central ideas remain central. \ yet It wise expansion of method has , extended operations. The rigorous rules \ governing chaplains' ministrations ac- , cording to strict ritual have been 1 modified. No longer is a billiard table j viewed as a baleful temptation to Jack ashore. The cup of coffee that might, once upon a time, be charitably given him as an occasional concession, can * now bo bought easily by him. His 1 whole personality is served, in the j [ name of the Church and as a ministry t of religion. £ Brother Wayfarers ] There has grown, :in reality, a stead- f fast loyalty to the spirit in which t John Ashley began, and every fresh £ advance is at heart, a return to his 1 deep love of God and man. And in it 1 all is Ashley's endeavour to put him- r self alongside the seaman as a brother c wayfarer on the sea of life. Thus it is 9 that, in so many ports of the world, the men of the Mercantile Marine find v under the flag of the Flying Angel a y wholesome relaxation, a friendly com- t radeship, and a spiritual uplift afrait- E ing them. _ £ On the part of those aiding this j enterprise is the satisfaction of know- j. ing that the nation's debt to the Mer- f cantile Marine—a debt piled up j through long years both in war and J peace—is being practically acknow- fc ledged. What is done is little enough t —too little, ivhen all is reckoned —but 1; its doing, as a thousand guineas from a the Admiralty to The Missions to Sea- c men said at the close of the Great War a and as myriad tha.nks from seamen fi themselves have continued to say, is 11 worth while. In this centenary year e the Flying Angel floats in honour. F