MISSIONARY DAYS
BELL WITH A HISTORY. An old ship’s bell has just arrived in London in the baggage of a missionary from the South Seas. The bell was on the John Williams 1., a barque of 296 tons, the first of the London Missionary Society’s ships which sailed from the Thames in June 1844. The iron clapper has rusted off its hinges and the bell’s surface is grey and spotted. During the last thirty years it has been in the tiny belfry of a church on the remote island of Puka-puka (also known as Danger Island), in the Central Pacific. The John Williams was wrecked on the island in 1864, and the Pukapuka natives took a fancy to the bright object amongst the wreckage. It became a leading joy for the island children and later, in spite of the large crack, the one and only church bell. A visiting missionary suggested that the islanders should present it to the children of Britain, many of whom would come to see it in the missionary museum at Livingstone House London, and this was agreed to.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TAWC19391211.2.61
Bibliographic details
Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4222, 11 December 1939, Page 8
Word Count
183MISSIONARY DAYS Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4222, 11 December 1939, Page 8
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