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“THE
FLYING ANGEL OR STELLA MARIS
Every Vindi Boy who ever was knows the ‘mission’
The first mission for all of us was the Flying Angel at Sharpness, for the WW2 Vindi boys it was the ‘Black Hut’ later we younger (‘sigh’) fellows used the ‘new’ purpose built brick mission.
Photo copied from Roy Derham's book 'Vindicatrix'
The 'new' Sharpness Mission is over on the left a one & two story building.
The 'old black hut' Mission is the huddle of huts just of centre.
I have fond memories of running down there of an evening when we where ‘let out’ – dashing in the door and buying a few jam ‘butties’ to supplement my severely denuded calorie intake.
I remember they had a couple of hundred jam Sandwiches laid out all ready for us, or were they all just for me?!!
I frequented the Missions quite a lot during my time at sea, usually not until I was broke and no were else to go, which didn’t take long on our pay.
I spent a lot of time in Sydney in the 1950s (the ‘Cedric’ was in Walsh Bay for 5 weeks just discharging part cargo on my first trip here, I was night watchman and used to spend my mornings sleeping in the park on Observatory Hill and the afternoons in the George Street Flying Angel at the Rocks.)
I found you got a hot drink and Tabnabs at there, but only if you had attended the service in the chapel first.
Do you remember the beautiful carved wooden alter in the Chapel there, it stood in a lovely stained glass bay window, the bay window is still there but the Alter has gone, did it go to the new Flying Angel in Sussex St.?
The Stella Marris in
The catholic priests must have been cracking the whips around the churches on Sunday mass.
The best Missions I found were in the
Of whom it might be said that they were very with it,down to earth, knew were you was heading before you did and not adverse to come to a nice friendly arrangement with you that might last all week!
The missions down the West African coast where similar in attitude, in that unlike many missions they looked after your welfare and comforts and refrained from trying to control your morals or lack of them and browbeat you into religious submission.
I remember the
The “new’ (1955) Pier Head mission in
The later one in
All this article was brought about because some weeks ago now I started as a volunteer at the Port Kembla Seafarers
I just do a few hours on a Tuesday night driving their Coaster bus going around the ships to see the crew and bring anyone in to the
The bus service extends to running them into town if they want to go shopping, Coles & Woolworths stay open all hours now so night shopping is easy. And the occasional picnic trip if it can be arranged, which is difficult to do now as ships are in and out so quick these days.
Ship’s crews as well as ships are very different today, from what I have seen so far Caucasian faces are rare now, the only Europeans I have met have been just a couple of Russian and Ukraine seamen who once sailed under the Hammer & Sickle.
Most of the Missions customers now are from Asian countries with
They do seem to make a reliable and good ship’s crew, always well behaved ashore and they don’t have the same vices we had in our day, alcohol which was a major bother causer on many of my ships is a non starter with them.
Of course they get far less pay than we did so they cant afford to play up to any great extent.
The Missions too have changed with the times and now provide what their clients mostly want which seems to be telephones and the internet to contact their loved ones at home. The Port Kembla Mission is only a small place but it has 4 telephone booths and 3 computers for the crews who buy phone cards or computer time from the
New seafarers’ centre in Marsden Point - The
24-01-2006
It has been built with the help of a £150,000 grant from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Seafarers’ Trust. Other funds have been raised locally and NZ$50,000 still needs to be raised to meet extra costs arising from a change of building regulations just prior to the start of construction.
Facilities in the new centre include telephones, recreational facilities such as pool and table tennis tables, and a shop which sells international telephone cards as well as basic essentials such as toiletries, stamps and stationery.
Marsden Point chaplain Des Olney reports that seafarers, especially those who knew the old premises, are delighted with the new facilities.
But the move and comfortable surroundings in the new centre did not come about without a great deal of hard work by Des and members of the local committee, moving stock and furniture, getting the phones switched over and ensuring there was a minimal gap in their service to seafarers.
Marsden Point is in a relatively remote location.
The Flying Angel has its own website at
http://www.missiontoseafarers.org
It also produces a regular newsletter called ‘The Sea’ below on this page are some articles from the website & Newsletter that I thought would be of interest to us ex seafaring types.
They show mainly that the world of shipping never really changes the ambition of most ship managers is seemingly always to pay & spend less and then less on their crews.
*******
FLYING ANGEL 150 YEARS OLD
Thanksgiving service for 150th anniversary
28-03-2006
HRH The Princess Royal, president of The Mission to Seafarers, attended a thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey on March 28 to mark the society’s 150th anniversary this year.
The Flying Angel being carried into Westminster Abbey
Members of the Council of The Mission to Seafarers, chaplains and staff were joined at the service by hundreds of supporters from the
The Most Revd John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, was the preacher.
The Princess Royal, who has been president of the society since 1984, read one of the lessons. At the end of the service, the Princess met
They were Southampton chaplain, the Revd Andrew Huckett, Antwerp chaplain John Attenborough, Captain Frederick Frances, a member of the Mission’s Singapore Committee, the Revd Vicky Maunder, a former chaplain’s assistant with the Mission and now curate at St Peter’s Eaton Square, London, Miss Phyllis O’Leary, who has raised thousands of pounds for the society as its honorary secretary at St John’s Church, Stanmore, over 25 years, and Jenny Saunders, administrator of the Mission’s centre in Tilbury.
The Seafarers Mission Flag flying on the Abbey
The
*******
Shipowner gets on his bike for the
13-04-2006
Meet Mission Missile Michael Everard, the shipowner with pedal-power in his locker.
Michael, chairman of Dartford-based FT Everard and Sons, is taking to two wheels on behalf of The Mission to Seafarers charity of which he is deputy chairman of the council of trustees.
Michael and the
Around 270 keen cyclists from the international shipping industry, have signed up for the ride on May 12-13. It aims to raise £250,000 for The Mission to Seafarers, which cares for seafarers in 230 ports worldwide, and the Sea Alarm Foundation, which is dedicated to rehabilitating wildlife affected by marine oil spills.
Riders will set off at 7am on Friday May 12 from the Cutty Sark at Greenwich, pedal through Kent via Chatham Docks to Dover and then cross the Channel on P&O Ferries (P&O is the Tour’s main sponsor) to be ready for a second day's riding in France around Le Touquet. The event ends with a celebratory prize-giving dinner on Saturday evening and the ferry back to
Michael Everard, whose frequent sessions in the gym involve cycling, said his road work on the bike, bought specifically for the Tour, was making him fitter. “I used to leave the house early for a 70-mile training ride, telling my wife I would be home by 5pm. But now I get back by 3pm so I must be improving…the tour will tell!”
*******
Valium seafarer finally goes home.
The Croatian ship’s officer jailed in the
Denio Ruskovic, third officer on the V Ships MV Marine Pacific, was arrested in January as he signed-off in
The case finally came to an end on Monday May 31 when judges ruled he could leave the UAE with no fine or risk of deportation. “He will get his passport back on Saturday and he looks happy and relieved,” said The Mission to Seafarers Dubai chaplain Stephen Miller who supported Ruskovic throughout his suffering.
Stephen visited the prison to give practical and spiritual support and worked hard for his release. This included helping to get the prescription, which was in Croat, translated into English and then into Arabic, for the court – evidence which ultimately led to him being set free.
Stephen also relayed messages from his family and from the seafarers’ union in
After his release, the shipping company paid for him to stay at a hotel in
Stephen has called on shipping agents in the UAE to warn seafarers of the danger of carrying even the most innocent of drugs when joining or leaving ships there.
*******
JUSTICE MATTERS BY DOUGLAS STEVENSON
US Penalty Wages Act
RECENT efforts by several cruise lines to change the United States Penalty Wage Act has highlighted how important this historic
legislation is to seafarers.
As a result of three class action lawsuits where three different cruise lines were accused of skimming wages from seafarers, the cruise industry is trying to get the US Congress to change the Penalty Wage Act so that passenger vessel operators will not have to pay the high penalties contained in the existing law.
The US Penalty Wage Act (46 United States Code section 10313) requires discharged seafarers to be paid all of their wages within 24 hours after the ship’s cargo has been discharged, or within four days after the seafarers are discharged, whichever is
earlier.
If the ship’s master does not pay the seafarers’ wages as required by the law, and the master does not have a good reason for withholding the wages, the seafarer is entitled to two days pay for each day that wages are delayed.
The act specifically protects foreign seafarers on foreign ships when the ships are in US ports.
The Penalty Wage Act ensures that mariners, both foreign and American crews, receive their earned wages promptly and do not end up penniless in US ports.
The act also protects them from arbitrary and unscrupulous actions by their employers.
The courts have consistently upheld the act’s intent, even when the results appear absurd to shipowners.
The US Supreme Court affirmed a case in which the shipowner had to pay a penalty of more than $300,000 for withholding $412 earned wages.
The penalty starts immediately after wages are due and continues until the wages are paid.
The penalty is intended to deter negligent and arbitrary delays in paying wages.
Not all unpaid wages are subject to the penalty, however. Masters can avoid the penalty if they can show that they had a sufficient
cause for their refusal to pay.
Because the penalty can be harsh, courts will excuse delays if a good reason exists for non-payment, and they impose penalties only if the employer has acted in a dishonest or very highhanded
way.
The Penalty Wage Act traces its roots to an act passed by the first US Congress in 1790.
That act required that a seaman receive the wages due to him “as soon as the voyage is ended”.
This statute overruled the common law rule that a seaman’s wages depended on the income of the cargo.
The statute provided that seafarers should be paid for their labour, regardless of whether the ship earned anything from freight.
In the event that the master or owner neglected or refused to pay
the wages due, the seafarer would have the right to bring them before the nearest court to determine why they had withheld the pay.
Congress intended the act, like most involving seafarers, to be liberally construed by the courts.
The law was amended in 1872, 1898 (sponsored by the Seamen’s Church Institute of NY & NJ), and in 1915, each time increasing the deterrent effect of the statute.
The most recent revision of the law in 1982 maintained the two day
penalty contained in the 1915 version of the act.
Seafarers need protection, as demonstrated by the continuing practices of shipowners withholding seafarers’ wages without
sufficient cause.
Strong deterrents for such actions are still needed to protect
seafarers.
The Penalty Wage Act helps prevent shipowners from abusing
seafarers’ rights.
The Penalty Wage Act also protects legitimate shipowners from
unfair competition by unscrupulous shipowners who do not pay their crews full wages.
*******
How the Wheel turns
Blind Freddy could have told them that!
the issue later this year, according to a report in TradeWinds Newspaper.
Its recommendation is based on research by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) which identified low manning levels and fatigue as “major causal factors” in collisions and
groundings.
The newspaper quotes Mr Steve Clinch, the MAIB’s deputy chief
inspector, as calling for a review of existing requirements and clearer guidelines, particularly that part of the STCW code concerning lookouts, which he thinks is “a bit woolly”.
The
This follows an MAIB investigation which concluded that the master of the Everard tanker Amenity may have been overloaded by having to pilot his ship without another officer when it collided with the ferry Tor Diana in the
*******
