My previous blog of one of my sailing memories in the way the brain does brought another more recent true story to the fore. As a keen yachtsman and a practising Christian I found it memorable and amusing.
I was on holiday in Brixham in Devon and went to the local church for the Sunday Sung Eucharist service. The reading was about St. Paul surviving the shipwreck in Malta. The dismasted ship was being blown on to the rocks on a lee shore.
The captain let go a bow anchor and the ship continued to drag ashore. So the captain let go the other bow anchor and the gale continued to blow the ship towards the rocks. The Skipper obviously began to panic and as a last resort, put out another anchor over the stern. Known to sailors as a kedge anchor and not intended as a mooring anchor.
The reading was interrupted by a very loud Devonian voice booming out, which said “They dang vools ull ave the arse out of her”. The speaker, I later learned was a ninety year old, former Brixham Trawlerman who was sitting in the front pew.
If you are a seaman you could only have agreed with his verdict. If you know your bible you will also know that that is exactly what happened. The ship was wrecked and the place that it happened was St. Paul’s Bay in Malta. The rest, as they say is biblical history. . . . . . . Stand by to go about
