An article written by John Archer and annotated “Flying Angel News Summer 1975”. Flying Angel News is a quarterly publication by The Mission to Seafarers, who were previously known as The Missions to Seamen. The article focuses on Cardiff and its “one–storey cedar wood building”, which an annotation says was opened in November 1968 (approx.). It also mentions wives of officers who help visiting seamen's wives, and volunteer hostesses who attend dances.

Transcription:

FOCUS ON CARDIFF
John Archer

Just inside the gates of Butetown Docks, Cardiff, is a one-storey cedar wood building. It doesn't look much. But the Flying Angel flag flapping on the pole outside shows that there is a warm welcome for seamen all over the world.

Inside it's very cosy. Two young Italians are playing table football, a group of Spaniards are relaxing in front of the television, an international crowd is drinking at the bar. Behind it is a shop well stocked with gifts, souvenirs, sweets, toiletries and stationery. And busy serving is a jovial man wearing a dog collar.

“The Rev E. Stephen Arnold” is the name taped to his briefcase, but he's better known as the Chaplain, the Padre or, more often than not, Ernie. He was born in London 47 years ago, moved to South Wales when he was 21 and worked in the docks as an electrician. For six years he was a vicar in the valleys. Now he works for The Missions to Seamen, usually from nine in the morning till midnight.

Five mornings a week he goes ship visiting. “The officers tell me things they wouldn't even tell their crews,” he says. “I'm the only person that they see when they dock who is there solely for their benefit.

“I find I have to be a sort of supra-religious priest that people of all religions will come to. In a parish you’ve only yourself to worry about, but a mission chaplain has the rest of the world on his mind. One bad chaplain can ruin the relationship between a seamen and the mission. But a good relationship established in one port can then continue in the next.”

Ernie works hard at building up that good relationship. He has begun to take seamen and their wives to the Welsh folk museum at St Fagans, or to Llandaff Cathedral so that they can see a bit of the country. If he didn't, they might only get as far as the dock gates.

As wives on board ship are increasingly common, he has begun a service whereby the wives of officers who live in Cardiff picked up visiting wives and take them shopping, show them where to get their hair done and generally look after them.

In the club itself the phone is in constant use, and three nights a week there are dances. Hostesses, girls who give their time voluntarily, sit together in one corner while seamen sit in another. When a record starts, the seamen ask the girls to dance with a polite flick of the hand at the end of an outstretched arm. One of the girls describes it as: “Like travelling around the world except that you don’t have to travel, everyone comes to you.”

One seaman spoke for all when I asked him what he thought of the Flying Angel. “Seamen respect the mission as being their club,” he said. You can have a quiet drink with no bother from outsiders. You're always made welcome and people are always friendly, even though they're usually strangers.

“A lot of people in dock areas are out to rip you off, but if you don't know the score then the padre puts you right. He usually understands our problems and often enough has been in similar work to us before joining the mission. We can talk to him on our own level.”