Church parties put ashore

[Randi]

I am continually surprised that patrols go out (numbers unlisted) but every time the church parties go ashore, the numbers always get logged on HMS Lancaster (38 Catholics, 16 Wesleyans etc etc). Is this common on other ships or was my Captain just a religious nutter?!!

I don't have church parties on my ship (HMS Crocus). Only football, cricket and bathing parties sofar.

One mention of catholics landed on a sunday on one of my ships. There was also a church service on board the ship later. I imagine that because Church of England will be the established church of the Royal Navy, other religions are not expected to attend those services on board and are expected to attend their relevant church. Please feel free to correct me.

Times have changed. There were no doubt the occasional OTT religious types, but the Christian faith was an integral part of the RN ethos up to, probably the 1960's. Nelson's prayer before the Battle of Trafalgar is still used today.

Church parade was held every Sunday. All had to attend, although Catholics were told to fall out. They sometimes had their own services. My father, standard CoE (Church of England) used to "fall out" with the Catholics to avoid church.

Some officers and men were regular Bible readers, even scholars and right up to WW2 knew their Chapters and Verses. Ships would sometimes exchange messages just by quoting relevant Bible Chapter and Verse at each other.

I had a colleague who registered as "Druid" to avoid Army church parades - I'm not sure what he would have done if they had ever found a pagan to lead one!

With regard to using biblical references in signals, I believe in latter years when intimate knowledge of the bible wasn't quite so good, they cheated and crib sheets circulated, so they could impress senior officers.

Regards

Haywain

I had to laugh. Both the Druid and the crib sheet. Imagine if someone tried signalling Bible verses on the bridge of a ship these days.

Gordon

They'd be reprimanded, If anyone knew what the heck they were talking about. Crib sheets. That's great. Sounds like a solution I would have resorted to.

As I've said elsewhere, the Christian faith was an integral part of the naval ethos up until the 1960's. Everyone attended Church parade on Sunday, although at least Catholics were told to "fall out", at least until after WW2. Nelson and others only went into battle after falling in the ship's crew for prayers.

And again, some ship's captains would exchange signals by quoting Bible verses at each other. Appreciating the part religion played in the Navy in the past helps to understand aspects of their behaviour.

Gordon

14th July, 1918: the "Amethyst" is in Barrow-in-Furness (personally, I preferred Brazil ::))
Landed church parties:
C of E 78 RC's 4
Presbyterians 8 Wesleyans 4

Sounds like the footabll results

The Foxglove gives church party info every Sunday - primarily C of E, with a smattering of RC, Wesleyan (Methodists to me ;D) and 1 Presby (straight from the log )