Ladies' Guild Meeting - October 2011
The phrase, a man with a mission, is often heard but we had a visit from one such man on 5th October. Paul Jarrett MBE spoke to us about The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. He amused us by saying that he was pleased that we sang a hymn, not Jerusalem, at the start. He had spoken at many WI meetings and had heard it often. He proceeded to amuse and inspire us throughout his talk. When young, he vowed that he would make a difference with his life and so decided at 17 to work for the Mission at their headquarters in Baker Street, London. He was the tea boy and general runner but at 21 he felt that God wanted him to do this work and so he set off to Aberdeen, claiming never to have been further north than Watford. He became the Assistant Superintendent but had to learn the language he laughingly called Jockbridge first. He lived in the hostel for seamen. The work extended to all the needs of seamen and their families and so he visited homes and hospitals, dealt with paperwork, deaths and disasters as well as happier events in fisher folk’s lives. As you will have already gathered, Paul has a great sense of humour; he regaled us with amusing events from his career.
The Mission was started by Ebenezer J Mather, formerly secretary of the Thames Church Mission in London. He accepted a challenge to spend five days in a trawler on the Dogger Bank. He experienced harsh conditions and realised that the huge number of fishermen had no support or backup. A trawler was acquired named Ensign. She was equipped with medicines, warm clothes, reading materials and Bibles and sailed from Gorelston in 1882 to bring Christian care and comfort to seamen. Then followed the hostels and hospitals. The Mission is Christian based but serves all races and creeds. Queen Victoria became the patron, granting the use of the title Royal. Today, the Mission deals with many foreign fishermen who come here from the European Community to fish our waters and many problems for British fishermen concerning European rules and the wasteful legislation of throwing back dead fish. Skippers may be fined or put in prison for bringing in too much catch. The British fleet has quotas which restrict its time at sea but this leads to financial problems.
Paul moved around the UK during his career. He moved to Humberside where life was hard. He dealt with drug and alcohol problems; the philosophy being “meet a man where he is, to go to something better.” The best thing for him about Humberside was meeting his wife in Grimsby. To ask a lady to go to live with him in a hostel full of men takes courage! They married in Grimsby and moved to Kinlochbervie, south of Cape Wrath in the middle of nowhere. Transmission was poor; to adjust it a large hill had to be climbed. It was known as Sod It Hill because that is what was said when the screwdriver was left behind. Moving to Oban, still living in a Mission, above a prawn factory does not sound exotic but Paul’s wife was delighted to find shops. Paul became known for assisting in the scattering of ashes, sometimes with unexpected consequences.
The Jarrett family moved to warmer climes, Brixham in Devon, where they spent 14 years. His brother was delighted to find it was Brixham, not Brixton, as he needed a holiday. The Mission was an old building dating from Napoleonic times. Paul felt that it was an honour and privilege to worship with and go to sea with seamen. The delights of the South Hams did not stop the sorrows that are associated with disasters at sea. The death of all except one of a crew of a trawler, which included a 15 year old boy going to sea in the school holiday with his father, hit the whole community hard. Telling families of death or reportedly missing men is awful. Death leads to a funeral, however hard it is, it is a time for mourning. A missing person means seven years of uncertainty with even greater financial problems because until that time has lapsed nothing can be settled. The death of a seaman’s baby daughter drew Paul to the home even though the family were not church members. The father said he knew Paul would visit them. Such is the closeness of the community. One family lost two sons who went out to pull up lobster pots; they held an event to celebrate their lives in the fish market. “You will never pay the real price for fish,” said by Paul, stays in my mind. The dangers of weather, tides, equipment on the trawlers all play their parts along with the sheer hard work of casting and pulling in nets. To live among this for years as Paul did would appear to have sharpened his compassion and humour.
Paul moved to Bedford to enable him to travel easily anywhere he was required in the later stages of his career. The MBE tells its own story. The boy brought up in St Albans, with possibly a little brine in the blood, went a long way to serve, befriend, represent and champion a charity which is not funded by government or grant but covers the UK and Ireland and any seaman in need.