Whilst browsing through some old family photographs I came across a picture of a lovely gaff rigged ketch which appeared to be sailing in the Medway area of the Thames Estuary. Hand written on the front of the picture is the name ‘Griselda’. Next to it in the same pile of pictures was an extract from a magazine showing a picture of the Master and crew with a Chaplain, the Rev. Tonge, sitting in the group.
 
Upon closer examination with the aid of a magnifying glass I was able to make out the writing on the masthead ensign marked with the words ‘Missions to Seamen’. I knew from family stories that my grandfather had been a seafarer and it now transpires that the master of the vessel, one Captain C J Rogers, was in fact my maternal grandfather.
 
Although little was remembered about him there were family memories of a seafarer at the head of the family, a man who spent most of his working life away from the family home in Sheerness.
 
What an extraordinary coincidence that a close relative of a Little Ship Club member appears to have been a part of the very Mission that has such a close association with the Little Ship Club. Not only is the Mission based at St Michael Paternoster Royal across the road but our Chaplain is of course the Director General of the Mission.
 
The Missions to Seamen (now the Missions to Seafarers) is a worldwide charity which gives hope and comfort to seafarers worldwide. The Mission was founded by John Ashley who built a gaff cutter named Eirene from which he began his work of visiting ships in the Bristol Channel in about 1835. In 1856 his work was formalised into the Charity we know today  He visited over 14000 vessels giving comfort to their crews and selling them some 5000 bibles and prayer books.
 
At this stage, and in the absence of sound research, one can only surmise that this lovely yacht, the ‘Griselda’, carried out similar work in the Thames where her crew and Chaplain gave comfort to the crews of ships returning from far flung parts of the world.
 
Can any Club member, one wonders, throw any light on the history of this yacht which clearly has a tenuous but nevertheless close connection with the Club.