Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The Missions to Seamen at Penarth . . .

	The Missions to Seamen was founded at Penarth in the hope that mariners would be provided with the opportunity to attend its religious services. Vessels were often moored up for extended periods awaiting loading with coal on the Penarth Flats and the opportunity to be visited and to attend Sunday service was welcomed by numerous mariners.
	The "Flying Angel" emblem [038] of the Mission (left) dates from 1858. It was inspired by a verse from the Book of Revelation: “ Then I saw an angel fying in mid-heaven with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those on earth, to every nation and tribe, language and people. ” The Chaplain to the Missions to Seamen, Penarth during the years 1862 - 1874 was Robert Buckley Boyer. [514]

The Penarth Dock Ship Building and Ship Repairing Company Limited seem to have enjoyed a close association with the Mission since it was located nearby the yard and built a ship for them also named 'Eirene' (Peace). The Missions to Seamen ran the Seamen’s Church and Institute situate between the basin and the main dock. The Annual Report of the Mission [038] of 1898 recorded:

“The postmen on their daily rounds left sailors’ letters; later on sailors dropped in to find and answer them. Others came to see ‘The Shipping Gazette,’ to make enquiries about ‘berths,’ ‘lodgings,’ ‘the arrival of expected vessels,’ or about ‘the movement of vessels in the dock. Some wanted a cup of coffee, a rest and a read, or it might be a quiet game of draughts, ninepins, bagatelle, or dominoes. Some had bags of clothes to leave, others bags to take away, while some, wanting to be spared a climb up the stiff hill, at the foot of which lies the dock, turned in for dinner, later on for tea, and later still for a strum on the ever popular piano.”