A Southampton sailor has thanked the "special" people of Glasgow for taking him to their hearts - after berthing here recently as part of a 2.5 month-long sailing pilgrimage.
Russ Fairman undertook the journey to raise funds and awareness for the work of Stella Maris, a global maritime charity which exists to support seafarers and fishers.
This 2,136 nautical miles journey, which got underway in April in Southampton, steadily made its way around the UK and stopped at 50 ports before its climax in Portsmouth on Sunday, July 9.
Those stops included Gravesend, Harwich, Grimsby before arriving in Scotland to take in Leith, Tayport, Stonehaven, Peterhead, Stornoway, Lochboisdale in the Outer Hebrides, Oban, Campbeltown and then Glasgow.
Russ, who led the pilgrimage on board the ‘Mintaka’, a 34ft sailboat, docked in Yorkhill Pontoon on Saturday, June 10 before joining up with supporters of the charity the next day for a service of celebration in St. Aloysius Church.
READ MORE: Tui hails return to profit but wildfire disruption comes at a cost
Russ reflected: “Glasgow was the major highlight for this pilgrimage. It was great just being back where it all began.
“The charity has a special connection with this wonderful city. It’s easy to see why it was founded here when you witness how supportive people are towards the mission, and consider the tremendous shipbuilding heritage.
“It was a joy to sail along the River Clyde and spend some time with so many special people. It is indeed a friendly city with a unique atmosphere.
“Through this endeavour, we can hopefully raise further the profile of Stella Maris and the wonderful work it does in helping the People of the Sea.”
The journey continued across to Ardglass in Northern Ireland and then headed for Milford Haven in Wales and finally Plymouth prior to its arrival back in the south coast in Portsmouth on the same day as Sea Sunday - July 9 - the day which many Christian Churches set aside to remember and pray for seafarers and their families and give thanks for their lives and work.
The initiative was originally planned to take place in 2020 to mark the charity’s centenary.
To celebrate its 100th anniversary, a set of commemorative stamps were issued by the Vatican depicting the traditional iconography of Stella Maris and reproducing three sailors on a boat in fear of the sudden storm, as they invoke the Virgin Mary.
The design was completed by the logo of Stella Maris, consisting of an anchor intertwined with a life preserver with the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the centre.
Formerly known as Apostleship of the Sea, Stella Maris was founded on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow on October 4, 1920, when a group of people decided to unify in a single work the assistance to seafarers carried out by various ecclesial organizations.
At this time Britain had one of the largest merchant fleets in the world, employing many thousands of British seafarers.
The new Apostleship of the Sea was defined as “a society of Catholic men and women united together in prayer and work for the greater glory of God, and the spiritual welfare of seafarers throughout the world”.
The charity ran large seafarers’ hostels in all the major port towns where seafarers could stay while their ships were in port, often for weeks at a time. Hundreds of volunteers from the local parishes were involved in providing hospitality and entertainment for seafarers in these hostels, which were always full.
Members were encouraged to visit ships and distribute Catholic literature, prayer, books, beads, and medals.
Over time the Apostleship of the Sea grew into a world-wide pastoral and welfare organisation with 80 functioning centres by the end of World War II.
Over 100 years on from its birth, Stella Maris is the largest ship-visiting network in the world, carrying out 70,000 ship visits around the world each year.
To date there are over 1,000 chaplains and volunteers in 330 ports across 60 countries from Australia to the USA, providing a range of services to seafarers and fishers, including welfare, practical, and emotional support, pastoral care and chaplaincy services.
For anyone interested in finding out more about Stella Maris or making a donation, please visit www.stellamaris.org.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here