THE Rev. Thomas Stanley Treanor, M.A., came from the parish of Achill, on the west coast of Ireland, and in July, 1878, was appointed chaplain to the Missions to Seamen for Deal and the Downs. A scholar and author, Treanor could read Greek and converse in many languages, and his passion for souls coupled with masterly seamanship earned him the affectionate title 'Sky Pilot'.The days of Deal's prominence as a naval station with its own large dockyard were over, but the Downs, that anchorage of deep water bounded on the west by the mainland and towards the east by the Goodwin Sands, remained an important sea route for shipping to and from the port of London. On a single night in his first year of office, Treanor counted 500 ships with an estimated 5,000 sailors sheltering in the Downs, and another year reported 20 steamers at anchor at one time apart from 300 other vessels. Naturally, the Missions to Seamen regarded the Downs as one of its 12 great roadstead stations.

Originally founded by Lord Shaftesbury, the Downs mission station was opened in 1859.

Funds for mission rooms were raised by a bazaar in Deal Castle organised by Lady Granville and Lady Sydney. Admiral Hill, the last Captain of Sandown Castle, gave permission for stones from the demolished castle to be used in the foundations. These rooms at the top of Exchange Street facing the sea were for the reception of shipwrecked mariners, but were also used for Sunday services and boatmen's recreation.

The Mission's oversight included coastguard stations and lightships as well as 800 of the renewed Deal boatmen. In one year Treanorvisited 400 homes and 890 ships, spending an average of 250 days afloat annually. At first he hired local boats, but eventually the Mission acquired its own galley punt at a cost of £50.

Bishop Parry of Dover dedicated The Countess Sydney, which was later joined by a second galley, Evangeline. The two were worked together until 1906 when replaced by Quiver IX.

The crew of the Mission boat were George Norris, coxswain, and Stephen Wilds, bowman.

The chaplain steered.

Countess Sydney, her familiar Blue Angel flag streaming, would sail to the nearest ship where the crew, destined for a long voyage and caught in a moment of 'loneliness and leisure', would welcome Treanor. A collapsible harmonium was hauled aboard, and the captain, mates, apprentices, cook and carpenter, as well as passengers of all nationalities, gathered round for a simple service.

Treanor carried bibles in 20 languages and the prayer book in 10, also 100 hymn books, London newspapers, magazines, presents of mufflers, mittens, needle-cases and helmets made by Deal ladies for the crew, and a formidable array of temperance cards, medals and tracts—'words to make the heart quake and the very ears of impenitent sinners to tingle'.

Numerous visits were made to the North and South Sand Head lightships, but the East Goodwin Lightship, 10 miles from land and a mile and three-quarters from the outer edgeof the Goodwin Sands, was difficult and dangerous to reach, the Mission boat returning often in fog across the dreaded sands. The Tongue and Edinburgh lightships, 25 miles off Ramsgate, might be reached on spring tides, but only with favourable winds and fair weather.

Sometimes the galley was towed home at 10 knots by a passing friendly steamer. Most isolated were the Galloper and Long Sand lightships on the confines of the North Sea, reached by a crew of five leaving at seven in the morning in a magnificent 20-ton lugger, Guiding Star.

Treanor's sheer determination is demonstrated in his efforts to reach the Varne lightship, 20 miles off Folkestone, in the summer of 1891. The crew of the mission boat with the coxswain of the Deal life-boat, set off loaded with provisions in the large and powerful galley punt Success. Ten miles from the intended destination, the sea became heavy, gigantic waves almost deluging the boat, spray stinging the men's faces, nearly blinding them, so that they were forced back to the shelter of Dover harbour.A second attempt a fortnight later began with a favourable light wind and ended in thick fog when the crew could barely see the length of the boat. 'All kinds of ghostly shapes and spectral ships, all manner of imaginary noises and sounds came at us out of that wreathing, vaporous fog.' Although they got within 500 yards of the lightship the men had to return.

On the third attempt, a suitable tide carried the galley straight to the lightship, and the sailors enjoyed the missionary's three-hour stay, and gifts of fruit, flowers, vegetables, newspapers and the inevitable woollen wear from the ladies. It was a glorious evening when the boatmen returned, but the wind had dropped and the crew were obliged to row home. 'Our splendid boat, though built for speed and strength under sail, was too weighty and too big for rowing'—but row they did, the whole 20 miles, dressed in cumbersome sea boots, sou-westers and oilskins.

As local honorary secretary to the R.N.L.I., Treanor was responsible for the Kingsdown, Walmer and Deal life-boat stations. He rarely accompanied the life-boat crew, but remained ashore ready to offer spiritual comfort to returning rescuers and survivors. In his book, Heroes of the Goodwin Sands, he describes graphically many of these heroic rescue attempts by local boatmen of men and ships held fast on the Goodwin Sands, that great sandbank eight miles long and four miles wide, whose shape and currents are changing hourly, lying in wait right in the highway of shipping, the dreaded 'ship-swallower'.

Treanor arranged for 12 almshouses and a large beach plot and capstan grounds to be made available for retired boatmen, and when he died in November, 1910, a new mission motor-boat, Stanley Treanor, was named after him. His successor was the Rev. P. L. Negus.

The Downs mission station was the last station doing work afloat at sea, and before his death Treanor had reported seeing only 1,840 ships at anchor in a single year, but by the time of the mission's closure in 1931 the work was practically limited to visits to the Goodwin lightships with the customary Christmas hampers.

Mr. T. G. Bedwell Mr T. G. Bedwell, of Beaconsfield, Bucks., who died recently, gave, together with his wife, the life-boat which is now on service at the Gorleston and Great Yarmouth station. This boat was one of the first of the 44-foot steel class of life-boat to be introduced into the service of the R.N.L.I., and few things gave Mr. Bedwell greater pleasure than to learn of the outstanding achievements of the Khami and her crew in saving life at sea..