Various slides depicting life in Pilots both at Tonge Moor, Competitions and Camps can be found on our Building Bridges website
 
www.BuildingBridgesinTongeMoorBolton.co.uk

Shipmates (1.5 MB)

How Pilots Works
 
Pilots is a mid-week or Sunday activity for all children and young people which is set up and run by a local church. The leaders, Pilots Officers, and the Pilots Company usually plays an active role in the life of the local church. Pilots is for all children and young people whether or not they attend the church.
 
Pilots is divided into four age bands:
 
Deckhands (aged 5 - 6)
 
Adventurers (aged 7 - 10)
 
Voyagers (aged 11 - 14)
 
Navigators (aged 15 - 17)

Camp List 1996 (1.6 MB)

PILOTS
 
Way back in the early sixties the church decided to embark on a new interest for children and young people form the community we served. It was an organisation called Pilots. Its background was one of activities based on World Mission and Christian Service. We started in May 1965 and it was an adventure which was to last for more than 35 years.
 
More....

Article from Reform Magazine
 
Children and ships
 
A few readers will remember being on the dockside at Tilbury on 29th November 1962 when 'John Williams VII' was consecrated and launched by the late Princess Margaret for its work in the Pacific Islands. The ship then visited other ports so that the children of the churches could go on board and see 'their ship'. This was the seventh in a line of ships named after the martyr, ship-builder, and missionary, John Williams. From the beginning it was children in churches who helped finance and maintain these vessels, seven in total, through collecting ship halfpennies and donations.
 
The first 'John Williams', a sailing ship, was launched at Harwich in 1844, just over four years after John Williams was murdered on the island of Erromanga, in the New Hebrides. Children of churches raised £4000 for this vessel. Basil Matthews, in his book Ships of Peace, describes children 'selling toys, a favourite doll, a boy working down the mines, a nine year old giving his only shining half crown' to raise the necessary funds. This excerpt from the Annual report of the Victorian Auxiliary of the London Missionary Society in Australia dated May 1895, gives an indication of the interest in the ships:
 
'The principal event of the year was the visit to our port of the new steamer 'John Williams' (IV) and the series of enthusiastic gatherings extending from August 23-29 ... Special provision was made in the way of excursion trains and cheap fares to enable Sunday School scholars and others, not only from the suburbs of Melbourne but also from leading provincial centres to visit the children's ship. Nothing could exceed the courtesy and kindness of Captain Turpie... The amount raised in Victoria last year amounted to £248.9s 6d. The 'John Williams' is now more a household word than ever.'
 
The ships provided a focus for children in the churches right up to the 1960's. Many readers of Reform will remember 'News from Afar' and they will have memories and momentos of raising money for the ships (see picture of certificate overleaf from William Atkinson, Morecambe.)
 
From Jean Holtham of Leeds (now over 90 years old)
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My experiences are only second hand as I was born after my parents served in the South Sea Islands for five years where my brothers and sister were born...
 
They set sail from Tilbury Docks in the John Williams in 1908 bound for the island of Niue. This was following their honeymoon and my mother was always a bad sailor. It was a somewhat hazardous journey round South Africa and when they finally reached Niue there was no landing stage and a boat picked them up and rowed them to the island. Following this experience they were very dependent on the John Williams for their only contact with home. It only docked for a couple of days when letters and various items from the family were delivered, including foodstuff collected from other islands, some of which had to be ditched as it had gone rancid. You can imagine the excitement when news arrived from family members at home. The next time they sailed on the John Williams was after five years when the ship took them to New Zealand as my father had contracted TB.
 
Letter to Glyn Jenkins October 4, 2004
 
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John Williams
 
In the first years of the nineteenth century, John was one of those people who was impressed by stories of the early boats and the exciting unknown places they visited. The London Missionary Society (originally known as The Missionary Society) came into being because of a desire to take the gospel to such places, many uncharted and unexplored.
 
The first Missionary ship, The Duff, sailed in 1796. Its story used to be known by children and adults in each local church. What was not always in the public awareness was the tragedy and foolhardiness of the early explorers. The complement of The Duff was mostly made up of artisans, just four were ordained ministers. This Abrahamic journey had high dreams but floundered as the newcomers struggled to survive, especially those in Tonga who endured two and half years of indescribable horror without a single visit from a European ship. Three of the nine on Tonga were murdered, the rest hid in caves until the mission was abandoned. One man in particular, Henry Nott - (celebrated in Bromsgrove URC) - remained and was still there when reinforcements arrived. John and Mary Williams were among the group of new recruits. They were young, barely in their 20's, with no language skills - but had a deep sense of call and an earnest faith. John worked with other missionaries in the Society Islands (modern French Polynesia), but his sights were on other islands, dotted about in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. He called for a boat to be provided but the LMS were reluctant to encourage such initiatives. John eventually hired a boat and helped to take the gospel to the Hervey Islands (modern Cook Islands), putting Rarotonga on the map for the first time (Captain Cook missed it!). It was on this island that John built his own ship, 'The Messenger of Peace'.
 
From the Revd Bernard Thorogood, former General Secretary of the United Reformed Church.