Flying Angel Club
A Home Away
from Home?
A true story by the Flying Angel Club Fremantle
Submitted by The Flying Angel Club Fremantle and The Revd Canon Dennis Claughton AM, Chaplain
Sure, but this awesome Seafarers’ Centre holds secrets, stories, superb relaxation areas, coffee and chocolates!
The Flying Angel Club in Fremantle is the large building located at 76 Queen Victoria Street (next door to Officeworks) which is the Ministry of the Mission to Seafarers, a Mission supported by Perth Diocese and significantly, the recipient of Mission donations by several of the Parishes in this Diocese.
This story depicts precisely what it is like today at the Flying Angel Club. The following pictures capture day to day life at this crucial centre in the Port of Fremantle. The story, as told here, won a highly commended award at the prestigious Australian Maritime awards in the Category of Seafarers Welfare, just last week!
Every day around 40 seafarers sign in on shore leave — the stories of intrigue and illegal fishing, the fire on the Ocean Drover, and survival during the pandemic, are told through the stories and folklore and captured in the Centre in photos, mementos, memories and first-hand recounting.
Checking in on arrival
In 2003 we were asked to house a crew who were actual Pirates — they had been fishing illegally and set off the longest chase in Australian maritime history. Over 21 days, the Australian navy chased the ship carrying its catch of Patagonian toothfish, and the crew were brought back to Fremantle for trial.
We looked after them here for the next two years! More recently, the whole crew of the Ocean Drover bunked in here at the Flying Angel Club and it was like a holiday camp for a few weeks. During the three years ban on shore leave, our drivers did all the shopping for seafarers confined to their ship, supplied three meals a day to several COVID-19 ships and offered pastoral care in special ways.
These days, there is a great comfort in everything being as it should. The first impression for seafarers is a spacious area with lots of pool tables, a huge lounge area, computers, coffee, games, bar, relaxation and a balcony overlooking the harbour. It is more than that, though — there is a very beautiful chapel to be discovered, a well-stocked shop which sells lots of chocolates (as well as toiletries, caps and snacks and everything else that might be needed when one is away from home). Upstairs are 25 rooms with beds and showers, a wonderful asset, used for injured seafarers, crew transfers and maritime students.
Time for a game of Pool
Challenges remain for drivers - negotiating narrow wharves, servicing both the inner and outer harbour with seven shuttle buses continually running from mid-morning until late at night often in tricky conditions. Nevertheless, the reward is in the words of the seafarer who said gratefully as he boarded the bus last week ‘I haven’t been off the ship for seven months, thank you so much!’.
The Flying Angel Club has changed in keeping with expectations from our Head Office and feedback from seafarers - specifically, female seafarers are now seen regularly, and women’s items are being provided free of charge in our shop. An increasing number of female volunteers is building a welcoming and more inclusive community. We are delighted that we can now say we have an equal number of volunteers to those on staff – approximately twelve of each. A fantastic improvement as we have now recovered from the past few years, and can offer the seafarers what we hope is a ‘home away from home’.
