George Charles Smith of Penzan*: From Nelson Sailor to Mission Pioneer

In the two previous books of his trilogy, Seamen's Missions (1986) and The Way of the Sea(2008), the author researched how the seafarers' mission movement began and expanded. This third volume traces the captivating human drama surrounding the origins. In fifteen fascinating chapters the book presents, for the first time ever, the embattled life of George Charles Smith-today recognized worldwide as the founder of the Maritime Mission Movement. Here, the reader can follow the turbulent career of this man of extremes: his humble origins; his harrowing years in a "floating hell" in Nelson's navy; his relentless war with the "Sodom and Gomorrah" of London's Sailortown; his dogged pursuit of a "Marine Jerusalem"; his survival of heartless debtors' prisons; his feting throughout America; and his "last watch" in his home port, Penzance, in southwest England. Perhaps the most powerful affirmation of the lasting legacy of George Charles Smith is how also non-Western participants in today's maritime mission readily discern in him the profile of a prophet.