Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 2
the torch’s beam scanning the water they found him. He was pulled into the lifeboat utterly exhausted, with his leg badly bitten by a shark. Dur- ing the following days, as Madison recovered, Brown was able to speak to him about Christ. Then, when the Ripley Castle arrived in Capetown, the story of the great escape drew agency reporters who flashed it to newspapers around the world. Along with thousands of others, Madison’s own family in America read the story of the sham-seaman’s escape, realising who it was because he had called himself by his Christian names.
Greater hope
Life suddenly took on a new hope for Madison. A wealthy aunt offered to pay back the money he had ‘bor- rowed’ from the insurance company, together with the cost of his fare home. But Commander Brown longed to see an even greater hope in his life. Calling together some of his fellow Christians from the crew, he held a prayer meeting to pray that Madison might find the Lord Jesus Christ. Their prayers were answered, when shortly before Tony Madison was reunited with his wife and children in Boston, he repented of all his sins and became a Chris- tian. He went home a saved man. One day in 1928, Captain Brown, while serving as Chief Officer of the Windsor Castle, saw two distinguished- looking people having lunch on board while the ship was in port. ‘Who are those people?’ he en-
quired. ‘Sir Arthur and Lady Conan
Doyle,’ came the reply. They had been invited to lunch by the ship- ping line four months before sailing in the Windsor Castle to tour Africa. Their purpose? To spread far and wide the cause of Spiritualism. When the ship sailed the pas- sengers were full of admiration and near hero worship for Sir Arthur, who planned to give Spiritualist lectures during the voyage. Chief Officer Brown, meanwhile, led the Christian crew members in prayer that God would honour their wit- ness and overcome the opposition to the Gospel which might overshadow the whole voyage. On the first evening at sea, Sir Arthur was due to lecture before a huge gathering of passengers in the largest saloon. Brown, who as Chief Officer read the lessons at the official ship’s services, was told by the Cap- tain that the morning service would be held on deck. ‘Read something special,’ he told his Chief Officer. ‘At five o’clock this afternoon,’
replied Brown, ‘Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is going to tell the passengers that there is no such place as hell, and so I would like to read some- thing in the Bible where God says that there is such a place.’ At 10.30am the service began. Soon it was time for the lesson. A great stillness fell on the congrega- tion standing on the open deck as Chief Officer Brown read slowly and deliberately from Revelation 20. Afterwards it was discovered that an electrician had suspended a micro- phone connected to the ship’s public address system near the portable pul- pit, so the reading had been heard
Commodore of the Fleet page 27
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