Page 7 - Triangle Summer 2006 Issue 1

What is the connection between Edwards for the sum of £25! The

Mark and Royal Ark Mariners? receipt for this transaction still hangs
in the library of Mark Mason’s Hall in
The degree of Royal Ark Mariner Master, Somerset Craft 1784-1795 St. James’s Street, London.
although worked under the aegis of the who was so important in the fortunes Since that time the Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, of many degrees in Freemasonry was Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons
and requiring every candidate to be a also describing himself in 1793 as is automatically Grand Master of The
Mark Master Mason, has no historical Grand Commander of the Society of Ancient and Honourable Fraternity
connection whatsoever with the Mark Ancient Masons of the Diluvian Order of Royal Ark Mariners. A Royal Ark
degree. Mark Grand Lodge’s rule over of Royal Ark Mariners. Dunkerley Mariner Lodge is said to be moored
the ‘Ancient and Honorable Fraternity appointed Brother Ebenezer Sibley to a Mark Lodge bearing the same
of Royal Ark Mariners’ is simply a as his Deputy. Shortly before number, irrespective of age, and often
quirk of fate. It stands entirely alone Dunkerley’s death it was Sibley who bearing the same name.
and totally unrelated to any other welcomed Lord Rancliffe as the next Elevation into the Royal Ark
degree in Freemasonry. Grand Commander. Rancliffe held the Mariner Degree commemorates the
It is thought that the Degree is more off ce until 1799 after which time the providence and mercy of God and
than two hundred years old and, as Grand Lodge gradually withered and relates to the legend of the deluge.
its name suggests, it has a nautical died. The degree, however, survived The teaching of the Degree emphasis
f avour taking for its setting the and clung on tenaciously in a number the importance of the family strengths
circumstances leading up to the Great of places. In 1843 an attempt was and the need for each member of
Flood and the steps taken by Noah made by Brother John F Dorrington society to play his part for the benef t
to build the Ark by which to revive The Grand Lodge of all. We are taught that out of chaos
mankind was preserved of Royal Ark Mariners. It has and catastrophe mankind can survive
from perishing in the to be said though, that his and that we should face adversity
‘Universal Deluge’. Grand Lodge was even less together, helping to look after those
Like the Mark Master successful than the 1793 less fortunate than ourselves. This
Mason’s Degree, which is body. beautiful ceremony is relatively short
based on an established Morton Edwards, having taking about 45 minutes
fact (i.e. the construction of been passed to the Chair of There are ten Royal Ark Mariner
the Temple at Jerusalem), Noah, seems to have been Lodges in the Province. The oldest is
so the degree of Royal f red with the ambition of the Irwin Lodge No 119 at Keynsham
Ark Mariner is also based reviving the Grand Lodge whose warrant is dated 1873, the
on an actual happening, of Royal Ark Mariners. eleventh, The Portal Lodge of Royal
i.e. the Great Flood, as Accordingly a meeting was Ark Mariners will be consecrated on
th
recorded in the Bible and RAM breast jewel held on 13 May 1870 in the 20 September 2006 at Frome.
as verif ed in 1929 by the Bow Road, London house of The off cers of a Lodge of Royal
archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley, Brother Dorrington and it was agreed Ark Mariners are similar to those in
who not only found clear evidence to reconstitute a Grand Lodge. a Mark Lodge although they bear
of the f ood, but established that For sale one Grand different names. The Master is known
it had occurred some 6,000 years as The Worshipful Commander, the
previously. Lodge, price only £25! Secretary as the Scribe, the Inner
The legend of Noah, his sons, the Since a number of Mark Lodges had Guard as the Guardian and the Tyler
Ark and the Deluge were enacted in also begun to work the degree there as the Warder.
the Mystery Plays of the seventeenth was some conf ict with The Grand The principal off cers represent Noah
century and continued as catechisms Lodge of Mark Master Masons, which (Worshipful Commander) and his two
in many of the early Masonic rituals. had been formed in 1856. This came sons Japeth (Senior Warden) and
By the 1750s there was a Degree to a head when Brother The Reverend Shem (Junior Warden). The wardens
of Noachites or Prussian Knights. Canon Portal, Grand Master of the sit, as in the craft lodges of old, in
However, the f rst authentic record of Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons the North West and South West of
the degree appears in the minutes of announced, also in 1870, that since the Lodge room respectively, the
a meeting held in Bath in 1790. the degree of Ark Mariner had been Deacons being stationed together in
Whilst the degree seems to have been worked in Mark Lodges since 1790, the West.
practiced in a variety of ways and in a the Mark would protect the Royal Most RAM lodges meet three times
host of different Lodges, there was Ark Mariner degree under a new a year. If you are interested in joining
almost certainly no Grand Lodge Grand Master’s Royal Ark Council. speak to a brother in your Mark Lodge
presiding over the degree. We are This is the reason for Mark Grand who wears a RAM breast jewel. Royal
reminded of the widespread practice Lodge’s current control of the Royal Ark Mariners can wear their breast
of the degree every time we enter a Ark Mariners. (Cannon Portal gave jewel in a Mark Lodge but Mark jewels
Craft Lodge and observe the use of his name to the Portal Mark Lodge No are not worn in a RAM Lodge.
the dove bearing an olive branch by 155 in Frome, in 1872) Acknowledgement is due to both W
the Deacons rather than Mercury, the The conf ict and dissension continued Bro John Oakley-Smith, DPGM ,Herts
messenger of the Gods, which we see well after 1870 until the Grand Lodge from an original paper by V W Bro
in Mark Lodges. of Mark Master Masons simply Brian A Vickers, Past DPGM London
Thomas Dunkerley, Provincial Grand purchased the Degree from Morton for the provision of this article.
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