Blessing honours the man who started it all

Fireworks, wreaths and fish and chips are just some of the ways Nelson has this year honoured the work of seafarers – and also the founder of the event.

Crowds turned up to the 21st annual Blessing of the Fleet ceremony on Saturday afternoon, to celebrate the work of seafarers but also acknowledge the commitment of founder Mike Smith.

Smith was running a marine insurance company when he conceived the ceremony in 1996, a year with 23 deaths in the seafaring community, said Nelson Coastguard’s Pete Kara, who paid tribute to Smith as he ran the ceremony at Seafarers Memorial Park.

‘‘Not only did he deal with this firsthand, with the insurance claims, but also with the families of those who had died,’’ Kara said.

Smith found there was not a lot of support for the bereaved families and, after seeing a similar practice in the UK, said the community needed to do more to raise money for the families and highlight the working environment of seafarers.

The Blessing of the Fleet had become a celebration of maritime personnel, the seafood industry, and a memorial to those lost to the sea. But this year was also a celebration of the work Smith and others had done to make the event an annual on the Nelson calendar, Kara said.

After last year’s ceremony was cancelled due to Covid in the community, this year’s one was ‘‘very, very significant’’ as Smith’s health had unfortunately deteriorated and there

was concern it could be his last, Kara said.

‘‘In fact, our mayor, the honourable Nick Smith, had visited Mike earlier in the week and knows Mike pretty well, and really wanted to acknowledge who he was and what he had done for the community.’’

As a token of the community’s appreciation, mayor Nick Smith presented Mike Smith with a Flag of the

City of Nelson. A lot of respect and mana was given to Mike Smith by the community this year, Kara said.

To move into the future, it was important to know that past, and Mike Smith had given the community a ‘‘really good’’ footprint for the Blessing of the Fleet to continue on, Kara said.

Mike Smith was joined by Robert Palmer, who organised the boats and sea side of things, and together they have been organising the Blessing of the Fleet for 21 years.

Mike Smith and Palmer, along with Peter Talley and the Rotary Club, also set up the Seafarers Memorial Trust.

Palmer said it had been a ‘‘privilege’’ to be involved with the annual tradition, but he had taken a step back from organising it. In fact this year’s ceremony was the first ceremony he had attended on land, he said.