“It’s a wonderful ministry isn’t it?” laughs Deacon Roger Stone as we tentatively clamber up a gangway holding tight on to a rope, trying very hard not to slip on the oily surface underfoot, as the hailstones come down around us. Wearing hard hats over woolly hats, strong footwear and multiple layers on a bitterly cold morning, we are visiting a trio of tankers moored in Southampton.

Shivering as we climb steel ladders to make our way on deck, Deacon Roger points out that the majority of crew members are Filipino and Indian so “imagine how they find the cold!”