The Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Royal Ark Mariner, more commonly known as RAM, has been under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons since 1871 and governed by the Grand Master’s Royal Ark Council.

In common with other Masonic orders, the origin of the Royal Ark Mariner degree is not certain. There are several references to Noah and his Ark in early manuscripts, including Anderson’s constitutions of 1723.

Actual degrees with a Noachite theme emerged later, for example Patriarch Noachite or Prussian Knight in the 1760s, now the 21st Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. However, the earliest authenticated record of a Royal Ark Mariner Degree being worked in England, in a form that we would recognise, is 1790. Several attempts at establishing a “Grand Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners” came to nothing. Eventually, in 1871, the Order was taken under the wing of the Mark Grand Lodge. Prior to this the degree was worked in Craft and Mark Lodges and elsewhere.

The Order has two ceremonies: the Degree of Royal Ark Mariner, by which a brother is admitted (or elevated) to the Order and the ceremony of Installation by which the Commander Elect is installed in the Chair of a Royal Ark Mariner Lodge.

The ceremony of Elevation is a delightful one with many unique features. It is based on the story of Noah and his Ark and teaches that the virtuous and industrious will prosper.

It commemorates the providence and mercy of God and relates to the legend of the Flood. The content of the ceremony is taken directly from The Bible and is naturally both beautiful and instructive. When the candidate enters the Lodge room his attention is directed to the three pillars of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, and at one stage the Ark is momentarily symbolised in terms similar to the Ark of Salvation. The candidate is finally instructed to advance in the spirit of the Cardinal Virtues.

The Flood is a story of cleansing and rebirth, where the wicked and impenitent perished in the deluge while the faithful and the good, represented by Noah and his family, were saved to repopulate the earth. The Installation ceremony is equally special and quite different from that of other orders.

Lodges are attached, or moored, to Mark Lodges assuming their Number in the Roll and to be a member the Candidate has to have been advanced as a Mark Master Mason. There the similarity ends. In chronological terms it precedes the Mark by hundreds of years because it relates to the building and voyage of Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood and has none of  the other characters that we meet in Freemasonry.

There are no individual Ranks within either Province or Grand Lodge. Brethren holding those Ranks suffix their name with Royal Ark Mariner Provincial Grand Rank or Royal Ark Mariner Grand Rank. The Grand Master of the Mark is, ipso facto, the Grand Master of the Degree of Royal Ark Mariner. The apron and emblems of this degree are easily recognizable by the ark and rainbow motif.

The beautiful Royal Ark Mariner Tracing Board has been re-painted. The explanation of the Tracing Board is quite long and is often given in sections by a number of Brethren. Most Royal Ark Mariner Lodges meet three times per year, usually on the same evening as their Mark Lodge. In some instances the RAM Installation may be held at a different meeting so as to allow the incoming Worshipful Commander to preside over the Festive Board and to have “his own” evening.

The officers of a Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners are similar to those in a Mark Lodge although they bear different names. The Master is known as The Worshipful Commander, the Secretary as the Scribe, the Inner Guard as the Guardian and the Tyler as the Warder.

The Principal Officers represent Noah (Worshipful Commander) and his two sons Japheth (Senior Warden) and Shem (Junior Warden). The Wardens sit, as in the Craft Lodges of old, in the North West and South West of the Lodge room respectively, the Deacons being stationed together in the West.

Today the Order is thriving. In the Mark Province of Surrey, nearly all the Mark Lodges have a Royal Ark Mariner Lodge attached and most meet on the same day. Interested brethren will learn more about this splendid Order once they become Mark Master Masons, which is an essential qualification.

For more information contact the Provincial Grand Secretary

Provgesec@markmastermasons.org.uk