Mission to Seafarers

THE MISSION TO SEAFARERS

It was February 1971. I had just started working as Chaplain to the port of Liverpool in the UK. I had replaced the homes on roads and streets with floating homes along the quayside.

As I approached the Lagos Palm, a West African seafarer leant over the bow of the ship and waved his arms up and down. For an awful moment, I thought he was about to jump overboard. I say awful, because I cannot swim! Then suddenly it dawned on me what he was saying in his sign language.

He was saying 'Flying Angel’.

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'Flying Angel' is the nickname which seafarers give to their chaplains. [They call them other names as well which are not appropriate for the church building]. The symbol of the Flying Angel - the logo of the Mission to Seafarers - comes from the book of Revelations, in which one reads:

'Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, holding the everlasting gospel to proclaim to the inhabitants of the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.'

And that is exactly what the Mission to Seafarers - formerly, the Mission to Seamen - have sought to do for over one hundred and fifty years, namely 'to proclaim the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth’ - particularly the seafaring world - 'to every nation and tribe and language and people’.

It all started way back in the 1830s when the Reverend John Ashley was on holiday in Somerset between jobs. He was walking with his son along the coast of the Bristol Channel at Portishead when his son, looking down at the various ships anchored off the coast awaiting a berth, asked his father, "who cares for those men?' Ashley did not know. He immediately hired a boat and began to visit the seafarers upon their ships. He found the work so necessary and satisfying that he declined to take up his new parochial appointment and devoted the rest of his life towards caring for seafarers.

His example soon caught the imagination of others in ports around the UK where similar work began to be carried out. In 1856, these various, independent missionary activities came together under the umbrella of the Missions to Seamen.

Today, you will find fulltime chaplains working in some 90 major ports of the world, and honorary chaplains in a further 200 ports. ln many of these ports, the work is carried on, on an ecumenical basis, with the Apostleship of the Sea representing the Roman Catholic Church and a non-denomination body called the British and International Sailors Society. In other ports, various national churches share in the ministry.

In the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf , chaplains are working in the ports of Aden, Bahrain, Dubai and Limassol.

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Since that first day of my seafaring ministry in Liverpool in 1971, much has changed in that port, which is reflected in other ports around the world.

For instance, in 1971 there used to be between 140 and 160 ships in port at any one time. Many were in port for up to three weeks which gave the chaplain plenty of time to get to know his itinerant parishioners. Today, you would be lucky to find a dozen ships in the port of Liverpool, and most of these are there for 24 hours or less. Yet the gross tonnage handled has never been so high!

What has brought about this dramatic change in shipping?

Firstly, there has been the introduction of specialised shipping such as container, bulk cargo, tankers, roll on and roll off ships. These ships have also got bigger. For instance, it is estimated that one container ship replaces about four and a half traditional cargo ships. This means fewer ships and fewer seafarers.

Secondly, new methods of cargo handling have been introduced. This has resulted in ships spending less time in port and more time at sea. Whereas the conventional cargo ship used to spend about three quarters of its time in port and a quarter at sea, the situation is now reversed, whereby it spends three quarters of its time at sea and a quarter in port. This causes considerable stress amongst seafarers who hardly have time to scratch themselves, let alone to get ashore and relax in a seafarers centre. So the days of the big seafarers centres, like the one at Fremantle, Australia, which I later ran for nearly twelve years, providing a 'home from home', is rapidly disappearing.

Thirdly, there has been a tremendous change in the seafaring personnel. Whereas in 1971, Britain had its largest Merchant Navy fleet in history, and the third largest fleet in the world, today it has almost disappeared. An increasing number of ships trade under what are called 'flags of convenience', where the standards of safety are often less stringent for seafarers and there are tax advantages for ship owners.

Working in a global economy it is considerably cheaper to employ seafarers from the developing nations. In addition, some unscrupulous ship owners exploit the labour market, which often means chaplains spending an increasing amount of time seeking for justice for these seafarers. After all, whether they be British, Filipino, Korean, Chinese or Indian, they are all God's children and deserve to be treated with dignity as human beings, and not as commodities which can be abused and discarded.

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But some things do not change.

The sea is still a dangerous place. Every day and a half, a ship of 500 gross tons or more, continues to be lost at sea, with the consequent loss of life. Day by day, seafarers face the danger of the sea to bring us our 'daily bread'. Little wonder so many of them are religious people, aware of a power greater than themselves in determining their lives.

Paddy was an Irish skipper. When I first visited his ship he proudly announced that he had not time for 'godbotherers', as he sat down to a glass of Guinness. Later on, he said, many a time going across the Atlantic in a storm he had found himself praying to God. Then he said something I have never forgotten. 'I've never been given the calm sea of Galilee, but I've been given the strength to see the storm through'. What a mature understanding of intercessory prayer.

Seafarers still spend a lot of time away from families and loved ones. My wife's father went to sea and was often away for up to eighteen months at a time. One day, when he was home on leave, he went to pick his daughter up from school as a surprise. She ran away from him. She did not know who he was!

And being away from family and loved ones produces its own unique problems. It is to the Padre that both the seafarer and his family turn to in times of crisis. He shares in their joys and sorrows. Perhaps the most difficult job he is asked to do is to break news of death.

I came across the following letter recently.

'Dear Mr Ranson. Just a few words to say thank you for your kindness in coming to see me in my recent trouble.

I have been told that my son Kenneth has been buried in the Christian cemetery in Karachi, and although at the time of your visit I was very much against this, I have now come to accept it as the best thing in the circumstances.

Your telling me that the Mission to Seamen would put a wreath on his grave has been a help. Perhaps, as you said, later I may be able to have a photograph of his grave, and then it may not seem so far away.

I do hope your own relatives in the war zone are all safe. Yours truly, Annie Seddon."

And what about the seafarer who is taken ill and put in hospital, often in a strange country speaking a strange language? This can be a lonely experience. It is the Padre who visits the seafarer after the ship has sailed over the horizon.

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In addition to these, there are two new problems facing seafarers. Perhaps I should say, an old one come back to haunt us and a new one.

In the 1980s I used to work as a cruise chaplain on board the Coral Princess for between four and six weeks around SE Asia.

Late one evening, as we were approaching the Malacca Straits between Sumatra and Malaysia, I decided to leave the dance floor and go for a walk on deck.

There I found the Chinese crew laying out hose pipes on the deck. When I asked the reason for this, I was told that it was to defend the ship against piracy.

In 2005, there were 2205 incidents reported by the International Maritime Bureau. Its report listed 141 boardings, 11 hijackings, and 15 instances of ships being fired upon. In total 259 crew were taken hostage and 12 are still missing.

These figures are probably only the tip of the iceberg since most attacks go unreported because of the lengthy investigations that tie up ships, cargo and crew for days, at a downtime cost of $15,000 a day!

It is estimated that piracy costs the world commerce $25 billion a year. Commercial shipping is, unfortunately, easy prey to piracy because the vessels are big, slow and virtually unprotected.

The second new problem facing seafarers is that of security since September 11. Seafarers in America and Australia cannot go ashore unless they have security clearance before reaching the port of call. Since ships do not always know which ports they are going to call at on a voyage this is a difficult requirement to fulfil. Extra security is also making it difficult for chaplains to visit ships.

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I ask you to thank God for the Church's ministry to seafarers throughout the world, and to pray for seafarers who 'go down to the sea in ships', often amidst great danger, and upon whom you and I depend for over 90% of the world’s trade.

They may be out of sight. May they never be out of mind.