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The chaplains from Seafarer's Friend were called upon to mediate a crew dispute. See details below.
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ASSISTING SEAFARERS “ON THE RUN” Though the majority of vessels in port are new each day, and don’t return for many months, if at all, some are regulars in the three New England ports each week. These oil tankers and crew have come to know Seafarer’s Friend as a trusted part of the family. Though tankers are not the only ships coming to our ports on a regular basis, they are the only ones regularly visiting all three. The importance of the regularity of these visits, and the relationships able to be built with crew, was never more apparent than this past January through April. A new captain arrived and the crew immediately felt the air of racial prejudice onboard. Officers were of one nationality, while the crew another. Immediately the crew experienced verbal hostility and increasing pressure. The first chaplains to visit felt it immediately, and rumors of abuse circulated quietly among crew, but nothing substantial would surface before the ship left port. A few days later the Portland/Portsmouth Mission Director received a call: “We need to talk to you as soon as we can.” A long conversation in a local mall disclosed that a crew member was to be sent home, immediately, with no hearing, and as we were told, for no reason. As the ship sailed away that evening, chaplains immediately made phone and email attempts to the ship’s management company, the manning agent overseas, and a chaplain in the ship’s next port began. Upon the return trip of the ship a week later, the mediating of Seafarer’s Friend resulted in the seafarer being sent home, but with a promise that he would not be “black-balled.” (A common process wherein “trouble-makers” and prevented from working again.), and the captain warned by the management company that he would be watched to be sure crew were treated fairly in the future. Once again chaplains found themselves in a role of mediating relations onboard while ships continued to transit between ports. Chaplains’ ability to communicate and respected relations onboard ship allowed for the end of the story to be improved, with better onboard relations and a seafarer who was sent home now being able to avoid permanent unemployment. Further conversations onboard the ship assured all that relations were vastly improved; all a part of the “coming alongside” officers and crew of a tanker we see often. Together we are the arms of God reaching out in compassion, bringing reconciling love to those at sea.
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