Three stories from Apostleship of the Sea/Stella Maris

Proud Dad with his three sons

The Apostleship of the Sea/Stella Maris held their annual reception on HQS Wellington, Victoria Embankment, last night, to mark the Day of the Seafarer.

During the evening the Life at Sea report, 2019, was presented - outlining the work they do supporting seafarers around world. With more than 220 chaplains and over 750 volunteers, AoS makes more than 70,000 ship visits a years, supporting over a million seafarers.

The guest speaker was Deacon Peter Barrigan, AoS Regional Port Chaplain for Tees & Hartlepool.

In his first anecdote he described how one quiet Friday afternoon he'd seen a small ship come into port but had been told by a senior officer that all was well and didn't want him to come on board. Then he noticed two men on deck "who looked a bit down". One silently mouthed "we need your help".

Driving back to the office he felt things weren't right and said three Hail Marys. Then he spotted the same two crewmen walking along road and stopped to offer them a lift into town. He took them to the seamen's club and on the way learnt that the crew hadn't been paid for a long time.

"That conversation led to nine months work" he said. The AoS was able to keep track of the ship, and contacted a number of other organisations around the world. Eventually the crew received the money owed to them.

"Eighty per cent of seafarers' money gets sent back to the Philippines, so when they're not paid, they and families are really in trouble," he said.

The next story concerned a tragedy. Hartlepool Ship's visitor Brenda (who keep a Tardis-like container of hats, socks and other warm clothes for the seafarers) learned that the men on one ship were very distressed because one of the crew had died recently. He was the ship's cook. When he got ill they were too far out at sea for a helicopter to take him to hospital so had changed course and headed for Nigeria, with everyone taking turns to nurse their friend after their watches. At the same time the captain was keeping the sick man's wife informed. She was at home with four young children. When the man died, he had to break to news to her and they had to sail to Spain with the dead man's body kept in a freezer. Both the captain and several crewmen were so distressed they really wanted to leave the ship - but the company was insisting that they carry on to America. After hearing their story, the AoS got involved and managed to get everyone transferred to a different ship - at the company's expense.

Peter said, when a ship docks,a number of official people come on board, pilot, ships agents, cargo supervisor, harbour master and so forth - "But it just took little Brenda to say: "are you OK? Anything wrong? Thank God she did what she did. Pray for that seafarer's wife and their four children."

Peter's final story concerned the arrival of triplets: John Luke, John Jacob and John Tristan in the Philippine.

When ship visitors arrived on board the vessel in Hartlepool last September, they found everyone celebrating the news that one of their crewman had become a Dad. But as time passed, they realised that all was not well. The cost of medical care in the Philippines is high, and there were complications. The babies, born on 25 September were all kept in incubators. Their Mum Sheila had borrowed money from loan sharks to pay the medical costs. A couple of weeks' later, two of the little ones were able to go home - but John Tristan still remained in hospital. The bill was going up each day. The hospital said they would only continue treating the infant if they could guarantee to pay. The bill was already over $6000. Their Dad's salary was only $1,000 a month. His contract was ending soon. He decided to go home for a very short time and then go back to sea in order to pay those bills. It was going to take years.

When they heard about the situation, the AoS agreed to cover all the costs. Peter said: "The joy on that ship! There wasn't a dry eye on board. When we contacted Sheila on Skype she burst into tears. The new Dad was able to go home and meet his sons."

Peter said: "Sheila keeps in touch and prays for us. We've all become very close - so much so that two volunteers are going over for the baptism - paying for themselves. That story will be told in the Philippines for many years to come!"

If you would like more information about the Apostleship of the Sea/Stella Maris visit their website: www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk or their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AoS.GB