In this issue

Founded in 1834, the

Institute is a voluntary,

ecumenical agency

affiliated with the

Episcopal Church that

provides pastoral care,

maritime education, and

legal and advocacy

services for mariners.

The Seamen’s Church Institute seamenschurch.org

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SprIng 2014 VOLUME 106/nUMBEr 1

“Why should I support gainfully employed people?”The romantic notion of traveling the world has inspired countless people to find work on the water. “Life at sea is better,” said Sir Francis Drake, a man who must have thought so after spending three years on a ship, circumnavigating the globe. But today’s mariners do not have an easy time of it. They put much of their personal life on hold to pursue a profession that leaves them separated from family and friends for large periods of time.

“But, so what?” some say. “A lot of folks have difficult jobs.”

Yes, there are many who work very hard, and each day sees a host of professionals who make sacrifices for the benefit of the world. The conflict develops when people feel they are owed the benefits they receive from the labor of others. When folks say, “It’s not as if they’re doing it for free,” they speak truth; however, just because individuals receive compensation for their labors doesn’t mean they don’t also deserve thanks and support for what they do.

Many Americans would not think twice about supporting an organization that offers aid to our country’s military personnel, who

make enormous personal sacrifices as they serve. And, certainly, no one would deny that our servicemen and servicewomen should also get paid—pay that can help them build decent lives for themselves and their families.

Life as a mariner provides great opportunities to work as a highly skilled professional and to earn good wages for hard effort. The world did not always run this way, however. In the past, “crimps” kidnapped people and forced them to work on board ships. And even legitimately employed seafarers often had no recourse when refused fair wages or living conditions. Life at sea functioned under different rules.

Through the years, the world of the mariner changed significantly because of agencies like the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI). SCI has helped train, advocate for and support millions of mariners in its 180-year history. And today, maritime workers rely on the

continued on page 2

Say thanks to a mariner by making a financial contribution to SCI today.

Director’s Log

2Enviroguides Translations

3Shore Leave

3Ministries Collaborate

4

Typhoon Stories

5From the Archives

6Houston Simulator

7Why I give

8

2 • The Seamen’s Church Institute The Lookout Spring 2014

© Spring 2014 Volume 106, Number 1

Published byThe Seamen’s Church Institute

seamenschurch.org

212-349-9090fax: 212-349-8342sci@seamenschurch.org

Richard T. du MoulinChairman, Board of Trustees

The Rev. David M. RiderPresident and Executive Director

Editor, Oliver BrewerAssistant Editor, Susannah Skiver BartonDesign & Production, Bliss Design

The Lookout is printed on recycled paper.

SCI SUSTAInIng SpOnSOrS

Executive Director’s Log

“Every time when we come to port, we go to the seamen’s mission before we go to the shopping center,” says Sunny, an electrician on the MV Stuttgart Express. Being able to communicate with home via Internet and phone service makes a big difference. Watch this video and others of mariners describing life on the water at http://smschur.ch/SCI-TV

When’s Enough Enough?

One might ask: with all kinds of good causes in the world, should people continue to give support to a group of men and women who seem—by many

accounts—to be doing well, thanks in part to SCI? Hasn’t the world done enough, helping to right many of the injustices in early seafaring workplaces of the 19th century, bringing mariners into a well-regulated, productive vocation?

Yes, we have come a long way—but we have further to go.

The same security aimed at protecting our borders often denies seafarers services ashore, and the unrelenting pace of 21st-century commerce leaves little room for human events in busy professional lives.

Today, the world’s mariners need support just as much as in former times. They need good training institutions. They need pastoral and spiritual care. And they need folks to stand up for them on land, where the laws that affect them get made.

We cannot deem further efforts unnecessary. No patient, when he or she starts to feel better, stops taking antibiotics before finishing the full course of treatment. Nor does a musician, after writing a few movements of a composition, call the work a magnum opus. Neither can we, who have come so far, now stop on account of our successes. Instead, our successes—which reveal what we can do when we work together—should encourage us to bring to fruition the vision that motivates our work for the world’s mariners.

Yours faithfully,

The Rev. David M. Rider President & Executive Director

continued from page 1

services they receive from SCI to help them navigate difficult situations, some of which have not changed since the advent of seafaring and some that have arisen in the dawn of our new technological age.

As citizens of the world, supporting mariners makes sense socially and economically—socially because our world relies on people working together for the good of many, and economically because healthy, happy workers make for a productive workforce. Supporting maritime personnel means choosing to acknowledge them and to say thanks for their contributions—something we should do for people on whose hard work we depend.

seamenschurch.org The Lookout Spring 2014 • 3

Enviroguides.us now in Multiple LanguagesSeafarers journeying to the United States must follow regulations outlined in environmental statutes that may differ from other nations’ laws. SCI has distilled pertinent information from US environmental protocols to share online with seafarers. Published previously only in English, SCI’s recent update makes these guidelines available in five different languages—Russian, Greek, Tagalog, Spanish and English.

Thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, SCI originally introduced a webapp for seafarers in January 2013. The app, accessible from multiple types of web browsers and mobile devices, organizes information in the form of guides to US pollution laws (offering a general compendium of some of the United States’ environmental laws affecting seafarers), the penalties associated with violating those laws and how seafarers can talk about the importance of the marine environment with fellow crew. SCI designed these guides to equip seafarers with information on their rights and responsibilities while working in US waters.

From homelands around the globe, international seafarers traverse many seas and cultures. On those voyages, they need to dispose of several different types of waste according to various national and international laws and regulations. SCI offers the revised webapp in multiple languages so international seafarers can more easily identify requirements when in the United States’ waters. In the last few years, seafarers entering US waters have encountered frequent investigations and prosecutions of environmental crimes and related offenses.

Douglas B. Stevenson, Director of SCI’s Center of Seafarers’ Rights, organized the update that translated these guides into languages native to more seafaring men and women. “We wanted an easy, accessible way to empower seafarers with knowledge about laws that affect them when they come to the United States,” says Stevenson.

Seafarers can view SCI’s updated webapp on a computer, tablet or smartphone by navigating to http://enviroguides.us.

Ever Wonder Why SCI Matters?

Here’s One Reason:

Shore LeaveMany seafarers arriving in United States ports do

not have visas that permit them to leave the ship on which they work, thus severely limiting their access to services available on land. As a result, things that most of us take for granted—email, phone calls, banking—have to be postponed until the next port of call in a different country, which could take weeks or months to reach. Because SCI port chaplains board each vessel as it comes into berth—bringing with them phones, Wi-Fi hotspots, and money transfer forms—seafarers can connect with family and friends at home following a long transoceanic journey.

What about mariners who do have visas for the United States? Well, seafarers have to get from their vessel to the terminal gate. Sounds simple enough, but because of strict regulations about who can and cannot operate ground transportation inside ports, it isn’t. Sometimes, SCI offers the only possible option of in-terminal transportation for seafarers wishing to stretch their legs, visit our seafarers’ center or go shopping. Without us, some of them might never get to do these things.

And without the financial contributions of people like you, SCI would not be able to offer the on-board and transportation services that make such a difference in the lives of mariners.

Real people depend on SCI—and on you—for support. Give online today at http://donate.seamenschurch.org/give

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4 • The Seamen’s Church Institute The Lookout Spring 2014

Maritime Ministries Collaborate to Assist Crew in needby Douglas B. Stevenson, Director, Center for Seafarers’ Rights

During this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, Chaplain Karen Parsons from the Galveston Seafarers Center1 visited ships in port. The seafarers on one ship had little to celebrate as they mourned the loss of one of their shipmates who had recently died of malaria after calling at a port in Africa. In addition, the crew had not received wages on board for more than three months. They were tired from cleaning the vessel’s holds and had not been paid the usual $300 bonus for this arduous task. Subsisting on reduced rations of the same meals every day, the crew also worried about sailing to Africa without sufficient anti-malaria pills or protections from mosquitoes.

Chaplain Karen contacted me for assistance with the crew’s complaints. After Karen told me that the ship was registered in Singapore, I verified its flag and other data—good news because the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) is in force in Singapore. The MLC, 2006 has robust enforcement provisions that require countries to investigate seafarers’ complaints of Convention violations. I then analyzed the crew’s complaints to determine if they amounted to MLC, 2006 deficiencies. Then, after getting the crew’s consent through Chaplain Karen, I contacted Singapore authorities (with whom I have a good working relationship) and asked them to investigate the allegations before the ship departed Texas for Africa.

Meanwhile, Chaplain Karen conducted a memorial service for the crew’s fallen shipmate, blessed the crewmembers’ cabins, provided cell phones and phone cards for the crew to call home, and delivered Christmas gifts of hygiene items, knit caps and socks. When she heard that the crew had not eaten dessert since June, she went home and baked cookies for them! She also counseled them on the legal advice I had provided.

The Singapore authorities responded immediately to my request, requiring the ship’s owner/manager to respond to each of the alleged deficiencies. By the end of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the shipowner confirmed that they had sent proper provisions, purchased anti-malaria medication and paid the crew their wages. Chaplain Karen confirmed with the now happy crew that their complaints had been addressed. As a precaution, she also alerted the port chaplain in the vessel’s next port of call to visit the crew.

This case demonstrated that port chaplains working together with the Center for Seafarers’ Rights and MLC, 2006 member nations can ensure that the MLC, 2006 is effectively implemented and enforced, fulfilling its promises of maintaining good seafarers’ working conditions and fair competition for decent shipowners.

And, for the crew of this particular ship, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving!

1 Galveston Seafarers Center and the Seamen’s Church Institute work together as part of an ecumenical association of maritime ministries called NAMMA.

Special Events CalendarThe 37th Annual Silver Bell Awards Dinner Thursday, June 5, 2014 New York, NYCocktail Hour 6:00 – 7:00 pm Dinner 7:30 pm

Port Newark Maritime Worker Appreciation Festival Thursday, June 24, 2014 SCI’s International Seafarers’ Center Port Newark, NJ4:00 – 8:00 pm

Maritime Training Benefit Luncheon Thursday, October 2, 2014 Houston, TX12:00 – 2:00 pm

SCI-Bay Area Event September 2014Time and date to be announced.

The 11th Annual Paducah Golf Classic Thursday, September 25, 2014 Drake Creek Golf Club Ledbetter, KYShotgun Start 8:30 am

Christmas at Sea Gala November 2014 New York, NY6:00 – 8:30 pm

The 15th Annual River Bell Awards Luncheon Thursday, December 11, 2014 The Paducah McCracken County Convention and Expo Center Paducah, KY12:00 – 2:00 pm

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seamenschurch.org The Lookout Spring 2014 • 5

Seafarer Stories Following TyphoonAs Filipino seafarers arrived into ports following last November’s deadly Typhoon Haiyan,

they hurriedly plugged into the grid of communication services only available in major ports. From thousands of miles away, anxious mariners sought word of loved ones at home. While visiting the transoceanic vessels that carry these men and women far from home, SCI chaplains heard stories of great loss, apprehension and sadness, but they also witnessed incredible tenacity and resilience.

SCI chaplain intern Ryan Bruns relates one such story from a conversation while transporting a Filipino seafarer from the shopping mall in New Jersey back to his vessel in port. Ryan noticed the seafarer had not purchased anything. The seafarer explained, “I didn’t spend any

money. This is the start of our new house fund.” He, along with several other seafarers SCI chaplains met, shared plans to stay on board and finish the remainder of his contract.

Not all seafarers wanted to remain at sea after hearing the news from home. Ryan and fellow intern Michelle McWilliams met a Chief Cook whose house was destroyed. The cook explained that he had put in a request to leave ship early (before his contract was finished), which the ship’s agent approved. Anxious to get home to his family, he wanted to make sure they were really okay and to begin rebuilding their life together.

On the West Coast, Director of the International Maritime Center, Adrienne Yee, tells of seafarers using the Center’s computers and Wi-Fi to search for news from home—especially those unable to contact their loved ones directly. Crewmembers cheered when a fellow Filipino seafarer finally spotted a photo on Facebook that assured him of his family’s safety.

One of the most inspiring stories came from Port Newark Chaplain James Kollin, who met a seafarer named Edito. The typhoon destroyed his house in Cebu (a house for which he had spent ten years saving) and forced his wife and two-year-old son to evacuate to a relative’s home nearby. Five days after the storm hit, Edito finally reached his wife by phone. He told Chaplain James that he sent money to begin rebuilding his own home as well as a donation to help other affected families. Edito expressed thanks for his job as a seafarer—a job that enables him to sustain his family in their needs, to help his neighbors and to someday build another house.

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6 • The Seamen’s Church Institute The Lookout Spring 2014

From the Archives: The Case of the MV Dubai Valourby Julie Zimmerman, Archives Intern

On July 23, 1997, Chief Humphrey Idisi seized the merchant vessel MV Dubai Valour. Hit by severe weather off the coast of Durban, South Africa, the MV Dubai Valour, transporting used oil-drilling equipment from India to Chief Idisi, lost some of its cargo overboard. The insurance company representing the Dubai estimated the value of the lost equipment at approximately $200,000 to $250,000. Chief Idisi claimed that the loss was between $5 and $17 million.

Chief Idisi, a tribal leader in Nigeria’s Delta region, held the ship and its Ukrainian crew hostage in an attempt to extort his demands from the shipowner. The shipowner’s insurance company eventually obtained an order by the Nigerian High Court to release the ship and the crew after posting $1 million security. Chief Idisi refused to obey the High Court’s order and forcibly resisted attempts by Russian diplomats, acting on behalf of Ukraine, to serve the High Court order and release the crew. In September 1997, 23 of the crewmembers were released. The remaining four crewmembers—the master, chief mate, chief engineer and radio officer—remained hostage on the ship in the port of Sapele deep in the Nigeria Delta region without proper medical care, access to food or clean water, or visitors for more than 18 months.

SCI’s Center for Seafarers’ Rights (CSR) became involved in the case in September 1998 at the request of the Secretary General of the United Nations who had received a letter from the wives of the Ukrainian hostages appealing for help. The CSR team

of Director Douglas B. Stevenson, Staff Attorney Nina Gupta, and Edda Kristjansdottir, Associate Attorney at the former international law firm Leboeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, spearheaded efforts to assist the shipowner’s attorneys. (Leboeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae provided extensive pro-bono support to CSR on this case.)

The CSR team made numerous appeals to governmental authorities and non-governmental organizations to gain the crew’s release, including filing cases on behalf of each crewmember to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The complaints alleged that Nigeria—through Chief Idisi—had violated several

international conventions including the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages (1979), Article 1; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976), Article 11; and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Early in 1999, CSR obtained approval from Malta, the MV Dubai Valour’s flag state, to file a case on its behalf to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg. The CSR team prepared a complaint against Nigeria alleging violations of the Law of the Sea Convention.

In May 1999, shortly after Stevenson gave an advance copy of the complaint to the Nigerian High Commissioner in London, the MV Dubai Valour and its crew were released. The first message sent by the vessel’s master after sailing out of Nigerian waters was to Stevenson:

Dear Mr. Douglas Stivenson,

Please be informed that four Ukrainean seafarers, which had been 24 month without a break and shore leaving under illegal arrest on board MV Dubai Valour FOC of Malta flag in Nigeria are FREE and now ALL RIGHT!

… It is clear that our FREEDOM was allowed due to a series of action that had been organized by you and your crew staff.

Best regards. All Ukrainian crew members.

A. Shulgin, Master of the MV Dubai Valour

In a speech delivered in 1999 to the Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Stevenson reflected on the MV Dubai Valour case:

While rejoicing that the men have returned home safe and free, we are ashamed that in this day and age, innocent seamen could be held hostage for a commercial claim in brutal conditions, deprived of their families, friends and normal living for almost two years in defiance of the rule of law and humanity while the law and the community of nations stood by powerless to come to their aid.

Stevenson concluded with a call for all maritime nations to “return to our roots in maritime law and refocus our attention on protecting the men and women whose workplace is the sea.”

Because SCI operates as a not-for-profit institution—and therefore able to direct its resources toward benefiting the safety of mariners and communities everywhere—we can offer practical and relevant training at affordable prices at our cutting-edge Center for Maritime Education campuses in paducah, KY and Houston, TX. Your tax-deductible financial contribution helps mariners train and prepare for whatever might come their way.

seamenschurch.org The Lookout Spring 2014 • 7

Success Story of new Houston SimulatorSCI’s Center for Maritime Education puts mariners in real-life situations using high-tech simulation equipment. Most days, SCI classrooms host groups of six to eight students as part of training sessions sponsored by maritime transportation companies; however, thanks to a new simulator bridge installed at SCI’s Houston Center last fall, mariners do not have to come to SCI as part of a group or business to train or undergo assessments on tasks needed to maintain license certification. The new simulator offers affordable one-on-one assessments to help mariners meet their individualized training goals.

SCI’s new simulator allows mariners to obtain credentials for licenses, including the Towing Officer Assessment Record (TOAR) and radar recertification. It also helps mariners applying for new jobs and assignments, allowing them to demonstrate their skills to the company. Programmable simulations also let candidates demonstrate their ability to handle new challenges and geographic locations.

Recently, SCI helped one such mariner advance his career with the newly installed simulator. The mariner needed to complete a TOAR, an often difficult-to-arrange assessment requiring a skills appraisal in a specific geographic location. In this case, the mariner had worked on the waters for two years and had received good preparation from his captain, but his experience had not yet required him to navigate through a lock system.

SCI’s instructors and a designated examiner (DE) set up an exercise that would teach the mariner the needed skills. Then, they tested his knowledge and competency on the simulator navigating through a model of a real lock on the river. They arranged several one-hour sessions with varying degrees of involvement from the DE. During the final run, the DE exited the simulator and sat in the observation room. With three sessions on the simulator, the mariner passed the assessment, receiving signoffs on five mandatory TOAR maneuvering procedures.

On review of the process, the DE commented that the student learned very quickly. If he made a mistake on the first run, the examiner noted, he corrected it in the subsequent trial. By the third run, the mariner had acquired the skills necessary to complete the maneuvers without any help from the DE. The simulator provided a familiar environment—so realistic that the mariner could apply his experience on the water—to learn new skills quickly and easily.

In 2014, SCI harnesses the power of this technology to help more professionals in the maritime industry. Because of the new simulator’s extreme adaptability, additional uses include instruction for mooring masters, the development of feasibility studies and, with the flip of a switch, nighttime simulations.

What about SCI’s Larger Simulators? The new Transas simulator (read the

“Sucess Story” on this page) comprises only part of the advanced technology SCI uses to train mariners at its Center for Maritime Education. The Institute also maintains two larger four-bridge simulators (one at each of its campuses in Paducah, KY and Houston, TX) and uses these as the primary tools in group training exercises.

Recently, SCI signed a contract with Kongsberg Maritime to overhaul both installations. SCI plans to replace existing wheelhouse architecture with entirely new mechanisms and navigation tools that more closely mirror contemporary equipment and construction of modern vessels. The renovation of SCI’s equipment provides mariners with the tools they have requested and sets the stage for SCI to deliver the best possible training for years to come.

8 • The Seamen’s Church Institute The Lookout Spring 2014

Ways to Give to SCISupport the people who deliver the goods that make our modern way of life possible.

Donate Donate online at

donate.seamenschurch.org or scan this QR code into your mobile device

Use the envelope in this edition of The Lookout or mail your check to The Seamen’s Church Institute, 74 Trinity Place, Suite 1414, New York, NY 10006.

Call 212-349-9090 and make a contribution over the phone with your credit card.

SponsorSCI provides prominent recognition to its underwriters. Become a corporate sponsor and link your company’s philanthropy with North America’s largest and most comprehensive mariners’ service agency.

VolunteerSCI offers many ways volunteers can contribute to the work of the Institute. Call one of our centers or email volunteer@seamenschurch.org.

CollectIn addition to handknit scarves and hats, SCI’s Christmastime gift to mariners includes items found at most ordinary supermarkets donated by people like you. To find out more, contact cas@seamenschurch.org or visit our website.

Follow Go to http://facebook.com/

seamenschurch and click “like.”

Follow @seamenschurch on Twitter.

Check out our photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/seamenschurch/.

And, watch videos from our work at http://vimeo.com/channels/scitv.

Remember SCI in your estate plans. Email legacygiving@seamenschurch.org for more information.

Why I giveMeet the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Henderson, KY.

Situated just four blocks from the Ohio River in the town of Henderson, KY, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church stands

as one of SCI’s most faithful supporters and a beacon of welcome for inland river mariners.

Since the founding of Ministry on the Rivers and Gulf (MOR+G) in the late 1990s, St. Paul’s has actively participated in SCI’s mission of service to the inland waterways community. St. Paul’s parishioners not only collect and pack boxes for the Institute’s distribution of hand-knit hats and scarves to mariners working at Christmastime, but before regulations prevented it, they even boarded vessels to hand-deliver the gifts in person.

This Mariner Friendly Church finds other ways to support the maritime industry, too, like welcoming MOR+G Chaplain Kempton Baldridge to talk

about SCI’s work and how the church community can support it.

Recently while visiting St. Paul’s, Kempton told the story of deckhand Jarvise Shelton, recipient of the US Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving Medal for bravery and self-sacrifice. Jarvise hoped to advance in his career and train as a pilot, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. Moved by his story, the congregation created a special outreach grant called the “Road to Damascus Award,” enabling Shelton to undertake training at SCI’s Center for Maritime Education later this year.

As an extension of outreach in their neighborhoods and the world, Mariner Friendly Churches like St. Paul’s in Henderson, KY partner with SCI in its ministry to mariners.

Through prayer, volunteer efforts and financial support, faith communities around the country directly impact the well-being of men and women who work on the water.

Read more about Mariner Friendly Churches on our website at http://www.seamenschurch.org/mfc or email churchrelations@seamenschurch.org. Discover how your local faith community can support mariners across the globe.

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Photos: William Brodsky