Society aiding sailors for two centuries
THREE sailors stuck on an arrested ship in Durban harbour are due to celebrate the bicentennial of the Sailors’ Society this weekend on board their arrested vessel.
The society has provided them with humanitarian help ever since their vessel was seized through no fault of their own.
Unlike other sailors in port, the trio will not be able to attend the 200th birthday celebrations and Sunday evening service of the organisation, whose South African chapter was founded in 1877, says Rev Boet van Schalkwyk, who is the principal chaplain.
“So we’ll take some of the party to them,” he said, explaining that “things went pear-shaped” for the Tanzanian-registered vessel, named PSD2, after it sailed out of the Mozambique port of Beira where complications arose between its owners and authorities. It was placed under arrest upon arrival in Durban.
“The company abandoned them and there have been negotiations that just haven’t worked for their release, and for the payment of their wages and, of course, port fees.
“The legal case is in the court at the moment, but we take care of their humanitarian needs. Our chaplains visit them twice a week. We help them with the problem of isolation,” said Van Schalkwyk.
The Sailors’ Society offers website-based courses to help captured sailors’ mental health and offers alternatives to computer games to help them as they bide their time until they can return home.
They also provide them with medicines and food, as well as SIM cards to make it possible for them to keep in touch with their families via Skype.
One is a Syrian and the other two are Bangladeshi.
“We have at least one such boat coming in every couple of months,” said Van Schalkwyk, adding that it was far easier to assist people on ships that were arrested in port, rather than those arrested offshore.
He said the PSD2 three had been innovative. “They have taken a long aluminium pole and put a ‘hedgehog’ of sharp welding rods at the end and they’ve caught some huge fish.”
The Sailors’ Society, working with inter-faith and with other maritime welfare organisations, has representations all over the world.
The South African arm keeps busy with cases as far as Nigeria to the west and Reunion to the east.
“We co-ordinate the crisis response network for sub-Saharan Africa.”
Van Schalkwyk said the Gulf of Guinea was the current hot spot where tankers were often targeted by pirates who would damage the vessels’ navigation instruments and pull senior crew members ashore to negotiate a ransom.
“And we never take our eyes off Somalia.”
The Durban branch of the Sailors’ Society will join many ports in the world tomorrow as they celebrate 200 years of helping seafarers.
Headquartered in Southampton in the UK, the society was founded in 1818 by sailor-turned-preacher George Charles Smith when he opened the first seafarers’ church. This gesture was to help countless out of work seafarers in London’s docks after the Napoleonic Wars.
The Durban celebrations will be held at the Durban Seafarers Centre in Bayhead. Seafarers visiting the centre tomorrow will receive a warm welcome, a free drink, a meal and a small gift when they leave to board their ship.