Chaplaincy on the High Seas
The Mission to Seafarers charity provides support and care to seafarers in over 200 ports around the world. What does everyday life look like for one of the charity’s chaplains?
Inside the mess hall of the bulk log carrier, the African Cormorant, soft light falls on chaplain Mary-Therese. Through the haze of the ship’s salt-splashed windows, the mid-morning sun trickles over her shoulders as she lays out a brilliantly coloured map before the vessel’s captain and crew. The head cook of the ship, adept as can be, brings out hot coffee and cold water. In between sips, chaplain Mary-Therese points out key destinations in Wellington City – not tourist attractions, but rather locations that appeal to the unique audience before her: currency exchanges, grocery stores, pharmacies, footlockers, and, of course, an affordable bar.
For the mariners on board the African Cormorant, as well as the thousands of others, Mary-Therese serves as a chaplain at The Mission To Seafarers. The information on these maps proves vital during their brief time on land. As shore leave — the time when seafarers are freely permitted to leave their ships — becomes increasingly scarce across the maritime industry, the crews on board these cargo vessels have limited opportunities to refuel, rest, and recreate during their short time off duty. In many cases, it is quite literally a race against the clock. “I’ve seen ships with a six-hour turnaround time,” says chaplain Mary-Therese.
Limited shore leave is just one thread in the larger tapestry of the exploitation of international seafarers’ labour – something that Mary-Therese witnesses nearly every day during her ship visits. As a chaplain at the Wellington branch of The Mission to Seafarers, an international Christian organisation that provides practical, emotional, and spiritual support to merchant crews, such ship visits constitute a large part of Mary-Therese’s weekly routine.
When vessels dock in New Zealand’s capital, Mary-Therese or another member of The Mission will cross the bustling port to greet the mariners. Beneath towering cranes and swift-moving machinery, the charity members then board the visiting ships, bringing welcome gifts, offering information, and providing rides to the city.
Back onboard the African Cormorant, Chaplain Mary-Therese pulls out Whittaker’s chocolate bars, postcards, playing cards, and SIM packets, distributing them among the predominantly Filipino crew. The individuals standing before her represent some of the 1.8 million seafarers across the globe. These merchant crews operate the cargo vessels, tankers, and log carriers that transport over 90% of our goods, bringing us everything from iPhones to fresh fruit to life-saving medicine.



Their labour enables us to enjoy the comforts of our everyday lives, a reality especially significant for New Zealand, a nation heavily dependent on international maritime trade. Chaplain Mary-Therese, fully aware of the crucial roles these seafarers play, hopes the industry and the broader public begin to take notice. “We say thank you for coming to New Zealand, and they [the seafarers] say, ‘No one ever says thank you to us’.”
Although nearly everyone relies on international mariners, it’s rare for anyone outside the maritime sector to interact with a cargo ship or its crew. Ports rarely lie in the heart of cities and are often under strict security measures, making this industry largely unseen and therefore undervalued. The lack of visibility, along with hard-to-enforce labour rights and vessel ownership loopholes, has enabled shipping conglomerates to exploit the work of seafarers with little to no consequences. “The general public worldwide is oblivious,” added Grahame McLaren, New Zealand’s Inspector for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).
As the New Zealand Inspector for the ITF, Grahame’s role is to ensure the rights of mariners are protected. Like Mary Therese, Grahame boards vessels in search of labour violations, ranging from inadequate provisioning to withheld wages and passports, to harassment and workplace abuse. In 2014, Grahame led an investigation that recovered over 100,000 dollars in back wages for mariners in Wellington ports.
“The first thing I ask is – ‘do they get shore leave?’,” says Grahame. He and the ITF collaborate closely with The Mission to Seafarers Wellington branch. Since visiting every ship that enters one of New Zealand’s largest ports is nearly impossible, Grahame and The Mission to Seafarers work in tandem, often with the chaplains tipping off the ITF when they see safety concerns during their ship visits.
Chaplain Mary-Therese recounted a ship visit when crew members were so hungry they began eating the new stock of provisions as it was being transported up the gangway. Their vessel had been inadequately provisioned, and they had run out of food two days earlier, likely as a result of tight corporate budgeting. In this way, The Mission to Seafarers provides more than spiritual and physical support; they actively engage in advocacy, shaping the lives and realities of exploited mariners. And those lived realities can be quite challenging.



As global economies run rampant and international shipping powers profit from exploiting low-wage labour – primarily from Southeast Asian and Eastern European nations – the plight of the mariner is exacerbated. Seeking to maximise profits and reduce costs, shipping companies face challenges in lowering the overhead of their expensive-to-operate cargo vessels. Consequently, many multinational shipping corporations have opted to economise on personnel and crew comfort, viewing people as the most expendable aspect of their operations.
In practice, this has resulted in a bare-bones approach to employment. Cargo vessels now employ leaner crews compared to the past. Shore leave has shortened, as any additional time spent in port not actively loading, unloading, or transporting goods is viewed as profit lost. Labour is contract-based and non-salaried. The wages, when looked at holistically, are lamentable.
Reverend Lance Lukin of the Wellington Branch of Mission to Seafarers stressed that this wage exploitation is nearly reprehensible. In a 2020 interview with Radio New Zealand, Reverend Lance highlighted the severe pay inequity in the seafaring industry. “The minimum wage in New Zealand is $18 an hour, while the average wage for a Filipino sailor is just 90 cents an hour,” he said.
Perhaps even worse than the low pay is the isolation mariners experience at sea and, in some cases, even while docked. The two largest factors contributing to isolation identified by the Wellington branch of The Mission to Seafarers are “a lack of shore leave and a lack of access to Wi-Fi”, according to chaplain Mary-Therese.
Despite technological innovations in satellite communication (such as Starlink), it isn’t uncommon for crews to have no access to Wi-Fi or other means of communication while working onboard their ships. With many trans-Pacific and Atlantic crossings taking weeks, this leaves the men and women on these vessels without any way to contact their loved ones.
Research has proven time and again that having access to a supportive community of friends and loved ones helps boost mental health. Strong relationship ties, and more importantly, the ability to maintain those ties, are among the best ways to combat loneliness and depression.
While new, more affordable communication technologies offer a hopeful outlook for onboard connectivity, this data allowance is rarely extended to the entire crew. If companies can economise on smaller connectivity packages, they often will. That’s why one of the first things the Wellington Branch of The Mission to Seafarers does when a vessel arrives in port is to send a Wi-Fi unit to the ship, so the crew can immediately get in touch with their loved ones.


The Mission to Seafarers also provides a place where individuals can get off the ship and decompress from their voyage. In Wellington, that space takes the form of the Seafarers’ Center, a 24-hour facility inside the port where seafarers have access to a free library of books and movies, free Wi-Fi, a PlayStation and gaming services, as well as a kitchen with food. The Auckland International Seafarers Center offers the same amenities on a larger scale, as well as a full chapel that provides Sunday services.
Many individuals receive spiritual counselling in these centres. Chaplain Mary-Therese shared several instances in which she was asked to pray with or on behalf of seafarers’ loved ones. These resources are open to everyone regardless of faith, and The Mission to Seafarers likewise works hard to provide secular mental health support to mariners.
Working at sea for months on end is no easy task. The combination of long hours, adverse working conditions, isolation, and often insecure wages can leave mariners dejected. When all employees are viewed as expendable cogs in the larger shipping machine, The Mission to Seafarers provides an incredibly human and much-needed remedy to the industry’s oversights. “They’re real people on the ships. Real people with families, and feelings, and jobs,” emphasises Mary-Therese.
Whether through candid conversations or one of their bespoke mental health guides, the chaplains, reverends, and volunteers at The Mission to Seafarers act as a welcome and safe outlet for these hard-working men and women. Both the ITF and Mission to Seafarers are endowed with resources to aid and assist seafarers in times of crisis, providing case-by-case emergency housing and transport tickets when ship conditions are unsafe, or an individual has become ill.
Working to identify and help alleviate the emotional troubles associated with being a seafarer, The Mission to Seafarers likewise releases a quarterly survey, the Seafarers Happiness Index (SHI). It is aimed at assessing the well-being of maritime workers worldwide. The survey comprises ten essential questions addressing different facets of their professional and personal lives.
This research is crucial for understanding on a large scale how to improve the lives of seafarers. The survey is conducted in partnership with Standard Club, a shipping insurance company, and IDWAL, a ship inspection company. Notably, it is not funded by shipping companies themselves, highlighting their lack of interest in being accountable for their employees’ well-being. The lack of accountability is likewise intentionally made legally complex.
The great beauty of the High Seas is that they are largely free from national or international encroachment; this is also the great tragedy of our vast blue landscapes. In reality, there is no enforceable international law at sea. As such, vessels operate under the maritime laws of their flag state – the nation where the ship is registered. In open seas, if something is amiss or labour practices are abused, the ship’s flag is used to establish legal jurisdiction. However, at port or in national waters, all vessels must comply with the maritime laws of the nation they are in.
Owners of these vessels and their insurers do not need to be from the nation where the vessel is flagged. Many shipping companies opt for flags of convenience (FOC) – nations with easy registration processes, lax safety and labour regulations, or beneficial tax laws. The ITF has identified flags of convenience as a serious issue in the cargo industry. Shipowners often seek out these flags to recruit the cheapest labour, pay minimal wages, and cut costs by lowering the standards of living and working conditions for the crew – all of which are technically legal in international waters.



Often, these flags of convenience are not even managed from the country they represent. Since FOC ships lack any real nationality, they are beyond the reach of any single national seafarers’ trade union, leaving most FOC seafarers without union representation or influence. In short, exploitation is made easy and legally murky.
In July 2024, for example, the ITF published a press release detailing some of the worst labour conditions observed by their Israeli inspector on a flag of convenience vessel registered in Palau. The ship was found to have “no employment contracts, food storage freezers all above 0°C, the stench of rotten meat, a bug infestation, [and] broken sanitation facilities”.
To combat these abuses, the International Labour Organization has sought to implement standards and safeguards, notably through the Maritime Labour Convention of 2006 and its subsequent amendments. This convention aims to establish and ensure the rights of the world’s 1.8 million seafarers to decent working and living conditions. These include minimum age requirements, employment agreements, hours of work and rest, payment of wages, paid annual leave, repatriation, onboard medical care, the use of recruitment and placement services, accommodation, food and catering, health and safety protection, accident prevention, and complaint procedures for seafarers. To date, 107 countries have ratified the convention, with the United States being noticeably absent.
Enforcement remains challenging due to the sheer volume of international cargo vessels and mariners. These labour protections are essential, but so too is the emotional and physical support provided by The Mission to Seafarers. This is not to say that mariners, however, do also take their well-being into their own hands.
On the bridge of the African Cormorant, Mary-Therese stands laughing and conversing with the vessel’s captain. He has just regaled her with stories of his crew’s weekly karaoke parties and movie nights. For Captain Roberto R. Lacanlali, it is essential to socialise and team-build with his crew, ensuring that everyone is happy and content during long passages across the Pacific.
As the port’s cranes carefully lower radiata pines into the ship’s hold, chaplain Mary-Therese, Captain Lacanlali, the first officer, and the engineer walk the exterior of the pilot house, discussing the men’s families, wives, and children, many of whom they haven’t seen in over four months. The following day, Mary-Therese will visit an oil tanker, delivering birthday presents, a Wi-Fi unit, maps, mental health literature, and more gifts, engaging in similar conversations and providing comfort where she can.


In an industry that prioritises profit over people, and in a sector that remains invisible to the billions it serves, The Mission to Seafarers opens its arms and, more importantly, strives to correct the wrongs of runaway capitalism. Irrespective of faith, for this organisation, people always come first. That guiding principle is made crystal clear from my interactions with chaplain Mary-Therese: “We’re called to leave the four walls of the church and go to where the people are,” she says. For her, those people are on board the tens of thousands of ships that pass through Wellington’s port each year.
With its advocacy, compassion, and collaboration, The Mission to Seafarers reminds us all to think more deeply about how our smartphones, our fruit, or our medicine came to be in our hands. What – and more importantly who – are we supporting or disenfranchising when we purchase our goods?
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