A Seafarer's Life

As I'm sure you've gathered by now most ship visits are pretty enjoyable, if not downright fun. I spend an appreciable amount of time eating, laughing, conversing, and generally enjoying the fellowship of whichever crew I happen to be visiting. But every once in a while, I'll come crashing into the reality that I work with an exploited group of people. An attitude of pity for the 'poor seafarer' gets you nowhere as a port chaplain, but it's easy to forget that the several million invisible seafarers in the world make enormous sacrifices so that we, the upper-middle classes of the West, can have our goods when and where we want them. 

The average seafarer has a 9 month contract, usually followed by 1-2 months of time off. Officers usually have 6 month contracts, captains get 4. If they're on a ship that frequently stops in the US, the shipping company will generally invest in US visas for them, so that they can take shore leave. If the ship only docks in the US sporadically, they won't bother. But even US visa-holders have a horrendous time getting ashore. Because the process of unloading and loading cargo has gotten so speedy in recent years, many ships are only in port for a few hours. Between cargo operations, fueling, and loading provisions, the average seafarer is damn lucky if he has the time to leave ship. To add to all those complicating factors, the seafarer can't just descend the gangway and walk to wherever he wants to go: he needs to be escorted by someone with a TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential) card anywhere within the terminal. This is where SCI comes in (we're all TWIC holders and authorized escorts), but if a crew wants to go out after our center closes (or is in a port other than Newark), they're out of luck. Point being, we see a lot of seafarers who haven't had shore leave in weeks, or even months. 

All of these everyday, run of the mill, complicating factors are exacerbated if you come from Myanmar. Several years back, a few Burmese seafarers jumped ship in the US. So, as logic would dictate, the affected shipping companies  responded by revoking shore leave privileges for ALL Myanmar crew. They have visas, but can't use them. It's racial discrimination and, the worst part is, it's perfectly legal. The economy of Myanmar is so awful that hundreds of Burmese citizens knowingly contract with the racist shipping companies because it's the only way they have of getting a paycheck and supporting their families. 

Today, I was on a container ship with 17 Burmese crew - all unbelievably generous, warm-hearted people, who gave me a royal welcome. As I sat in the crew's mess, eating the strawberry ice cream that they had insisted I accept, I made a horrifying discovery: each and every one of them has a TWELVE month contract. That's one year of being confined to a ship, without ever being allowed to set foot on dry land. If no port chaplain or businessman comes aboard with phone cards and SIM cards, they have no means of contacting their families (there are equivalents of SCI in many major ports, but not all). And, to add to the miserable situation, your average, $5 international calling card gets you a whopping 20 minutes to Myanmar. If you're lucky. Several of the seafarers I met today were so desperate to speak with their wives and children that they spent upwards of $100 on phone cards.

Take 30 seconds and imagine your life being swapped for that one. I'm not soliciting pity, just awareness. It's amazing and saddening, both, what lies hidden behind the commercial façade that US marketers present to us. Just think about it.