Stella Maris is partnering with FrontM on their development of onship – a new crew collaboration and wellbeing platform and super-app.

As a result, seafarers and fishers across the world will be able to gain quick access to Stella Maris’s global chaplaincy directory, media content and faith resources.

Stella Maris is the largest ship-visiting network in the world with over 1,000 chaplains and volunteers in 330 ports across 60 countries. This remarkable team makes 70,000

ship visits in a normal year to vessels of all flags and nationalities to look after the wellbeing and welfare of seafarers and fishers – regardless of their race, creed or faith.

Now that Stella Maris is partnering with FrontM and joining the onship digital marketplace platform of free welfare services, seafarers and fishers will be able to quickly access its chaplains and devotional materials. They will also be able to use the app’s built-in voice, instant messaging, and video conferencing tools, as well as a growing suite of welfare and virtual assistant services.

Martin Foley, CEO, Stella Maris said, “Faith is important to many seafarers and fishers who rarely get the chance to attend religious services. The prayer resources on the app supplements the Stella Maris magazine, prayer books and rosaries that our chaplains and ship visitors take on board to crews. onship ensures seafarers and fishers always have access to the services they need to help sustain their spiritual needs and to remain healthy, happy and connected, regardless of location.” 

onship is a free seafarer communications and welfare super-app designed to bring all seafarers, maritime organisations and welfare charities closer together under one digital roof. The app uses up to 30 percent less data than some other apps, enabling seafarers to send and receive more messages and calls.

Kiran Venkatesh, CEO FrontM, described the collaboration as: “a breakthrough in the way devotional support and content is currently consumed and distributed to seafarers and the global maritime community. We are delighted to partner with Stella Maris to bring this devotional application and directory of chaplains to seafarers and fishers, everywhere.

“At FrontM we believe faith and communications are two basic human rights; technology plays a vital role in ensuring the under-connected can gain access to the welfare, communications, and faith support services they need, when they need them the most. The partnership with Stella Maris will help to expand onship’s welfare focus whilst ensuring our seafaring community will always have access to faith services and a friend in port via the Stella Maris network,” he said.

Ten seafarers from the Ra-Horakthy fishing vessel, abandoned in Mombasa, Kenya for the past nine months, face a bleak Christmas as efforts to seek legal redress and repatriation have been delayed.

A court hearing originally scheduled for 23rd October, has been postponed three times. The case is now due to be heard on 22nd December, making it unlikely that the men will be reunited with their families any time soon.

The crew’s disappointment is further compounded by financial worries, as they have not been able to support their struggling families since March 2021 when their employer stopped paying their wages.

The vessel’s captain, Seo Hyundo, has expressed his frustration over the decision to further postpone the ruling, saying that this is pushing the psychological capacity of the crew to the limits.

Global maritime charity Stella Maris is working alongside The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and other local partners to support the seafarers.

The Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel was abandoned by its owner with more than 16 crew members on board in March. They consisted of Kenyans, Tanzanians, Koreans, Indonesians and Vietnamese.

The Kenyans and Tanzanians have been repatriated and their salaries paid, and on 15th December, the six Indonesian seafarers finally flew home with the help of the Indonesian Embassy. 

In September, Stella Maris stepped in to provide emergency support to the crew after the ship’s owner stopped providing food and fresh water. The charity was informed of the crew’s dire situation by the ITF.

Stella Maris Kenya, with the help of the Archbishop of Mombasa, Rev. Martin Kivuva Musonde, bought groceries, including oil, meat, rice, and drinking water. The charity’s team in Mombasa also provided pastoral support, visiting the crew who had become increasingly stressed, worried, desperate, and exhausted. (See the story here)

Stella Maris continues to provide the men with food, drinking water, and emotional support, but fears are growing about their welfare and that of their families.

“We are concerned with how long the court case will take, and the financial struggle and psychological strain on the crew and their families,” said Margaret Masibo, Director of Stella Maris Mombasa Kenya.

“It is very distressing that the remaining ten seafarers will spend Christmas away from their families. The delicate humanitarian situation that the seafarers are in should rightfully prompt the fast tracking of the case to a just and quick conclusion,” she said, adding that Stella Maris will keep looking out for the crew’s wellbeing and monitoring the situation until the case concludes and their ordeal ends.

This case illustrates a wider problem of seafarer and fisher abandonment, as highlighted by the number of reported cases on the International Labour Organization Abandonment of Seafarers database.

The Holy See is calling for seafarers’ dignity and welfare to be protected and upheld, as concerns continue over unjust treatment and violence at sea.

Addressing the International Maritime Organization’s 32nd Session of the General Assembly in London on 7^th December 2021, Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, said that many seafarers are still being denied shore leave and access to welfare services.

He pointed out that seafarers are also vulnerable to violence and abuse at sea, including pirate attacks and modern slavery.

“There are thousands of seafarers who are currently stranded on ships well beyond the term of their original contracts and who are unable to be repatriated due to COVID-related travel restrictions. Furthermore, there are seafarers who, because of lockdowns or other similar constraints, are unable to join their sea crews and secure their salary,” Archbishop Gallagher said.

“This is deplorable and severely affects their families as well,” he said, adding that the pandemic has only served to bring such despicable violations into greater focus.

Archbishop Gallagher expressed the Holy See’s support for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and its Member States in upholding the fundamental human rights and integral development of all seafarers, as well as a fairer future for them.

“We join this Organization in considering as a priority the protection of seafarers and their fundamental human rights, as well as the importance of avoiding the pollution of the environment as parts of an integral ecology.

“Moreover, the IMO has an essential role to play in urging the international community to take into consideration more safe and regular migration pathways, for the large numbers of people migrating by sea in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels.”

The Catholic Church’s support to seafarers and fishers worldwide is conducted through global maritime charity Stella Maris – which is the largest ship-visiting network in the world.

The charity improves the lives of seafarers and fishers through its local chaplains and seafarer centres, expert information, advocacy, and spiritual support. It operates out of more than 300 ports in more than 50 countries.

Stella Maris’ port chaplain in Mauritius Fr. Jacques-Henri David has provided pastoral support to the crew of a bulk carrier following the apparent murder of the ship’s captain.

He went on board the Meghna Liberty on Saturday 27^th November, to support the Filipino crew left traumatised by their colleague’s death.

“I held a prayer service, and the crew members were encouraged to speak about how the incident had affected them,” said Fr Jacques, who is Stella Maris chaplain in Port Louis.

“It was very poignant; but thankfully the service and blessing of the ship provided comfort and relief to them,” he added.

Media reports suggest that the chef of the 55,905 dwt Bangladesh-registered ship confessed to stabbing the captain while the vessel was sailing in the Indian Ocean. It has been suggested that there had been an ongoing dispute between the captain and the chef.

Following the cook’s confession, the ship’s officers were able to break down the door to the captain’s cabin. They found him lying in a pool of blood and attempted to revive him, but it was too late.

The vessel was diverted to Mauritius, arriving in Port Louis on 22^nd November, where the chef was handed over to the police, the reports added.

Stella Maris understands that a new captain and chief cook were due to join the ship on Monday 29^th November.

We will continue to track the vessel with a view to visiting it again at its next ports of call and providing continued care for the crew to help ensure that their emotional and pastoral wellbeing is supported.

Stella Maris is the largest ship visiting network in the world, with port chaplains and ship visitors in over 300 ports spanning 50 countries. This enables the charity to respond in a timely manner to support seafarers facing stressful and upsetting situations.

Message from Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in the Vatican for World Fisheries Day, 21st November 2021

The World Fisheries Day was celebrated for the first time in 1998 by the fisherfolk communities, who wanted to highlight the way of living in the fisheries sector, that employs the largest number of workers, and generate one of the most-traded food commodities worldwide: the fish.

When we talk about fishing and fishers, it is like venturing into a sea as wide and deep as the one in which fishing vessels of different sizes and shapes, with fishers of all races and nationalities, are endlessly sailing, trying to fill their nets with fish to satisfy the insatiable appetite of our world.

During this World Fisheries Day, we would like to focus our attention to the industrial/commercial fishing sector, that is entangled already for too long, in a net of troubles and challenges related to Human Rights violations at sea, where the consequences of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and made more problematic the life for fishers and their families.

Despite the continuous efforts made by the international organizations to implement the various Conventions and Agreements regarding working conditions, safety at sea and IUU fishing, we have to admit that most of the time when the fishing vessel leaves the calm water of the port, the fishers become hostages of circumstances that are extremely difficult to monitor because of miles and miles away from land, and the crew is incapacitated to come ashore regularly since the fishing vessel does not leave the fishing ground for months, if not years at the time.

While on the fishing ground, fishers experience threats and intimidation by the skipper and officers, they are forced to work endless shifts day and night to catch as much fish as possible in any kind of weather. Because of overfatigue, frequent are the occupational accidents. With more than 24,000 deaths in a year, we can define the fishing industry, a deadly one. Little compensation or not at all is offered to the families and the relatives of the deceases often are not given even the consolation of a tomb where to pray and lay a flower, because the bodies are swiftly buried in the middle of the sea.

The average age of the world’s industrial fishing fleet is more than 20 years old, and it should be a source of great concern for owners and governments, especially on the issue of safety. The conditions on board are inhumane, since the kitchens and pantries are dirty, water tanks are rusted, drinking water is restricted, food is of poor quality and inadequate. Cabins for crew are small, without ventilation and not enough space to move around. Going to the toilet, often is a risky balancing act between two pieces of wood hanging on the open sea.

Because of lack of fish stocks in international waters and the expanding nationals, EEZ fishing vessels tend to poach in national waters. Armed clashes break out with the military patrolling the national borders, and if caught, the vessel is put under arrest, the catch is seized, the crew is locked in jail and abandoned in a foreign country by the owner that refuses to pay the tickets for their repatriation and back wages.

Salaries are not proportionate to the number of hours rendered; overtime work is not   considered. The agent keeps a portion of the monthly salary until the end of the three years contract, in this way fishers are forced to keep silence and not to complain to the authority, if they do not want to lose the savings kept by the agency.

To compensate the reduced income from fishing, because of intense competition from too many fishing fleets chasing fewer fish, unscrupulous fishing vessel owners are turning to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU), and related transnational crime activities, such as trafficking in persons, slavery, as well as drugs and weapons smuggling.

As Catholic Church, while we acknowledge some improvements in the human and working conditions of fishers, we recognize nevertheless that there are still too many human rights violations at sea and, we call once again, the international organizations, governments, civil societies, the different players on the supply chain and NGOs to join forces to stop it!

The problems affecting the fishing industry are interconnected. Unless we draw our attention to these continuous abuses and violations at sea and work together to create a fishing industry where the human and labor rights of the fishers are guaranteed and promoted, it might become more difficult to eradicate it and the human and economic cost for the industry would be very high.

The Holy See, following the teaching of the Gospel and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church has always advocated“Respect for those [human] rights is the preliminary condition for a country’s social and economic development. When the dignity of the human person is respected, and his or her rights recognized and guaranteed, creativity and interdependence thrive, and the creativity of the human personality is released through actions that further the common good (Fratelli Tutti, 22)”.

We would like to call on the Stella Maris chaplains and volunteers to continue their compassioned mission to welcome the fishers and see in their faces the face of the suffering Jesus Christ and provide them with spiritual and material support.

As Pope Francis tells us in “Fratelli Tutti”: “We cannot be indifferent to suffering; we cannot allow anyone to go through life as an outcast. Instead, we should feel indignant, challenged to emerge from our comfortable isolation and to be changed by our contact with human suffering (68)”.

On this World Fisheries Day, our indignation for the many Human Rights violations at sea, should be transformed in a new strength that would influence the fishing industry to place at the center of its interests, the respect of the human and labor rights of the fishers, because, as Pope Francis said in July 2019 to the participants of the European Meeting of Stella Maris: “…without fishermen, many parts of the world would starve.”

Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, Prefect

* To mark World Fisheries Day, please join us for an online panel discussion on Tuesday 23^rd November from 7.30pm to 9pm GMT . In this webinar we will look at the darker side of the maritime world: slavery aboard some fishing vessels, and what is being done about it. For more information and to register please go to www.stellamaris.org.uk/modernslavery

Prayer inspired by the Message for World Fisheries Day of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

O God, provident Father, who through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you give life to all things and make them holy, we thank you for the marvellous gift of the sea and fish, which you offer us for our sustenance.

Protect the fishers who, while in the fishing ground, face threats and intimidation by the skipper and officers, who force them to take endless shifts day and night to catch as many fish as possible, under any weather conditions.

Convert unscrupulous fishing vessels owners who practice illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, human trafficking, slavery, as well as drug and arms smuggling.

Enlighten international organizations, governments, civil societies, different players in the supply chain and NGOs to join forces to stop abuses and violations of human rights at sea.

Help them to work together to create a fishing industry in which the human and labor rights of fishers are guaranteed and supported, a prerequisite for the social and economic development of every country.

Bless the chaplains and the volunteers of the Stella Maris, so that they continue their compassionate mission of welcoming the fishers, recognizing in them the image of your suffering Son Jesus Christ, providing them with spiritual and material support.

Give eternal rest to the countless fishers who died and were buried at the sea, console their families and relatives with the hope of eternal life.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the Sea, watch over the communities of fishers, keeping them in Your Immaculate Heart. Amen!

Mass and a reception was held on October 5th at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, London, to mark the end of Stella Maris’ centenary year.

A huge thank you all our supporters, volunteers, friends and colleagues who turned up in person as well as those who joined the Mass via live stream.

Mass was celebrated by Bishop Paul Mason, Bishop of the Armed Forces and Stella Maris Bishop Promoter for England & Wales.

The Gospel reading for the celebration was Jesus’ calming of the storm and Bishop Paul delivered his homily as a shipping forecast indicating weather warnings that approach any Catholic organisation. He quoted Pope Francis who warned against removing Christ or diluting his centrality from its purpose and simply becoming “a compassionate NGO”.

That Stella Maris has flourished over 100 years is testimony to the fact that it holds Christ at its centre.

“Stella Maris is the face of the faceless and voice of the voiceless.” said Bishop Paul.

It was a delight and joy to meet many of our supporters and donors in person after almost two years of catching up online and we are truly grateful for their continued support and generosity which has allowed Stella Maris to assist seafarers and fishers for the past 100 years and for many years to come.

More photos can be found here https://www.flickr.com/…/cathol…/sets/72157719974198137/

Photo credit: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk