But as with most charitable organizations, COVID-19 decimated the ranks of our volunteers; since the pandemic, only five have returned across our four stations. Having to isolate for nearly two years took its toll, and yet our work ramped up five-fold as seafarers were confined to their ships and all the land-based activities, such as shopping (for food, medical supplies, exercise equipment, Christmas gifts, etc.) had to be – and were – covered by staff and the remaining volunteers.

Remember COVID-19 shopping? Order online, then face long lineups to pick up purchases, especially in the cold weather during those two awful winters. We received between 22 and 25 emails with lists from each ship in port – and there could be up to seven ships in a port. It was a logistical nightmare, but it had to be attended to because these were important shopping lists to fulfil.

At the end of this season – December 2025 – we will lose two of our original eight-year veteran volunteers in Oshawa, Jill and Captain David, both of whom joined before the station was opened and who stayed throughout the pandemic, working with patience, dedication and determination. We are honoured and blessed to have had the privilege of working with them. But with their departure, we are without any volunteers for our station in Oshawa, the Terry Finlay Seafarers Centre.

We need your help. The Terry Finlay Seafarers Centre is a tiny station with a big heart, just like its namesake. It has offered shelter and comfort to hundreds of seafarers since it opened in 2017. The seafarers will deeply miss Jill, the grandmother of the station, and Captain David, himself a former “Salty” seafarer, so we are asking you to think about whether you are willing and able to fill the shoes of two stalwarts who let very little get in their way when it came to helping the seafarers that come to Oshawa.

Age is not a barrier; even teenagers are welcome as station hosts and ship visitors. Climbing a gangway is the physical test, and mission training is offered. There is no set schedule for cargo ship arrivals – unlike cruise ships, which tend to stick to a very tight schedule – so while we have a few days’ notice, that can change from day to day. We can’t promise a set time every week when a ship will be in port. But what we can promise is the satisfaction of knowing that for a few hours a week you are helping to take care of the people who take care of us, who bring us all the things we need, from the coffee in our cups to the food on our table and the tables themselves, the gas in our cars and the clothes we wear. And to know how grateful the seafarers are that you care, that by your presence you remind them that they are not invisible. They do the most difficult work in the world, so a few hours (two to three) of your time each week to help us help them is priceless.

Are you ready for a new challenge? MTSSO needs your help. Can we count on you? Contact getinvolved@mtsso.org or visit www.mtsso.org/volunteering and let us know if you’re ready to get involved!

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However, in 1861, the first time the port authority decided to hold this event, a silk top hat was a pretty big deal, because it was the key to the city: for 24 hours the captain and crew could eat and drink for free! And the $100 bonus in the briefcase was about a month’s salary for the captain, perhaps worth as much as $5,000 today.

On March 28, however, the hat was held above Captain Sergei’s head, as it’s over 200 years old now. The briefcase cost more than the $100 it contained, but the gesture was greatly appreciated! And we at the Mission to Seafarers brought gift bags for all the seafarers on board as a welcome-to-Toronto treat.

The rough seas added a week to the ship’s transit from San Sebastian, Brazil, where Captain Sergei and his crew picked up more than 19,000 metric tonnes of sugar to deliver to the Redpath Sugar Refinery at the foot of Jarvis Street in Toronto. After it’s been refined, the sugar will find its way to various factories and stores around Ontario – and ultimately to our homes in one form or another. And the seafarers will, once again, have ensured that a delivery of something important and precious that we don’t grow anywhere in our country has arrived safely on our doorsteps.

By weight, 90 per cent of everything that arrives in our country comes by way of ship. The kinds of goods we receive today haven’t change appreciably since 1861: the construction materials we need to keep our ever-expanding city and province growing; and the food items that don’t grow locally, such as coffee, tea and sugar, to name only a few. In 1861, bolts of cloth such as wool, linen and cotton would arrive. More often these days, the finished garments by the container-full find their way here from various countries such as China, India, the Philippines and Thailand.

And the seafarers continue to sacrifice so much of their lives to ensure the safe arrival of all these and many more products, living apart from their families and loved ones because in spite of the low pay at sea, it is still better pay than they would make in their countries of origin such as Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia. And this pay usually supports not just their immediate families but their extended families as well. Remittance payments often make up a huge percentage of the GDP of these countries.

But what can make up for the time the seafarers are away, putting the health and happiness of others always ahead of themselves? Knowing that they are not forgotten, that they are not invisible, that we on land appreciate their sacrifice and the danger of their work. “The Ministry of Small Gestures” is how the work of the Mission to Seafarers is described; small gestures indeed, compared with the huge gesture of the seafarers. We get to go to our homes and families after our shifts but shift’s end for them sends them alone to a small room with a small bunk on a large ship that makes noise day after day. Not to mention bouncing around on an ocean.

So the gift of a small bag of treats that includes warm hats and scarves, and yes, even chocolates, is warmly welcomed – more kudos to our team of wonderful volunteer knitters from around the province! Even a small gesture has great meaning. And the bigger gestures of the work we do – the Happiness Index, the Ship Visiting App and the Happy@Sea app – help us to provide the things that seafarers need to make their lives better while at sea.

As the 2025 shipping season begins on the Great Lakes, as you drink that first cup of coffee in the morning or your last cup of hot chocolate in the evening, remember the seafarers who made sure you had that cup to brighten your day. And find a way to thank them for their sacrifice for us.

To make a donation through CanadaHelps, visit www.mtsso.org.

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It was previously assumed that of the 41 per cent, about 99 per cent were retirees over the age of 60 or 65, but things are changing. Trends are evolving alongside changing priorities and lifestyles, with youth and young adults now being the majority of volunteers in many capacities, the most popular being volunteering with animals, community projects, sports, hospitals and “green” projects.

It is a trend we have noticed at the Mission to Seafarers. Anyone with teenagers knows that students are required to have logged volunteer hours before they can graduate – a huge and important step forward from when my generation were teenagers. And do they ever take this seriously! The volunteers we have had at our mission stations are engaged. They want to know what seafarers do, they show up on time and stay late. They participate and encourage their friends to help as well. Youth and young adults want to volunteer with an organization that will challenge them, and the mission has provided those challenges.

At one small southern Ontario university, volunteering with an international mission such as ours is a course requirement. This means six months as a volunteer and a written paper on the specific area the volunteer worked in, and lessons learned. The first year of this course requirement was so successful that the university added it as a work/learning component for all of its international studies programs. (This is not a seminary. We can’t seem to get volunteers from seminaries for some reason.)

Volunteers of all ages are the backbone of most charitable organizations, and the Mission to Seafarers is no different. COVID-19 ended the participation of a lot of seniors for obvious reasons – not always the fear of disease, but the fear of the unknown. Only three senior volunteers who were with us prior to the pandemic have remained. It’s been a rough few years, but we are hopeful that as a younger, more resilient and more adventurous group of volunteers has been finding its way to the mission, our volunteer bank will grow once again.

But as I write, this is the time of year when the volunteers come forward after working at home for months: the knitting and sewing volunteers. As I write, it’s the season of Advent, and we are busy collecting up homemade knitwear and quilts, along with boxes of toothpaste and shampoo, body wash and more, all of which will find their way into our Christmas ditty bags, which we begin giving to seafarers on St. Nicholas Day, Dec. 6. Why this day? Because St. Nicholas is the patron saint of seafarers!

It’s a joy to catch up with all the many people who spend hours of their own time throughout the year making beautiful warm things for people they have never met, and we bless each and every one of them for their work and contributions to the lives of the seafarers we serve. As much as the folks who work in our mission centres, these folks are volunteers for the mission. Everything counts.

Our mission services end when the last ship leaves Lake Ontario before the lake freezes, or at least when the Welland Canal closes for maintenance (this year on Jan. 5). Our services begin again at the end of March when the St. Lawrence thaws and the ships can move freely again between Montreal and Thunder Bay on “Highway H20.” During this hiatus, we spend time in training courses, preparing our mission centres for the arrival of the next group of seafarers, and praying that volunteers will answer the call to help us!

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer with the Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario and learning how to be a volunteer or ship visitor at our Oshawa mission (the Terry Finlay Seafarers Centre) or as a ship visitor in Toronto, please contact me at glutenfreepriest@gmail.com.

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A local example: a fire in the engine room of a small cargo ship in Montreal erupted as the ship was leaving for Portugal. Four days later, the fire was still not out and the accommodation in the wheelhouse had been destroyed. The ship is now underway, being towed to Halifax. The crew will be housed in a local hotel there – not abandoned this time – and the mission staff and volunteers in Halifax will step in with their unending and caring support. The ship will be sent to “the breakers,” where she will become razor blades. It is difficult not to hear on the news of the many tragedies these seafarers face each day.

When seafarers are allowed to come ashore, they need our support, friendship and understanding. That is what the Mission to Seafarers’ centres provide in more than 200 ports in 50 countries around the world: support, friendship, encouragement and understanding. Sadly, in the winter of 2019 the iconic Toronto mission building was destroyed in a flood and demolished completely later that year. So how do we bring “comfort and joy” to seafarers arriving in Toronto when there is no actual place for them to visit?

We do it the way it was done from the beginning of this ministry: we visit the ships. Ship visiting is still the number one way to meet and communicate with arriving seafarers. It is not about the building; it’s about the seafarers themselves. Certainly, it was great to have our building on the east side of the port for all those years – until it wasn’t. The cost of maintaining the building became overwhelming, and we couldn’t keep up. We had been in the process of moving the building when the flood happened. God clearly had another plan.

So, in Toronto we are back to ship-visiting: face to face, meeting seafarers where they live and work. Climbing the gangway, carrying bags of chocolates (a very welcome tradition), along with our friendship, support and hospitality. God has called us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take care of the sick and visit those in prison. This is what we do as ship visitors for the Mission to Seafarers. Not glamourous, sometimes heartbreaking and demanding work, but very much needed and always fulfilling.

Join our crew at the Mission to Seafarers and help us make sure our seafarers feel at home when they are far from theirs. The hourly commitment is small and flexible, but the impact can be life-changing.

To learn about volunteer opportunities with the Mission to Seafarers, email volunteerMTSSO@gmail.com or visit www.mtsso.org.

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Now try to imagine that you are on a huge ship (think a cruise ship with fewer people, pools and bars and more giant cargo containers). You pick up your smartphone to make a call to your family and… nothing happens. You are in the middle of the ocean, where there are no cell towers, where there is no Wi-Fi. Just dead air. What do you do? Nothing. You wait until you reach land, possibly weeks away. You hope and pray that there’s a local seafarer centre with free access to Wi-Fi and that you will be given enough time to get off your ship, get to the centre and make that call.

The Mission to Seafarers distributes a survey called the happiness index, which is available throughout the year to any seafarer anywhere who wants to complete it. In fact, there is an entire website devoted to the happiness index (www.seafarershappinessindex.org) where statistics are posted that reflect the views of seafarers from around the world. And everyone in the shipping industry is now paying attention to those statistics and to what the seafarers are concerned about (think: recruitment and retention of staff).

Two of the most important issues that have arisen through the happiness index are shore leave and connectivity. Although COVID-19 is mostly in the rearview mirror, many countries and ports – and indeed shipping companies – often refuse seafarers shore leave, to the detriment of their mental and physical health. Canada has attempted to maintain a “green zone,” which has allowed shore leave and repatriation of seafarers, except during the height of COVID-19. The Mission to Seafarers is vigilant in ensuring that seafarers are given shore leave when they arrive anywhere in Canada.

In addition to allowing the seafarers time away from their ships (and each other… think about being trapped in your office, 24/7, for weeks at a time), shore leave gives them access to free Wi-Fi at the seafarer centre, which are often the only places a seafarer can get free Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi on board ship may be available, but its access is strictly limited, often based on rank, and it’s never free. There is only one port in Canada that offers free Wi-Fi, and it isn’t in Ontario.

So it is a huge relief for seafarers to be able to get the Wi-Fi code immediately on arrival at the mission stations and to connect with loved ones around the world. Even though Canada has the most expensive mobile communication systems in the world, seafarer welfare centres, particularly the Mission to Seafarers, offer this as service of primary importance.

We “landlubbers” take so much for granted. We complain about the price of things, especially since the pandemic, yet we can still just go to the grocery store or market and buy groceries, gas, clothing, school supplies – or choose not to, depending on our budgets. And then we can pick up a phone, call a friend and commiserate with them about these price increases. Then again, we’re on land. Our seafarer friends, who bring us 90 per cent of everything (and can afford almost none of those things) are often stuck in the middle of the ocean and can’t access a store or a mobile signal from a cell tower.

Please keep seafarers in your thoughts and prayers this Christmastime, especially when you go out to do your Christmas shopping. (Remember: “No shipping, no shopping.”) Please donate to the Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario through our CanadaHelps platform (www.mtsso.org). Help us bring the “ministry of small gestures” to all our seafarers this Christmastime. And thank you for your support!

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More than 100 ships, both cruise and cargo, are scheduled to arrive in Toronto and Oshawa during the upcoming shipping season. Each cargo ship has a minimum crew of 22 to guide and direct it, and each luxury cruise ship has an average crew of 250 to keep nearly the same number of passengers well fed and relaxed. But we are the people who take care of the crews of these commercial vessels.

We would welcome your help meeting and greeting seafarers. In the Port of Oshawa, we have a mission station where seafarers come to access free WiFi, drink a cup of coffee, have a snack and just get away from the noise and busyness of their life on board ship. In Toronto, we meet our cruise ship seafarers at the ship’s gangway to assist with local errands such as shopping in their very limited time off.

If you feel called to offer your services as a volunteer for the Mission to Seafarers in Oshawa or Toronto, please contact me at glutenfreepriest@gmail.com and I will be happy to provide you with a job description and job training. Thank you, and God bless you for your interest.

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We have recently finished our first Mission to Seafarers Canada in-person conference in three and a half years, during which we shared information on how much our world – and the world of the seafarers we serve – has changed. We noted that because of COVID-19, the term “supply chain” and its effect on humanity officially brought seafarers to the attention of many in the world. However, seafarers have somehow dropped out of our consciousness while the supply chain remains front and centre. We call that “sea blindness.”

Now it’s Christmas time. For us at the Canadian Missions to Seafarers, our concern is less with the supply chain and more with the seafarers and what we can do to help them at this extremely stressful time of the year. Some are entering a third year with limited, if any, shore leave and contract extensions that have kept them away from their families for many extra months. Others face the horrors of a war at home and not knowing where their families are. We are faced with bringing some semblance of Christmas into the hearts and lives of these brave men and women, no matter what their faith or culture.

Seafarers count on us to bring Christmas spirit on board each year, and it’s never been more important than it is now. We deliver hundreds of “Ditty Bags” to the arriving ships; they are filled with a variety of treats, but none are more welcome than the hand-knitted goods such as hats, scarves, mittens and bunk-sized quilts and afghans that find their way into every bag.

It’s not the items themselves that the seafarers appreciate the most but the act behind them. As one seafarer explained to me, it is the fact that a complete stranger took up knitting needles (or a sewing machine or crochet hook) and made a gift for another complete stranger. There is time and love in each item, an expression of hope that is profound. Think of it this way: the craftsperson doesn’t have an image in mind of what the seafarer looks like; they just make the item to be received. And likewise for the seafarer: they don’t have any idea who the craftsperson is, or what she or he looks like, but they are thrilled to be the recipient of the gift.

The source of all this is generosity, given and received, without any expectation on either side. These particular craftspeople spend 12 months of the year knitting, creating and setting aside each item, and when they run out of room around the end of October, I get a call asking when they can make their delivery. Hundreds of items – all handmade, all cherished. And after they deliver these items, these wonderful craftspeople start all over again. Sounds like what Jesus needs all of us to be doing.

On our packing day, a group of volunteers gathers to pack up the 800 or so bags filled with all kinds of toiletries, sweets, notepads, pens, card games and at least one handmade item. That goes on the top of the bag and is the first thing the seafarers see when they open them. When they wrap their scarves around their necks, or pull the toque over their ears, the smile that splits their faces is priceless, let me tell you. A thumbs-up lets us know that the gift is a hit – and will continue to be on every cold day.

To the dozens of knitters and craftspeople across Canada that the Mission is blessed to have supporting our ministry, please accept the collective thanks of both us at the Mission and the seafarers whom you bless with your gifts, your time and your unconditional love.

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I am a cradle Anglican, born and raised in a tiny parish in the south of England, but have lived my entire adult life in Canada and am now a member of St. Peter, Oshawa. I had never heard of the Mission to Seafarers until an article appeared in the local paper about the installation of a new mission station at the Port of Oshawa, calling for volunteers, and it captured my imagination as being quite a contrast to my hospital volunteering. For the first time in my life, I considered what working life at sea might be like for extended periods of time, with homes and families far away. I eventually joined the group shortly after the mission’s official opening in 2015 and have been an enthusiastic ship visitor ever since.

Initially we go on board to welcome each international ship soon after its arrival with our contact information and a bag of chocolates. We explain to an officer what we can do for the crew: provide free WiFi, refreshments and donations of clothing, books and toiletries in our mission, otherwise known as the “seamen’s club,” plus souvenirs for sale and free transportation to shopping and recreation, with information about local amenities.

Before the pandemic, we could expect more than 40 ships a year in Oshawa, but that number has since been reduced to about 30. Almost all the ships are carrying steel, but occasionally they may have large machine parts, and once we had a tanker in port. Crews may number anywhere between 12 on a tanker and 17 to 23 on the steel carriers. Ships docking on the west side of the port in Oshawa are in close proximity to a very attractive park, and it’s a pleasure to see seafarers taking full advantage of it. Such a beautiful green space next to the port is quite a rarity.

The ships come to us from all over the world and the crews can be a mix of nationalities and languages, but communication is always manageable and we enjoy our interaction. It is very rewarding – though sometimes challenging – to be able to gratify their wishes, and several seafarers have continued to stay in touch across the world on WhatsApp with a “how r u?” chat and family photos. I can’t express how heartwarming that is, and I would strongly recommend others to volunteer and find out for themselves.

Sometimes a seafarer will ask me why I do what I do; I tell him that the blessing conveyed to me by him for giving me the opportunity to be useful far outweighs any granted to him by my actions. Simply put, it makes me happy. Once in a while an officer will express his appreciation with an invitation to a meal on board, which is accepted with alacrity whenever possible. That’s always an interesting and a very enjoyable experience, with a pleasant sense of comradeship. Generosity is also frequently shown to us in gifts of well-travelled chocolates, candy or small donations to the mission, which reinforces the value of our contribution to the seamen’s welfare while they are with us. We are aware that our actions can make an appreciable difference; I like to feel that we provide a “soft place” for them to land when they come ashore.

My spiritual journey took several twists and turns, including a long period of estrangement due to horrifying world events, including the Biafra crisis affecting so many babies and children, and it took a particularly low point in my personal life to bring me back to a solid relationship with the Church, but on reflection it was all profoundly educational and did eventually lead me to where I am now, which I feel is where I was meant to be.

I would like to think that five years from now I’d be doing what I’m doing now, spending much of my time volunteering in Lakeridge Health, Oshawa, and as a ship visitor whenever there’s a ship in port, but as I’d be well into my ninth decade that expectation may have to be revised. Apart from other considerations, the ships’ gangways can be 42 steps high!

The 23rd psalm has always had special meaning for me, as it has for so many; it conveys such reassurance, hope and peace.

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Sadly, in the case of this particular war, there is an ancillary problem: of the Ukrainian seafarers currently at sea, who number approximately 76,000, most live in cities like Mariupol and Kherson, which have suffered devastating attacks. We have heard many stories from Ukrainian seafarers in our ports that only about half of them know the whereabouts of their families.  

™Paul,∫ a Ukrainian seafarer whose ship was in the Panama Canal, had been begging his wife to leave Mariupol and go to Romania. Our Mission to Seafarers’ colleague there reached out to us to ask if we had any contacts in Romania. A few emails later, we had a list of numbers to call and names of people who were waiting for Paul’s wife and family. Unfortunately, Paul’s wife can’t find petrol to drive to Romania, and now her mother is reluctant to leave Mariupol. It’s been three weeks and I am not aware of her situation anymore, whether she was able to leave or, if she has remained in Ukraine, what her status is. So many seafarers are in the same position.

With the Russian seafarers there is another layer of problems called ™sanctions.∫ To quote the Royal Belgian Shipowners Association: ™The growing isolation of Russia makes it increasingly difficult ± if not impossible ± to pay the wages of the Russian seafarers, due to the severe restrictions to the country’s access to Swift, the main international payment system. At the same time, it is becoming harder to get them to where they are needed, due to the closure of many air connections to and from Russia.∫ Fifteen per cent of the 1.9 million seafarers in the world are Russian or Ukrainian, the loss of whom would have a serious effect on international shipping.

The saddest problem we are faced with (on top of all the other issues) is ships with joint Russian/Ukrainian crews. Crew allotments were made long before the invasion, so they are forced to work together. One captain told us, ™There are absolutely no political discussions allowed on board,∫ and that’s how he’s been able to keep the peace. When we go on board, most of the Ukrainian seafarers want to talk about their families, and many of them want to return home to fight for their country; most of the Russian seafarers keep to themselves, in small groups, wearing a badge of quiet humiliation.  

We’ve been giving out free SIM cards to both Ukrainian and Russian seafarers. One Russian seafarer was moved to tears when our mission staff offered him a free SIM card, and they are all very grateful for the kindness we show them. We make no exceptions, no distinctions; for the most part, they are as sad, hurt and angry as the rest of us.  

War, it would seem, has its own rules, depending on who started it and how it will finish. These past two plus months have seen political barriers breaking down on ships in a way that could bode well for the future of these two nations. In the meantime, we do all we can at our Mission to Seafarers stations here and around the world to care for these remarkable people. And the ripple effect continues. 

The Rev. Judith Alltree is the regional director of Mission to Seafarers Canada.  

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While strolling around the Victoria waterfront on a beautiful Sunday morning in late October 2021 people were greeted with the sight of a huge ship in the near distance, billowing clouds of thick smoke. The smoke poured out of some containers on the ship’s deck as several tugs rushed to her rescue. While this was happening, the Canadian Coast Guard was hailing the ship, the Zim Kingston, advising the captain and crew to abandon ship. The fire was in a number of containers that were carrying extremely hazardous materials that could actually be ignited by water. 

This was yet another chapter of the story of the Zim Kingston and her crew, who had literally been through the watery equivalent of “to hell and back” during the previous week. Only later, when several chaplains and union officials in Vancouver met with the crew, did the larger story emerge. 

Although a dangerous storm was heading directly for the ship, they were denied access to a safe harbour, any harbour, and required to stay at sea while the storm bore down on them. For four days the ship was tossed about the ocean, despite the enormous combined size of the vessel itself and the cargo bolted to the deck. For four days it was impossible for the cook to make any meals, for the crew to walk upright anywhere inside, for the crew to sleep (they had to tie themselves to their bunks). During the storm, over 140 containers filled with goods destined to be Christmas gifts at a local drug store chain were ripped off the deck by the violence of the storm. The containers that didn’t sink washed up on the pristine shores of Clayoquot Sound.  

For the seafarers on this voyage, it was one of the worst of their careers. They felt abandoned and brutalized (their words) after such a journey. Our chaplains and staff in Vancouver spent many hours helping these seafarers through the emotional and physical trauma they had experienced. Several investigations are underway about many aspects of this voyage, most notably why the ship was not offered safe harbour when they were directly in the path of a major storm and so close to land. The seafarers themselves want those answers.

There were some empty shelves at Christmas owing to “supply chain” issues, but few of us, I imagine, would have dreamed up the scenario of the Zim Kingston as one of the reasons why. And yet, not many days after this terrible journey, the crew of the Zim Kingston continued on with the ship, sailing her from Victoria to Nanaimo for repairs and to discharge some of the many hundreds more containers which were not lost overboard during the storm.

To bring us all that we need, seafarers sacrifice everything, sometimes even their lives. As one of my colleagues remarked recently at the death of a young seafarer: “Water is their livelihood but it is not their friend.” Please think of the human cost of shopping the next time you see shelves filled with products we “can’t live without.” Please remember to support the Mission to Seafarers through your prayers and your donations. On behalf of seafarers everywhere: thank you.

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