This coming Sunday is Sea Sunday when there will be a collection in parishes for the
Apostleship of the Sea. They have greatly improved their publicity in recent years, without it being overwhelming and counter-productive. Today they sent me this story in advance of the Sunday appeal. It gives just one example of the kind of work they do:
Port chaplain comes to aid of injured seafarer
A port chaplain came to the aid of a Filipino seafarer after he was injured on board a ship in Ipswich.
The seafarer fell from a ladder in the hold of a ship after being put to work on it immediately following his arrival from Manila.
He was rushed to hospital and Sister Marian Davey, Apostleship of the Sea port chaplain in East Anglia, was called to visit him.
“The combination of jet lag and limited food on the plane meant he was weak for the demanding work onboard. Whilst working in the hold of the ship, he fell from the bottom of a ladder and injured himself.
“It remains a great concern that no consideration is given to a seafarer’s basic need for some recovery time when they make such long trips to join ships in Europe,” she said.
Sister Marian prayed with the seafarer and arranged for a priest to give him the sacrament of the sick. She also gave him a mobile phone so that he could contact his family back home.
She also contacted the International Transport Workers Federation to ensure that he would be paid when he returned to the Philippines.
This Sunday [July 8] is Sea Sunday when Catholics are asked to remember and pray for seafarers and those who support them.
2 comments:
I don't know how I came to miss this post as it is a matter close to my heart, and not simply because I always spen my holidays at a fishing port on the north Northumberland coast.
My uncle Peter Sloan's brother, Fr Michael Sloan (uncle Mick), joined the Royal Navy aged 15 years in 1930 and left it (Chief Petty Officer Telegraphist on HMS Ceres) at the end of WWII in 1945 to join the South African Navy as an Instructor at East London, Port Elizabeth. A priest who knew him, Fr Bill Barnes, recently recalled that during his time in East London he was "a member (presumably helper) of the famous Youth Club that existed at Immaculate Conception for over 40 years."
In 1955, aged 40 years, he was ordained priest for the Diocese of Port Elizabeth having been a seminarian at All Hallows College, Dublin. He died some time after suffering a debilitating stroke which left him speechless, on May 15, 1983, aged 68 years, in the 28th of his priesthood.
Fr Bill, said that Fr Mick had told him how he had been on the beaches at Dunkirk, which I did not know, and then added: "I remember one evening at ‘tea time’ about 9 pm sitting at table with him and Father Becker from the Queenstown diocese. Fr Becker had been the commander of a German tank during World War II and here they were exchanging stories about their exploits in combat. I couldn’t help thinking that if they had met a few years previously on some battlefield or other, they would have killed each other!"
(At naval-history.net I found it recorded that in October 1943 HMS Ceres had arrived at Plymouth having been withdrawn from the East Indies and that in November it had been decided to reduce its complement and turn it into an accommodation vessel. Then deployed to Devonport while a final decision was being reached, by February it had been put to such use. In April of 1944 HMS Ceres was “nominated for support of Normandy landings as Depot Ship at GOOSEBERRY 1 in US Sector to the east of St Martin de Varreville [Operation NEPTUNE]”. NO doubt it was in his role as a CPO Telegraphist that uncle Mick at last found his land legs at war.)
Hello Hughie, I too am interested (genalogical) in Fr. Michael Sloan. My father told me he was a "White Father" in Africa. Would you elaborate on his genealogy please? regards, Michael Brady.
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