Massachusetts Conference Edition

Return to main page
Read National Edition
Subscribe to printed version - free!
Read the UC News Spotlight E-Newsletter

Seafarers Rock The Boat

March/April 2005

For the first time in over two years, a foreign seafarer was allowed off the ship at the Exxon Terminal in Everett, Massachusetts. The policy of prohibiting all foreign seafarers from their dock, established by the Terminal shortly after 9/11, effectively detained all foreign seafarers onboard ships at the Exxon dock whether or not the U.S. government had cleared them to go ashore.

Until last month, seafarers had to stay aboard and communicate their needs via phones and visitors. According to Bill Fleming, Chaplain and Mission Director of Seafarer's Friend, for the past two years it was up to visitors to make hundreds of trips to ships moored at the Exxon dock to deliver and pick up cell phones. These phones enabled crew members, restricted to the ships, to contact their homes and families from shipboard. "This dock had more ship arrivals than any other in the area so thousands of seafarers were denied the right to go ashore."

It was this type of practice that prompted the Resolution Supporting Seafarer Rights to be proposed by the Board of Directors, Essex Association, and then passed at the MACUCC 2004 Annual Meeting. The resolution was in support of the rights of seafarers, calling upon Massachusetts port officials to comply with Coast Guard regulations allowing for shore leaves for foreign crew members who have proper identification but who are currently denied the right to disembark from their vessels.

"We are very grateful to Exxon for making this difficult decision," says Fleming. "We understand that security is everyone's responsibility, and we will do all in our power to make sure this policy works for all parties."

Fleming concludes, "we are not sure of all the reasons the policy was reversed, but there are indications that our MACUCC Resolution may have had at least a small role in the process."

Located in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Seafarer's Friend, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, extends the ministry of the churches to meet the unmet spiritual, social, emotional, and physical needs in the New England maritime community.