A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric, or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution, or a private chapel. The term chaplaincy refers to the chapel, facility or department in which one or more chaplains carry out their role.
Flag of convenience (FOC) is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag state. The term is often used pejoratively, and although common, the practice is sometimes regarded as contentious.
The National Union of Seamen (NUS) was the principal trade union of merchant seafarers in the United Kingdom from the late 1880s to 1990. In 1990, the union amalgamated with the National Union of Railwaymen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).
Pakistan Marine Academy (PMA) is located at Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It is a Seafarers Training Academy, working under Federal Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Government of Pakistan as an autonomous department. It is affiliated with NED University of Engineering and Technology and is also recognised by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan. Pakistan Marine academy covers an area of around 136 acres on the water front in Karachi Harbor, Hawksbay Road.
The Finnish Seamen's Mission was established in 1875. It was established to help Finns travelling abroad, particularly seafarers and migrant workers. It is a Christian organisation which provides church services and pastoral care, and also aims to provide cultural and social services to the Finnish community. The Secretary General (Pääsihteeri) as of 2015 is Hannu Suihkonen.
Stella Maris is an international agency of the Catholic Church that provides pastoral care to seafarers, other maritime workers, and their families.
The International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) is an ecumenical association of 26 Christian organisations, Protestant and Catholic, representing different churches and Christian communities actively engaged in welfare work for people who work at sea, including seafarers, fishers and the families of both. The Association is registered as a charity in the UK and, through its members, operates internationally.
The International Seamen's Union (ISU) was an American maritime trade union which operated from 1892 until 1937. In its last few years, the union effectively split into the National Maritime Union and Seafarer's International Union.
Centres for Seafarers was an ecumenical collaboration between The Apostleship of the Sea, The Sailors Society and The Mission to Seafarers. It was a registered UK charity formed in 2006 and dissolved on 2 April 2019.
Sailors’ Society is an international Christian charity working in ports across the world. The organisation has chaplains and ship visitors in 91 global ports, who help seafarers and their families, from all faiths and none, with welfare and practical support.
The Seamen's Church Institute is an American organization that serves mariners through education, pastoral care, and legal advocacy. Founded in lower Manhattan in 1834, it is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. With a budget of over $7 million, SCI is the largest, most comprehensive mariners’ agency in North America. The institute is headquartered in New York City and operates a seafarers’ center in Port Newark, and maritime education facilities in Paducah, Kentucky, and Houston, Texas.
The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) is an International Labour Organization (ILO) convention, number 186, established in 2006 as the fourth pillar of international maritime law and embodies "all up-to-date standards of existing international maritime labour Conventions and Recommendations, as well as the fundamental principles to be found in other international labour Conventions". The other pillars are the SOLAS, STCW and MARPOL. The treaties applies to all ships entering the harbours of parties to the treaty (port states), as well as to all ships flying the flag of state party (flag states, as of 2021: over 91 per cent).
The Boston Seaman's Friend Society or Seafarer's Friend is a charitable religious organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. It aims to improve the welfare of mariners.
The Bethel Union, full name British and Foreign Seamen's Friend Society and Bethel Union, was a religious organisation for seafarers founded in 1819 by George Charles Smith.
The ITF Seafarers' Trust is a charitable maritime trust located in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1981 by the Executive Board of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), a global federation of transport workers' unions with over 4.6 million worker members. The stated mission of the Trust is to assist with "the moral, spiritual and physical welfare of seafarers regardless of nationality, race or creed."
The Merchant Navy Welfare Board is a registered charity located in Southampton, England, that acts as the welfare umbrella for the United Kingdom Merchant Navy and fishing fleet charity sector. Its mission statement is "Supporting the provision of quality welfare services for seafarers and their dependants."
The Government Shipping Office is an agency in the Government of Pakistan that registers and manages sailors in the Pakistan Merchant Navy. The Government Shipping Office was first established in 1923 under the Merchant Shipping Act. It was a subordinate office of the then-Ministry of Communications, now reorganised as the Ministry of Ports and Shipping, under the administrative control of Ports and Shipping Wing, Karachi.
Duckdalben – International Seamen's Club is the name of the seamen's club founded in 1986 in the Port of Hamburg by the Deutsche Seemannsmission Hamburg-Harburg e. V. Every year, around 35,000 seafarers from more than 100 countries are offered practical help and orientation in what is for them a foreign port. Duckdalben is named after the mooring pilings called Dalben. In 2011 it was named the world's best seamen's club.
A Sailortown is a district in seaports that catered to transient seafarers. These districts frequently contained boarding houses, public houses, brothels, tattoo parlours, print shops, shops selling nautical equipment, and religious institutions offering aid to seamen; usually there was also a police station, a magistrate's court and a shipping office. Because it took several days, in the past, to unload ships, crews would spend this time in sailortown. These were "generic locations—international everyplaces existing in nearly every port." Cecily Fox Smith wrote that 'dockland, strictly speaking, is of no country—or rather it is of all countries'". Sailortowns were places where local people, immigrants, social and religious reformers, and transitory sailors met.
The North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA) is an ecumenical Christian seafarers’ welfare organization and professional association for seafarers’ welfare workers.
