A Tauranga organisation providing hospitality and welfare to seafarers is celebrating Merchant Navy Day this Sunday at their Mount Maunganui home on Hull Rd.

The event includes a blessing of a new van, recognising 70 volunteers, and a community lunch.

The United Seafarers Mission (USM) invited people from sea and the shore to join them at their Tauranga Seafarers Centre on September 7. After a two-year hiatus, the event had relocated from Sulphur Point with Reverend Iain Dickson at the helm.

Dickson said the USM wanted to honour those who serve in the Merchant Navy, along with their fathers and grandfathers.

“They give their lives in service to their nation.”

“There are those who have lost lives to the sea, and it’s not like parents can take their bodies and bring them home. They just disappeared.”

As such, Merchant Navy Day is a time of thanksgiving, recognition and fellowship to honour the contribution of seafarers and the Merchant Navy to New Zealand, ports nationwide, and local communities, Dickson said.

Another triumph would also be celebrated on September 7. The USM had, via generous grants and community support, recently purchased a new 12-seater Ford Transit van to continue transporting seafarers safely.

On one occasion, 33 seafarers arrived at the centre within 40 minutes, proving the demand for ample transportation.

Dickson said USM was able to transport 11 seafarers in the first van, and another 11 in the second, and return for the final group. “Their time is so precious,” said Dickson, who shared one seafarer had to be back on his ship within three hours. He’d been on the ship for seven months straight, and he wasn’t alone.

Dickson said 1.8 million seafarers were on the ocean at any time, and out of 12,000 seafarers that come through the Port of Tauranga annually, roughly 100 are female. In terms of culture, 60% are Filipino, followed by Indians, Chinese, Ukrainians and Russians, said Dickson, who believed the USM offered “Kiwi hospitality to the stranger, the sojourner”.

Three organisations within the USM – Stella Maris, the Mission to Seafarers, and Galilee – had 70 volunteers to tend to seafarers.

They run a small snack shop and exchange USD money into NZ currency, and support seafarers in any way they can, said Dickson. For example, one volunteer took a seafarer to a dentist after he’d suffered toothache for three weeks.

The USM also monitors ships, ensuring captains follow Maritime NZ rules and maritime laws, seafarers’ wages are fair, and raise concerns to ship welfare officers.

If the public want to attend Merchant Navy Day, contact Iain Dickson on 027 457 5849 to provide their name for the port register. People need a driver’s licence for entry.