About AOS
Texting home
Port chaplain Tony McAvoy reflects on how communications technology affects the lives of seafarers
I had a text message from a seafarer which read
“Sir Tony, Good Morning. How r u & u’r family? It’s me Michael Camangon of Norstream. I’m already on board tanker M/T Maersk Michigan. Almost 1 month here. Rgds. God Bless”
I know Michael very well from his previous ship, RoRo ferry Norstream. Here he was contacting me from his new ship somewhere in the world. I was delighted to reply with our good wishes and to ask him where he was.
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Seafarers who come regularly to Teesport often text me. It is a cheap way of staying in touch. The seafarers know that I will always respond. A regular request is: “Please top up my mobile for me”. I can do this remotely knowing that the seafarer will pay me when we next meet.
Other regular requests are “Please purchase item (ref no) from Argos” and “Please can you take us to the Car Boot Sale at 1.30pm”.
Of course mobiles only work within a few miles of land and only if there is coverage by particular networks. Telephone calls from ships at sea using satellite technology are still very expensive. Some companies do allow occasional calls but usually the seafarer has to pay for them.
Texting is also very important for keeping in regular contact with family members back home. I asked Benny, a Filipino seafarer, how he keeps in touch and he told me he calls home once a week but sends a text message every other day.
The rapid development of communications technology has been a real boon for seafarers. Pre-paid telephone cards are slowly being replaced by direct calling using low-cost networks. These supply SIM cards which allow calls to numerous countries at attractive rates, eg 7p a minute for most European countries and 10p a minute for the Philippines for a mobile to landline call.
This is all a far cry from a few years ago. A former ship's master told me
“We would arrive in port and be there for two or three days, perhaps more, discharging our cargo. If there was no Seaman’s Club nearby then you would have to walk the streets, often in the dark, trying to find a telephone box which was lit and which worked, and then try your luck at getting through to home using a variety of local coins”.
Seafarer Jeffrey with ship |
Internet access at seafarers' centres often includes telephone facilities. If the right equipment is available at home, seafarers and their families can see each other while they talk. Handheld mobiles which offer the same facility are becoming available.
An initiative was developed at Port of Tyne to give seafarers access to the Internet onboard their ships using the chaplain’s laptop and a remote modem. This is now being extended to other ports in north east England.
Technology is improving all the time. But for most seafarers, life at sea still means a painful separation from family and home.
click here to read about the Port of Tyne communications initiative