Review by Jason Zuidema (NAMMA/ICMA) Wonjong Choi opens his autobiography fittingly with the words, “All my life, I have only thought of the sea, ships and seafarers.” (6). Choi founded the Korean Seonwon (pn. ‘sun-on’) Mission in the mid-1970s, and became an inspiration for other Koreans to take seafarers’ ministry into ports around the world…
Seaman’s Rest Tacoma: An Old Town Haven
Written by James Bentley (Originally published in the Eureka Times, 2009 Fall issue) Tacoma’s First Port In its infancy, Tacoma, and especially Old Town along the mile-long docks, earned a reputation that was common to waterfront cities of the era: rough and tumble and unsafe to wander alone in. As the end of the nineteenth century drew near,…
Documentary: Crow’s Nest merchant navy officer’s club in St. John’s, NL
The half hour “Fifty Nine Steps to the Crow’s Nest” documentary tells the story of the “Crow’s Nest” merchant navy officers bar in downtown St. John’s. It is a fantastic film about a piece of St. John’s history, but, more importantly, a tribute to the memory of merchant mariners of World War II. Thanks to…
Article notice – Thomas Cave Childs: Pioneer chaplain to female emigrants and the Missions to Seamen
Fr. Robert Miller has published a new article on an important early figure in maritime ministry in The Mariner’s Mirror journal. Miller, long a member of the Society for Nautical Research, has published several books on the work of the church and the merchant seafarer from the earliest Christian centuries until the nineteenth century. He…
Book Review: Vom Wartesaal zwischen den Meeren zum modernen Seefahrerzentrum
by Jason Zuidema, ICMA/NAMMA Christiane Sengebusch, Vom Wartesaal zwischen den Meeren zum modernen Seefahrerzentrum: Chronik der Deutschen Seemannsmission Westküste e.V., Brunsbüttel, 2020. 60pp. This small hardcover volume traces the history of the Deutschen Seemannsmission Westküste in Brunsbüttel, Germany. Written by Christiane Sengebusch, the book helps understand the growth and development of this seafarers mission organization…
Book Review: At Sea, Awaiting Orders
by Jason Zuidema, ICMA This beautiful, short book recounts the ministry of a Stella Maris chaplain in Immingham, UK. Fr. Colum Kelly, a priest in the Diocese of Leeds, tells his stories of 16 years as port chaplain. Editor Josie Edwards makes the text engaging and illustrations are added by current Immingham chaplain, Bryony Watson.…
Book Review: Father Taylor, Boston’s Sailor Preacher
by Dr. Jason Zuidema, NAMMA William Armstrong brings together this great collection of stories about the well-known 19th century seafarers’ minister in Boston, Rev. Edward Thompson Taylor. Armstrong is a retired minister of the United Church of Christ, having degrees from Union Theological Seminary and The Lutheran Theological Seminary. He has authored a number of…
Remembering Chaplain Wally Ceadarleaf
Image: (Paul Connell/Globe Staff/File 1979) From The Globe, February 7, 2010. The Rev. Wallace E. Cedarleaf retired as Boston Harbor chaplain 17 years ago, but he is vividly recalled along the waterfront and among the thousands of seamen of foreign vessels that docked here during his 25-year tenure. “Wally was bigger-than-life. Everyone who knew him…
Watermarks 1979 – 1990
Watermarks was the Newsletter of the International Council of Seamen’s Agencies
Harbor Lights Guild Melbourne 1914-1918
From Mission to Seafarers Melbourne: The story of the Merchant Navy and the Ladies of the Harbour Lights Guild of Melbourne during WWI. The film is a project commissioned by the Mission to Seafarers Victoria, and produced by Wind and Sky Productions, is the story of the Merchant Navy and the gathering of Ladies of…