Escalating trade wars amid unpredictable U.S. tariffs have caused a surge in shipping activity as companies seek to stockpile goods, and one of the busiest times in decades for chaplains and volunteers in the Canadian region of the Mission to Seafarers.
An international Anglican mission to support seafarers and their families, the Mission to Seafarers ministers at about 200 ports in 50 countries, offering its services to anyone free of charge. Ministry includes ship and hospital visits; transporting seafarers around local ports; offering hospitality, warm clothing, wi-fi and currency exchange at Seafarers’ Centres; facilitating worship for seafarers; and distributing annual Christmas gift bags.
In Canada, the Mission to Seafarers is active at ports across the country from Halifax to Vancouver, with about 30 chaplains, station managers and active volunteers according to the Rev. Eric Phinney, regional director of the organization’s Canadian region.
At the port of Thunder Bay, the Mission to Seafarers reported that 2024 was its busiest year since 2000 in terms of ships assisted and 2023 was its second-busiest, due in large part to unusually heavy shipping of potash. Over the course of 2024, the mission worked with 148 ships and transported 1,938 seafarers, while the Seafarers’ Centre at Keefer Terminal was staffed on 201 evenings with 223 sailors visiting.
Phinney says Mission to Seafarers is experiencing the same trend nationwide. “Shipping is up,” he told the Anglican Journal May 5. “Of course, the big wild card right now is tariffs … It’s a global mess.”
Uncertainty over U.S. tariffs, he says, has caused a bump in trade activity.
“There was so much speculation about what might happen with trade with tariffs … people began to order and stockpile stuff,” Phinney says. “Warehouses at this point are full in the U.S. and in Canada … There’s all kinds of speculation and ports are trying to gear up so that they can take on cargo that may not be passed on immediately and store things. There’s a bit of a panic thing going on.”
On May 12, the Trump administration paused U.S. tariffs against China for 90 days. The South China Morning Post reported May 13 that shipping demand was set to explode in the following weeks as companies sought to take advantage of the break in tariffs.
Effects of growing trade wars have included rising stress on seafarers, Phinney said. Mission to Seafarers operates a metric called the Seafarers Happiness Index, which tracks data on seafarers’ mental health.
“During COVID, stress levels went way up because sometimes some of them got stuck on a ship for two years,” Phinney says. “They couldn’t go home. Then others didn’t know whether their jobs were secure.”
Tariffs, he says, have had a similar impact.
“There’s indicators that seafarers are not as happy and secure as they should be,” Phinney says. Typically, seafarers work up to nine months and then take three or four months off, but have no guarantee of a job afterwards. Now, he says, more and more seafarers are choosing to extend their contracts past nine months because they are less certain if they will be able to find jobs afterwards.
“It’s sort of a crazy world at this point and people are doing what they need to do to survive,” Phinney says. “A lot of those stresses come down to the individual seafarer. We track their happiness and think about that at a quite high level and say, ‘OK, how can we intervene? What can we do to alleviate this?’”
Seafarers ‘invisible, vulnerable people’
In her 2014 book Ninety Percent of Everything, author Rose George describes how nearly 90 per cent of goods consumed in developed countries are transported by ship. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates there are an estimated 1.9 million seafarers worldwide.
The Global Maritime Forum, an international non-profit organization for the maritime industry, expressed rising concerns in a 2024 report by its Diversity@Sea initiative over poor working conditions for seafarers, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts. It found seafarer labour shortages at a 17-year high.
Seafarers tend to come from poorer countries, Phinney says, due to world economics and ship owners wanting to pay workers as little as possible. The Mission to Seafarers in Canada encounters many seafarers from countries such as China, the Philippines, India, Russia and Ukraine.
“Ships are travelling through war zones,” Phinney says. “There’s accidents that happen. These are an invisible, vulnerable people. So we have numerous programmes both for the seafarers themselves and for their families back home to help them … Often seafarers will find that there’s very restrictive immigration practises, so they really can’t get off the boat.”
For these seafarers, ship visits are a key service the mission provides. Chaplains board ships, identify themselves and ask how they might be able to help the seafarers.
Being granted shore leave is a relative privilege, Phinney adds, with seafarers typically only able to leave the ship for four or five hours every several ports.
“What I find seafarers want are two things,” Phinney says. “They want to get off the boat and then they want to call home … We had one seafarer visiting here in Saint John and our chaplain came up to him and said, ‘Hey, can I get you a cup of coffee? Do you want to use our internet? What do you need?’ And he said, ‘No, I just like this couch because it doesn’t vibrate.’ All he wanted was a quiet, safe place that didn’t sound like a factory.”
Canon Ed Swayze, a chaplain with the Mission to Seafarers and pastor of St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church in Thunder Bay, Ont., says transportation is one of the most important services the mission offers to seafarers.
The port of Thunder Bay is geographically spread out; driving from the north to the south end can take two hours, he said, with a round trip costing $150 by taxi. The local Mission to Seafarers has a 10-person van which it uses to drive seafarers around, from taking them shopping at Walmart or Canadian Tire to sightseeing at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park.
“One Indian seafarer said to me, ‘Without you guys, we couldn’t get ashore,’” Swayze recalls.
“We are safe people,” he adds. Seafarers “know that if they engage us, they’re going to get treated fairly. We’re not going to charge them exorbitant rates and take their money. We also can help them out. They can ask us questions about how to get things or whatnot, and we can help orient them to the city and to the culture. That’s something that all missions provide. They’re safe.”
The yearly distribution of Christmas gift bags to seafarers, with items donated by churches and individuals, is a signature part of the mission. Phinney relates the story of a ship in Hamilton that received gift bags during a chaplain’s visit.
“The chaplain that was doing the visiting said, ‘Look, we’re not sure whether you want these. We understand that you’re not practicing Christians, but we have this program.’ And they said, ‘Oh no, we look forward to the Christmas gifts every year. You are Jesus to us.’
“It was just such an amazing representation of the love that Christ has for the whole world,” Phinney adds. “Again, it’s without discrimination. We serve the needs of the seafarer and try to bring that to the public’s attention.”
Swayze had a similar experience when he and a volunteer visited a Polish ship to distribute the gift bags and a crew member expressed his appreciation: “He said, ‘We know that the value of these gift bags isn’t a lot, but it means so much to us because we know that we are not invisible.’ I think that was such a profound thing to say.”
One of the reasons volunteers help the Mission to Seafarers, Swayze says, is precisely the appreciation and gratitude they receive from seafarers.
“We’re just trying to care for the seafarers … Some other seafarers’ missions are really out to proselytize them and convert them to their faith,” he says. “We’re there to support them, and through that hopefully they’ll see the love of Jesus.”
Global ecumenical gathering set for October
As ongoing trade turmoil impacts seafarers, missions are preparing for an October meeting in Barcelona, Spain of the International Christian Maritime Association—a worldwide ecumenical association of maritime missions that includes the Mission to Seafarers. Approximately 50 member organizations will attend, with the Mission to Seafarers among the largest.
Subsequently, Phinney says, the Mission to Seafarers will begin developing its strategic plan for the next five years. One of its main concerns will be the impact of the current world trade situation. “How will that affect seafarers and what can we do about it?” he asks. “We’re having those conversations now.”
Along with encouraging prayer, volunteering and donations, the Mission to Seafarers facilitates annual Sea Sunday worship services for parishes to honour seafarers. Sea Sunday 2025 will take place on July 13. Free resources for churches to hold Sea Sunday services are available for order at missiontoseafarers.org/sea-sunday.
