It’s a common sight out on the Bay, but one that never gets old: massive ships from faraway places, motoring by at a brisk pace. You strain to read their names, giving them a wide berth, their powerful wake taking several minutes to reach your boat.
These supersized ships calling on the Port of Baltimore cross oceans to get here. The largest among them can be 1,200 feet—more than four football fields long. Most of the general public who watch the commercial ships go by don’t know much about the individual people working on them.
These mariners are far from home and often spend several months at sea at a time. Many come from developing nations in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. How long has it been since they last saw their families? Have they been able to set foot on dry land at any of their port stops? Will they get any downtime at all during their stay at the port?
A small organization on the Baltimore waterfront has dedicated itself to addressing these exact concerns. The Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, incorporated in the early 1990s by an Episcopal deacon, exists solely to care for the needs of foreign mariners who arrive to the Port on ships—no matter how short or long their stay.
Today the Center is run by Rev. Josh Messick, an Episcopal priest and Eastern Shore native. Messick is in his fourth year as executive director, which he calls his dream job. He also serves as chaplain for the Port of Baltimore, spreading goodwill and comfort to the sailors and the port community at large.
We recently visited the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, quietly tucked away just outside the gates of Fort McHenry near the busy McAllister Towing tugboat operation. The Seafarers’ Center serves as a refuge for mariners and maintains a fleet of four vans which ferry them on excursions to shop for supplies, mail care packages home, or just to see the sights at the Inner Harbor.
On the rainy day we visited, Messick ferried us instead—on a driving tour of the Port’s two public terminals, the Seagirt and Dundalk marine terminals. When we arrived, several ships were at port: the vehicle carrier Capricornus Leader, general cargo ship Thamesborg, APL container ship Le Havre, and Wallenius Wilhelmson’s roll-on/roll-off ship Tamesis. Messick knew all of them and had been aboard several on previous visits. The goal of the Seafarers’ Center is to visit every ship at the Port of Baltimore, but Messick, his staff of two, and a handful of volunteers aren’t able to reach them all. They manage to serve an impressive 100 ships per month, on average.
Upon a ship’s arrival at port, Messick and his team come aboard to welcome its crew and offer support to all seafarers, from the captain down to the lowest-ranking crew members. Boarding a container ship isn’t for the faint of heart; the ship visitors must climb a steep gangway to reach the decks.
Once on board, Messick advocates for seafarers on a humanitarian level first, checking to make sure they are being paid properly, are receiving required provisions like fresh produce, and their other needs are met. If he finds violations in the seafarers’ treatment, Messick alerts the Coast Guard.
More often, though, Messick describes his role as “doing anything that makes seafarers’ lives easier.” He, his staff, and volunteers drive the mariners to places like Walmart or the mall, where they shop for themselves and their families. The Seafarers’ Center accepts packages for the crew members arriving in Baltimore and helps them mail out packages as well.
The crews they serve come from a broad range of nations, with an estimated 60-70% being Filipino. Very few are women, though Messick notes that most of the women he does see are Filipino officers. Other seafarers are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Ukranian and Russian (sometimes serving on the same ship even as their countries are at war), and others.
With the rise of automation and cost-cutting measures on ships, crews are far smaller than they used to be. Many of the ships are being operated by 24 people or less. At the same time, port operations have gotten faster. Seafarers and port workers are both under intense pressure to work quickly and get the ships back underway. “A ship at port is not making money,” Messick points out. Some calls at the Port of Baltimore are just 14 hours long. Others can be up to two or three days, but even when there is time to go ashore, seafarers are not guaranteed to be granted a shore pass by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Amid that uncertainty, the Seafarers’ Center can be a lifeline for mariners stuck on board.
At no time has the International Seafarers’ Center been more important than it has this past year, in the aftermath of the ship strike that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Eight ships, whose crews expected to be in Baltimore for a day or two at most, were trapped at port when the bridge collapsed. That left 135 seafarers seeking the center’s support in uncertain circumstances. A Thai crew, docked at Hawkins Point, were so close that they actually felt the impact of the M/V Dali striking the bridge on March 26, 2024. Thankfully, the Unified Command partnership managed to clear the channel of wreckage efficiently in just under two and a half months, and most mariners were able to get on their way.
It has been a very different story for the crew of the Dali. The entire 22-person crew was held in Baltimore after the crash. The FBI confiscated all of their cell phones and other devices and never returned them, leaving the Indian seafarers with no way to contact their families. Messick recalls that one man, who had a daughter in college, was unable to access his banking information to pay her tuition. The Seafarers’ Center was able to secure $300 in funding for each mariner to buy a cell phone.
A year and two months after the Key Bridge disaster, a dozen Dali crew members are still being held indefinitely in Baltimore. They are living in an extended-stay hotel not far from the Seafarers’ Center, waiting as potential witnesses as the Department of Justice brings its case against the Dali’s owners. Messick is in touch with the seafarers nearly every day and the Seafarers’ Center continues to support their needs. This week, for example, he drove the men to an Indian grocery store in Baltimore County for foods that remind them of home.
Some of the crew had already been on the Dali for eight months before the crash detained them, so it has now been close to two years since they have been able to see their loved ones. Messick tells us candidly, “I’m really worried about the crew right now. They’ve been here so long… they’re getting despondent.”
Messick is well-equipped to support the seafarers’ mental health, thankfully. He is a certified safeTALK trainer, meaning he educates people on how to respond to a person thinking of suicide and connect them with further resources. Messick is the only person in North America qualified to give safeTALK training specific to the mariner community, and he travels around the world equipping people to help any mariners they interact with who have suicidal thoughts.
Sadly, Messick shares, it’s not an uncommon problem on commercial ships. Because Maryland ship’s pilots board foreign ships to help guide them up the Bay, the pilots are often the first to interact with a crew coming into Baltimore. Messick says it’s important that they know what to look for.
When we ask Messick whether these efforts fall under the Seafarers’ Center or his own advocacy mission, he struggles to make a separation. His efforts are fueled by a singular drive to help.
“Ninety percent of the stuff Americans buy comes in on ships,” he says, “and we notice when they don’t [come in on time].” Product shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic underscored our reliance on goods from overseas. “These seafarers are unseen but they are doing so much for us. It’s a privilege to serve them.”
The Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center is self-funded, aside from some grants and a nearly-free building lease from the Maryland Port Administration. The nonprofit has goals like replacing its aging van fleet and expanding to reach even more ships’ crews, possibly even the cruise ship employees who visit Cruise Maryland with crews of 400-500 people. To learn more about the Seafarers’ Center and support its mission, visit baltseafarers.org. Messick welcomes volunteers for ship visits, and is happy to take members of the public on tours of the port.
