News sources widely reported the sinking of the Swanland in the Irish Sea, at 2am on the 27th November, two crew were rescued, with another one being pulled from the sea dead, five crew are still missing. This ship had worked various coastal ports of Great Britain over the last few years such as Cowes, Ipswich, Sheerness & Teesport. Port chaplains of the Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) have today recounted how over the years they have visited the ship meeting the Russian crew and helped them with whilst in port. Sr Marian Davey (pictured) told how she would visit the ship whilst in Ipswich and give them Russian newspapers and take them to the seafarers’ centre so they could phone or email loved ones back home. Sr Marian said ‘it make ones think of the danger seafarers face, one day you can be visiting them, taking them into town and then hear how their ship had sunk with terrible loss of life.’
AoS Teesport chaplain, Tony McAvoy also shared how one of his team had also visited the Swanland whilst it berthed in Teesport, he recalled he received a good welcome onboard from the Russian crew whilst providing them with local port information and Russian news.’ Tony, who was visiting other ships docked in Teesport today noted that the sinking was very much in the mind of the crews of those other ships he visited.