Grants to individuals rose significantly in the past two years, increased numbers of seafarers accessed mental health and physiotherapy services, and the SeaFit brand  become established and trusted within the fishing community and is now recognised in many fishing ports. We have successfully begun to influence health and wellbeing policy makers and service providers through key insights, and are now seeing the lessons learnt from the Programme translated into planning for future provision. In addition, the Society led on the development of some major mental health and wellbeing initiatives such as the Meta study on Seafarers' Health and Wellbeing.

At the end of April our longstanding Chair, Peter McEwen, who has been at the helm for more than a decade will retire and we welcome Capt. Kuba Szymanski as the new Chair. The InterManager Secretary-General brings over three decades of experience in the maritime sector to this new role, including the production of international shipping industry Key Performance Indicators (KPI). He currently chairs the association’s Human Element Industry Group (HEIG) Enclosed Space Committee.

Much of this has been undertaken in partnership with other marine charities and it is a mark of Peter’s chairmanship that he has robustly promoted cooperative work through the Maritime Charities Group, as well as direct partnership when appropriate. This collaborative approach has been informed by Peter’s distinguished career in the maritime sector. He worked for Nautilus International from 1978 to 2014 and was Deputy General Secretary for many years. As Secretary of the Nautilus Welfare Fund he was responsible for the HUB Project at Mariners’ Park, and as well as serving as Secretary of the JW Slater Memorial Fund he was a founder trustee and Chair of ISAN (now ISWAN). Peter has also been a trustee of Seafarers UK, Mission to Seafarers, the Merchant Navy Welfare Board, the Maritime Educational Foundation and the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund.

Such extensive experience has given Peter the ability to lead effective change and this included updating how the Society is governed. The Society’s original Act of Parliament of 1833 referred to the ‘Members of a Society, commonly called “The Seaman’s Hospital Society”’ and importantly referred to their ‘Successors’ and to ‘better enabling and empowering them to carry on the charitable and useful Designs of the same Society.’ In taking that responsibility to heart Peter updated redundant terms and language and introduced effective principles of good governance. The importance of this was demonstrated, not least, through the need for new forms of working during Covid restrictions.

Peter has supported the Society’s staff and his pride in their work has been shared by the trustees. Peter’s fortitude, insight and humour will be missed, but we will continue to benefit from his dedication and service, and we thank him sincerely for all his care and hard work over these many years.

Sandy Nairne CBE FSA, Deputy Chair, Seafarers Hospital Society

In the 19^th century the most common epidemic diseases were typhus, cholera and smallpox. The Society’s doctors pioneered several scientific techniques to try and limit outbreaks of these diseases, including the collection and recording of data and quarantining infectious patients. They would not have been surprised to hear that almost 200 years later these techniques continue to be powerful weapons in the fight against a new, highly infectious virus.

By the early 20^th century, the Society’s institutions were among the first to introduce open-air wards and the use of sunlight to deal with near epidemic levels of tuberculosis among seafarers. However, before the development of antibiotics, the only treatment for this disease was isolation and waiting for the body’s immune system to fight it off - exactly the same situation the world faced at the beginning of the current pandemic before the development of vaccines and antiviral drugs.

For 200 years the Society has recognised and championed the importance of seafarers and supported them in good times and bad. No one could have predicted that our bicentenary would take place in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, which would not only affect seafarers and their families in a direct way but would also change the way society viewed these key workers. But these troubled times have shown that our commitment to pioneering new approaches to the health and welfare of seafarers is not just something to celebrate in our past but is also what drives us into the future.  

HEALTHY MINDS
27/04/2022
12-12:30PM

Working at sea can be a challenge that affects mental health. Support is important, and we offer a free, confidential service to seafarers who need help with mental health & wellbeing via Togetherall. We also offer mental health & wellbeing advice, support and signposting for fishers through the SeaFit programme.

MANAGING AND COMBATING FATIGUE
24/06/2022
12-12:30PM

Staff on ships and in ports are responsible for safety critical work day and night. This impacts rest time available inevitably leading to fatigue.

In the 200 years the Society has always looked to the future and how best to assist seafarers and their health needs. To start with the Dreadnought hulks on the Thames, then a Hospital ashore in Greenwich (and for time others elsewhere) which became part of the NHS and then moved into St Thomas’s Hospital. In addition, the Society undertook research which led to the founding of the London School of Tropical Medicine and assisted with dealing with earlier pandemics.   The Society also founded SAIL 25 years ago.

In my time as a Trustee and Chair my mantra, which I believe was the same as the founders, has been that if the Society wasn’t moving forward it would go backwards – no standing still!

In the past 20 years plus the Society has kept moving forward in providing enhanced services for seafarers and their families and I’m sure this will continue with the new Chair - Captain Kuba Szymanski.

My thanks to all the Trustees I have served with and to the staff who have provided excellent support.

I will follow the work of the Society with continuing interest and in the knowledge that the current Trustees and the new Chair will ensure that progress will continue for the benefit of seafarers and those who depend on them.

Peter McEwen MBE MNM