A Report to the United States Coast Guard:

Regarding Chaplain Access to Ships

Seafarer Access to Shore Leave
Industry Concerns for Crew Mobility

In a recent survey of maritime ministries and industry sources throughout the country by the
North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA), we have received reports from the
following ports concerning access issues for chaplains and seafarers. The issues breakdown into
the following areas:

• Chaplains being denied access by terminal policy.

• Chaplains effectively being denied access because of terminal demands for fees.
• Seafarers being denied access to shore leave or change over by terminal policy.
• Seafarers effectively being denied access to shore leave because of fees.

In a number of ports, chaplains have been able to make changes with the help of the USCG. In
the ones listed below, local port chaplains have not been able to affect change because of the
inflexibility of the terminals and/or lack of support from the local USCG COTP. For the
maritime industry, there is a continuing frustration with terminal regulations that inhibit shore
leave and crew change over processes.

NAMMA and the shipping industry are very concerned about these outstanding problems
because they affect both security and safety aboard ship and at the terminal. This report only
gives a brief overview of a much larger problem with our terminals around the country regarding
access issues. It calls for a more forthright and proactive policy locally and nationally to insure
the rights and needs of mariners, chaplains and industry partners.

Respectfully submitted by:

The Rev. James D. Von Dreele

Vice President, NAMMA

Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia & South Jersey

475 North 5th Ave.
Philadelphia, PA

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 Port Reports
Port of Boston:

Polerized Scrap Terminal. They have a blanket restriction preventing ANY seafarers to leave the
ship, supposedly due to insurance requirements.

Port of Providence:

I am the Rev. Ashley H. Peckham, Port Chaplain for New England Seafarers Mission at
Providence, RI. My work takes me around Rhode Island and some parts of Massachusetts.
I am writing to you about a problem I have at the Exxon Mobile terminal in East
Providence, RI.
I started as Port Chaplain in October of 1998. I visited the ship at Exxon Mobile. In
January of 2003 I was told by the new Terminal Superintendent, Greg DeMarco that a change
was going to take place.
In May of 2003 I received a letter with instructions from him. In brief the letter said…

• “All contact with ship’s personnel shall occur outside of the fence to our dock either at
or immediately adjacent to the guard shack.”
• “Once you arrive and set-up, the guard will call the Assistant Operator on duty who will
contact the ship to let them know you are available to receive visitors. The ship berth is
only a short distance from the guard shack.”
• “Please limit your service to providing basic supplies free of charge and phone cards at
cost.”
• “At this point I am not comfortable with you transporting ships crew to or from the
vessel. As such no one will be allowed to leave with you.”

These directives are in affect to the present time.

There is a new superintendent by the name of Stan Olsen. He is a fine fellow.
Some of the security people and dock workers know me well. They are helpful. They do
not agree with the present policy.
Often the agent for the ships will call me. He wants me to go to the guard booth to offer
phone cards. When I arrive the guard must call the dock worker, who has to call the ship.
Usually a seafarer comes to the guard booth. But not yesterday, February 14, 2008. Calls were
made. There was no show. I waited two hours and left.
The agent had called me a day before arrival. The Indian crew needed phone cards. I
find the present situation frustrating.
Often I see a ship at Exxon Mobile. I call the security person to see if phone cards are
needed. Often the guard does not know.
At Christmas time I deliver Christmas gifts and hope a seafarer will pick them up. The
crew is busy, they don’t have the time to walk 1,000 feet to the guard booth.
What bothers me the most is that the crews are not getting the respect and service they desire.
Their jobs are difficult, they are away from home for long periods, and need to call loved ones.
Sometimes they can’t call. No phone cards.

**********
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A confirming report from another chaplain: The only Terminal where our Chaplains of New
England Seafarers Mission are being denied access is the Exxon Terminal in East Providence,
RI. Our chaplain is granted access to a dockside building, where he can meet seafarers from the
ship, but he is not allowed on the vessel and the seafarers are not allowed to access the terminal
property past that point. Although the terminal personnel are cordial, they claim that it is an
Exxon policy. The Exxon terminal in Everett MA has no such restriction.

Ports of Connecticut

I am the port chaplain for Seafarers and International House in Connecticut. I have been denied
access to all tanker terminals in Bridgeport, New Haven and Groton, CT unless I pay
approximately $160 to be escorted to and from the ship. The seafarers are also not allowed to
come ashore unless they also pay approximately $160 to be escorted outside the terminals and
then back in again. A company called Port Security is responsible for this transport.

These terminals are: Magellan; Motiva; Gulf; Getty and Hess

The majority of the ships that arrive in CT ports are tankers. This denies us access to all these
seafarers because most ships will not pay the $160 to come ashore.

Port of New York/Newark:

The following terminals do not allow seafarers (who have been cleared by Immigration) to go
ashore -- All charge $400 one-way to the gate, per person.

KMI, Carteret, New Jersey

OBT KMI, Seawaren, New Jersey
Motiva I and Motiva II, Seawaren,
New Jersey Chevron, Seawaren,
New Jersey Linden New Star, Linden, New Jersey

***************
The only terminal where I have had problems getting in to visit ships is Maher Fleet Street
Terminal in Port Newark, NJ. I have been told at the gate and by the terminal manager that I
must be on the approved list of visitors that the ship sends to the terminal before it arrives. (I
know that this procedure is not necessary for chaplains.) I often do not bother to drive to Maher
Fleet Street to visit a ship, since I assume that I will not be admitted.

Ports of the Delaware River:

There are no restrictions on shore leave or charges for transportation. One terminal does not
allow ship visitors to board its ships because they must cross a barge to board the ship. Seafarers
are permitted shore leave. We are concerned that with the implementation of TWIC many of our
terminals that allow seafarers to walk to and from the ships will be restricted. Some 40% of our
terminals now allow for this unescorted access. The Port of Wilmington faces the greatest
challenge as its Seafarer Center is within the Port’s security zone. TWIC will put a heavy burden
on their operations.

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 Port of Baltimore:

State (MPA) terminals: we are generally getting in and out easily with our MPA Id’s.
Comments:

1. North Locust Point 10, operated by Westway (tankers)—Some (guards, some agents) have
told us that we (the Balt Internat Seafarers’ Center) are the only ones who can take them out, and
if we do, we must return them all the way to the vessel—they can’t have a cab drop them at the
gate as is still allowed in some terminals prior to full TWIC implementation. If they go out with
anyone else, we’re told, they must pay an exorbitant escort fee (I’ve heard different amounts
from agents and seafarers). I haven’t heard of anyone actually ever paying that fee—they just
stay on the vessel.
I tried just now to follow up further. Westway told me the agents can make alternative
arrangements and should not charge escort fees. T. Parker Host told me the only company which
can transport from NLP 10 besides us is Vessel Operations. Vessel Ops has not returned my call.

2. The largest by far state terminal, Dundalk Marine Terminal, is often difficult (slow) for
seafarers to exit. (This includes the container terminal, Seagirt, which is like an annex to DMT;
they share the same main gate.) Supposedly agents fax crew lists to the port police, who deliver
them as time allows to the main gate guard booth. The booth is much too small for the
paperwork required in today’s security environment. Guards fumble through 40 pages in no
obvious order on a clipboard, then look around the office, then tell us the agent never sent the
list—even when crew from the same vessel has been out earlier that day! They have trouble with
foreign names; one guard complained that “Mr. Beijing” wasn’t on the list, not having figured
out that this referred to a city not a person. Ten-minute waits are normal, and 25 minutes is not
unheard of, which is very hard on a crew with only 3 hours’ leave; delays can also be long on re-
entry. The majority of guards seem to expect us to bring crew lists ourselves (which is explicitly
NOT the official policy), and we try to do this when we’re setting up transport in advance as
opposed to picking up crew who run down the gangway when they see our van.

Other terminals

Apex--tankers—we have no history of going and generally hadn’t tried, but got a call from a
vessel (agent? crew? I don’t’ have time to track this down) requesting a visit last summer.
Norton Lilly assured us we were on the visitor list, but the terminal would not allow this. This
(we can’t visit) was confirmed after numerous follow-up calls by our part-time office assistant
who is well connected in the port.

Hess (tankers), Amstar=Domino Sugar, CNX—we need to get on the gate list, but this is easily
worked out through the agent. I think Hess has the same rule that whoever takes them out must
take them all the way back. We’ve been there only a few times.

Atlantic (private) has their own hangtag, which is not too hard to acquire (just takes half an
hour). Sometimes the paperwork for crew exiting takes up to 25 min.

Rukert—private—has their own neck tags and hangtags, which we have acquired. Sometimes
when we return crew at night, the gate is locked. We have to call Security on their cell phones,
and they can take 5 min. to appear, more if they are busy at another of Rukert’s 3 piers.

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At many public and private terminals, seafarers are used to walking to the gate and asking guards
to call taxis or us. Obviously this will all change with TWIC. I went to a private terminal meeting
late summer or early fall. One or two folks said they would run occasional shuttles around their
terminals. Others didn’t have plans.

Port of Georgetown, SC:

State Ports Authority: The price of port entry is $20 per person, $20 for van. This is per year. The
new TWIC cards will be $130. This is a lot for a small group like ours.

Ports of the Gulf Coast & Mississippi River:

There have been improvements recently in Port Arthur and Port Houston regarding access issues.
However, American merchant mariners and shipping companies report problems at
petrochemical terminals about shore leave and crew change out procedures. Terminals have
refused to allow them, forcing ships to off load crews by launch or at other terminals.

Port of San Diego:

Report I: The only problem we have currently is with the Cruise Ship Terminal in San Diego,
and I’m not sure of the details. I will ask our director, Deacon Sam Martinez, to respond to you
directly on that. We are, however, concerned that we will have major problems at the other two
terminals, Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal (bulkers) and National City Marine Terminal (RoRos)
when the TWIC is implemented sometime this month. The crews have been able to just walk
across the terminals to the gate at NCMT or to the Center at TAMT and get a cab or a trolley at
any time of the day or night. We’re waiting to see what the security folks want to do,
specifically. The Captain of the Port does not seem to be interested in having me on their
security advisory committee despite several requests.

Report II: I used to celebrate Catholic Mass aboard the Monarch, Royal Caribbean Lines, for
the Catholic crewmembers every Tuesday when the ship came in. A new hotel manager sent me
an e-mail saying that he had decided that there would no longer be any religious services aboard.
I thought it would be best to try to get on again when there will be a different hotel manager and
a different agent because the present one isn't friendly. We were informed a couple of weeks ago
that we now have to pay monthly rent of $750. The center has been operating for 9 years now
and there was never any mention of rent. The Board of Commissioners made this decision.
Otherwise everything has been going well. I work with Fr. Bob Crafts. We have a deacon and 25
volunteers.

Port of Oakland, CA:

The access issue we have is with Plains All American Pipeline in Martinez, CA. They want to
charge $1,500 to be accompanied to the dock. Same goes for seafarers, including American
seafarers. The American Companies will pay this most of the time, but the foreign vessels will
not. I haven't tried to get in during the last year, but I don't think things have changed. I guess
the oil companies aren't making enough money to provide some kind of service.
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 Report from Industry Representatives:
Exxon Baytown and Beaumont will not allow any spares across the dock and no barges/launches
alongside. Exxon T/C ships get special permission for all sorts of exceptions but v/c ships held
to much higher standard.

Sun Nederland (Beaumont) crew changes/stores only before or after cargo ops. This is
sometimes difficult in planning a crew change but we usually work around this. All stores, on
signers, off signers and their luggage must go by launch.

Unocal, Beaumont, is just about impossible to do anything there but fortunately we don't call
there very often. I'll check their regulations later today but believe that they are very strict as to
what can and can't be done.

Each terminal has some sort of onerous regulations - Texas City on signers/off signers luggage
must come via launch - but we can work around them. Texas City does make it more costly for
owners, however. I don't think we'll ever be able to go back to the days of pulling an 18 wheeler
up to the gangway and taking quarterly stores.

We have a very active Port Chaplaincy in this area and I have never heard of any problems
whatsoever with these fine people having difficulties with ship access.

Peter J. Swift
General Manager
Maritime Industry Foundation

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