Don't forget the seafarers and the fishermen

SO that's another year nearly wrapped up. For many, Christmas and New Year offer a respite from the normal work routine. While Singapore may carry on relatively normally, the shipping hubs of London and New York are pretty much closed from Christmas Day to Jan 4.

For those at sea, though, work carries on as usual, and so do the risks. The dangers seafarers face were brought home a week ago by an accident just a few watery miles from Orchard Road, in Indonesian waters close to Batam.

The chemical tanker Stolt Commitment collided with a general cargo ship, the Thorco Cloud, which sank. Six of the general cargo ship's crew were rescued but six are still missing.

Global maritime welfare charity The Mission to Seafarers provided emergency support for the survivors. Its chaplain for Jurong Port said: "I met with the surviving crew and the captain, who are all very distraught. They told me that they had survived by staying afloat with life jackets but they all thought that they were going to die. One crew mentioned that while in the water, he slipped on every attempt to get on to a floating metal cover as he was covered in bunker oil, it was very frightening for him. As they had lost all their personal belongings, I provided them with clothes, a phone so that they could call their anxious families and prayed with them. The Mission to Seafarers in Singapore will do everything in our capacity to support them and will continue to visit them and p…