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Prayer Requests:
For the repose of the soul of Mr. Thomas McNamara, Uncle & Godfather of Karen Parsons, AOS Galveston/Texas City. Mr. McNamara was a WWII Veteran and a recipient of the Purple Heart. As a former Navy man, he enjoyed listening to stories about Karen's work with Seafarers. Please Karen's Mother and family in prayer.
For Goya Aguilar, restaurant Manager at the Houston Int'l Seafarers' Center. Who has been with the Center for over 25 years. Goya has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. The staff requests prayers from her AOS Family.
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Join AOS USA Today!
To join AOS USA simply click on the following link:
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AOS-USA Annual Conference Coming Soon! Register today!
Dear Friends,
It is hard to believe that the Annual Conference date is already nearing. If you have not yet registered please do so right away so that we can finalize plans.
(Click here for the event link to register online:)
Most importantly, if you have not booked your hotel room, you will want to do so to ensure there is space for you at the conference rate.
HOTEL for Conference
Holiday Inn Express - Downtown Convention Center
1810 Bell Street Houston,TX 77003
PH: 713-652-9400
Fax: 713-652-9401
www.hiexpress.com/houdowntwn/con
Conference hotel rate: $139/night w/out Taxes
Block Code: AOS
Block ID 107486
We have an excellent conference lined up for you and hope to see you there!
All the Best!
Doreen
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AOS Lake Charles Celebrates 50 Years of Service to Seafarers
On Wednesday, April 18 the Lake Charles Seafarers' Center which is owned and operated by the Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, celebrated 50 years of service to the People of the Sea.
Deacon Patrick LaPoint, Director of the Center, and Fr. Rommel Tolentino, AOS Port Chaplain were joined by many people throughout the Diocese and the maritime community.
Bishop John Glenn Provost celebrated a special Mass at the Cathedral to mark the occassion.
Afterwards, attendees went to the Seafarers' Center where Bishop Provost rededicated the Seafarers' Center. A reception followed.
During the event, Bishop Provost read a letter from Cardinal Veglio of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, commending the work of the Seafarers' Center, and the work of Deacon Patrick and Fr. Tolentino.
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Fr. Sinclair Oubre, AOS-USA President, presents the Maritime Samaritan Award to the Lake Charles Seafarers' Center. Deacon Patrick LaPoint accepted the award along with staff members, Mr. Lou Richard and Mr. Joe Soileau. |
Fr. Sinclair Oubre, AOS-USA President, presented the Maritime Samaritan Award to the Lake Charles Seafarers' Center, noting that the Lake Charles Center is one of the most active and viable seafarers centers in the United States.
Sr. Myrna Tordillo, AOS National Director also presented to the Lake Charles Seafarer's Center, a certificate of appreciation and congratulations for 50 years of service to mariners.
AOS-USA congratulates our members, Deacon Patrick LaPoint, Fr. Rommel Tolentino, Mrs. Sandy LaPoint, Mr. Joseph Soileau, and Mr. Lou Richard for the good work they continue to do for the People of the Sea!
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Fr. Rommel Tolentino - Lake Charles Port Chaplain, Fr Sinclair Oubre - AOS-USA President, Bishop John Glenn Provost, Deacon Patrick LaPoint - Director of Lake Charles Seafarers' Center, and Sr Myrna Tordillo - AOS National Director. |
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Princess Cruises to Investigate Why Captain Ignored Distress Call
Courtesy: MATTHEW ROSENBAUM | Good Morning America
Click to view Video:
http://gma.yahoo.com/princess-cruises-investigate-why-captain-ignored-distress-call-233100964--abc-news-topstories.html
Princess Cruises is conducting an internal investigation after the captain of one of its ships reportedly ignored a passenger's report of a distress signal and continued on course, rather than coming to the rescue of a stranded Panamanian fishing vessel.
Two of the fishing boat's three crew members later died of dehydration, one day after the encounter with the cruise ship.
Adrian "Santi" Vasquez, 18, set out on a fishing trip Feb. 24, 2012, with two 16-year-old friends, Oropeces Betancourt and Fernando Osario. The trip turned deadly when the trio discovered that the outboard motor on their small fishing vessel, "The Fifty Cent," would not start, leaving them stranded in the middle of the ocean.
The three Panamanian fishermen drifted at sea for more than two weeks, hungry, hot, and dehydrated, before they spotted the Star Princess cruise ship and started desperately signaling for a rescue.
"It was a really big, white ship. I was waving a red T-shirt, and Fernando was waving a bright orange life jacket over his head,
Vasquez, the crew's sole survivor, said in an interview with panama-guide.com.
"For a minute it looked like they were going to turn to come for us, but then they just went on their way."
Meanwhile, Judy Meredith of Bend, Ore., and Jeff Gilligan of Portland, Ore., were bird watching on the deck of the Star Princess with Jim Dowdall of Dublin, Ireland, when they spotted the Fifty Cent far off the ship's starboard side.
Equipped for bird watching, the group was armed with high-power binoculars, or spotting scopes, and cameras fitted with telephoto lenses, all of which gave them a good view of the fishing boat in the distance.
"I saw a young man in the front of the boat waving his shirt up and down. Big motions, up over his head and down to the floor, waving it vigorously. Frantically I would say," Meredith told "Good Morning America."
"That signal told me that they were in trouble. They were trying everything they could to get our attention."
Meredith said they told someone at a desk they wanted to call the bridge and be sure they checked on the boat. She said the man at the desk made a call, then came back out and looked through their spotting scopes at the boat, then went back inside.
"Nothing happened," she told "GMA." "The ship didn't slow down. It didn't seem to change course. And so I went back in and asked what the captain was going to do. And he said he didn't know."
Not pacified by the encounter, Meredith returned to her room where she wrote down the ship's coordinates and sent an email to U.S Coast Guard in hopes that they would take action.
"The boat appeared to be a disabled fishing boat with one person aboard and nets strung up from the masts," Meredith wrote. "The person was actively waving a shirt or fabric object up and down with both hands. Since we were so many miles off shore and had not seen ANYwatercraft all day, we summoned a representative from the ship and asked him to phone the bridge.
"The rep then came back after calling the bridge of the Star Princess and looked through our scopes himself and could see the man waving something. By this time, he appeared farther away and was now waving a red flag," she continued in the email. "We took this to be a sign of distress. The boat could be disabled and the man adrift. The Star Princess did not turn around or appear to make any active attempt to deal with the information, so we were bothered and decided to send information somewhere ourselves although we realize this is NOT U.S. waters."
The Coast Guard did not find the Fifty Cent however, and the boat floated aimlessly for another two weeks, during which both Bentancourt and Osario died of dehydration.
Vasquez, the sole remaining fisherman, was rescued at sea March 24, 2012, by an Ecuadoran fishing boat.
He was found 650 miles off shore, having thrown the bodies of his two friends overboard.
"It's really frustrating that those young men were at sea two more weeks and two of them died. Two of them died because the ship didn't turn around," Meredith said.
Santa Clarita, Calif.-based Princess Cruises, which is British-American owned, said in an email that it has launched an internal investigation into the matter, writing, "We're aware of the allegations that Star Princess supposedly passed by a boat in distress that was carrying three Panamanian fishermen on March 10, 2012. At this time we cannot verify the facts as reported, and we are currently conducting an internal investigation on the matter."
The consequences could be dire if it is found that the captain, who claims that he believed the fisherman were waving at him as a thank you for avoiding their nets, was acting negligently in ignoring the fishermen's signals.
Regulation 33 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) Chapter V states:
"The master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to provide assistance on receiving a signal from any source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with all speed to their assistance, if possible informing them or the search and rescue service that the ship is doing so. If the ship receiving the distress alert is unable or, in the special circumstances of the case, considers it unreasonable or unnecessary to proceed to their assistance, the master must enter in the log-book the reason for failing to proceed to the assistance of the persons in distress, taking into account the recommendation of the Organization, to inform the appropriate search and rescue service accordingly."
The Fifty Cent was not equipped with a functional radio, making communication between the two vessels, including confirmation that the boat was or was not sending a distress signal, impossible. When the two ships encountered each other, they were roughly 130 miles from the closest land, much farther out than a fishing boat the size of the Fifty Cent would normally go.
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Jones Act Has Been Good for Texas, America
Courtesy: Dean Corgey, Vice President Gulf Coast Region, Seafarers' International Union
A founding father of our union was a mariner, a Norwegian immigrant and labor activist named Andrew Furuseth. He lived in a time, much like today, of social, political and economic upheaval at the end of the Gilded Age of the robber barons and the dawn of the Progressive Era of great reformers such as President Theodore Roosevelt.
At the turn of the 20th century, seamen had few legal rights and suffered abuse unimaginable today, including inhumane conditions, forced labor, beatings and imprisonment. In 1915, Furuseth testified before Congress and spoke these immortal (in our industry) words: "You can put me in jail but you cannot give me narrower quarters than as a seaman I have always had. You cannot give me coarser food than I have always eaten. You cannot make me lonelier than I have always been."
This powerful statement helped give birth to the American maritime labor movement and the eventual passage of the Seamen's Act of 1915 and the Jones Act of 1920. Furuseth is credited as a driving force behind these bills, with the support of Sen. Wesley Jones, R-Wash., Robert M. La Follette, the great progressive Republican senator from Wisconsin, and President Woodrow Wilson. The Seamen's Act established basic working and living conditions for merchant mariners, and the Jones Act implemented a workers' compensation system for seamen similar to the railroads. More importantly, the Jones Act introduced cabotage provisions requiring for the first time that domestic cargo be carried on vessels that are owned, built and crewed by Americans. These laws changed forever American seagoing life and transformed our domestic maritime industry into an innovative, cost-effective and secure transportation system that bolsters our nation's security.
Leaders from both sides of the aisle understood the importance of maintaining a fleet of vessels to provide good jobs and economic security in peacetime and a pool of qualified personnel to man those vessels and defend the homeland in a time of war. The Jones Act always has enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress, the White House and the military and has been instrumental in the massive sealifts of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the humanitarian efforts in Haiti and Japan. In each instance, the U.S. Merchant Marine has never missed a sailing and has performed with distinction and professionalism in the face of sacrifice and peril.
Texas has a proud maritime history and many know that a major factor in the victory of World War II was Texas crude refined in Port Arthur, Houston and Corpus Christi and transported to the European and Pacific theaters on Jones Act tankers crewed by fearless American sailors. Many of these ships were torpedoed and the crews paid the ultimate price. We were able to win by maintaining a steady supply of fuel as the enemy ran out, thanks to the Jones Act.
Texas is America's premier maritime state, with more tonnage moving through our ports than any other - much of it on Jones Act vessels. Our state has benefited from Jones Act-related investments by shipowners, and many thousands of Texans depend on Jones Act-related employment, both at sea and ashore. To his credit, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is an ardent supporter of the Jones Act, as was President George W. Bush.
On the national level, the Jones Act fleet consists of 40,000 vessels engaged in domestic waterborne commerce representing an investment of $30 billion. The industry moves a billion tons of cargo and 100 million passengers yearly, generating $100 billion in annual economic output. This has created 500,000 American jobs with a yearly payroll of $29 billion and $11 billion in taxes per annum. The Jones Act fleet provides reliable service to markets such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, which depend on waterborne commerce for their very existence.
Our domestic fleet is invaluable to our homeland security and border protection; our companies and crews are regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard and by federal law enforcement agencies. Our domestic maritime industry is clearly vital to our national, economic and homeland security.
Unfortunately, we have recently seen a disturbing trend of anti-Jones Act rhetoric based on false information, including calls for blanket waivers and outright repeal. It seemed to begin with the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, continued with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve waivers in 2011 and the politicization of cabotage in Puerto Rico and the current efforts of the American Petroleum Institute to seek waivers to move fuel from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. In each case, the facts do not bear out the claims of those who seek to destroy a law that has served this state and country well.
In this time of economic uncertainty, high unemployment and threats of terrorism, we should be talking about expanding, not chipping away at, the Jones Act. Real opportunities for growth are on the horizon for the domestic maritime industry. Refineries are closing in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, St. Croix and Aruba. Refining capacity is being concentrated in Texas and Louisiana, with Houston being the leader. Domestic crude and natural gas from shale operations and the eventual Keystone Pipeline will produce increased prospects for coastwise movements of refined products and LNG to the East Coast and Caribbean.
Serious consideration is being given to the creation of a "marine highway" network to distribute containers coming from an expanded Panama Canal in a safe, efficient and green manner to coastal destinations. This all equates to good jobs that are sorely needed by young folks graduating from maritime training facilities and veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
For nearly 100 years, labor and management, industry and government, and Democrats and Republicans have respected the vision of Andrew Furuseth that seamen are entitled to basic rights - and among the most basic of rights is the right to a job. As Furuseth liked to say, "Freedom and equality is a flower that grows in strife and amongst danger." We are certainly in strife and amongst danger, so maybe it's time to let the flower we know as the Jones Act grow. That will be good for Texas and good for America!
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Safe Harbor
Louisiana seafarers' centre marks golden jubilee
Courtesy: Lloyd's List
By: Mr. Rajesh Joshi
April 19, 2012
A HOME away from home for seafarers has celebrated its golden jubilee in southwest Louisiana this week.
Lake Charles Seafarers' Centre was founded in 1956 when Bishop Maurice Schexnayder started the venture with almost no assets. Today, it is one of the most active seafarers' centres in the US and its director, Deacon Patrick LaPoint, is one of the best-recognised men in US Gulf maritime circles.
The centre is run by Apostleship of the Sea, the Roman Catholic ministry to mariners, through the Lake Charles Diocese.
In a letter to mark the 50th anniversary, the Vatican-based Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People said: "Since the foundation of AOS, the centres have played an important role in the life of the seafarers, often being a beacon of light in moments of difficulties and a safe port in the midst of turmoil.
"In the maritime environment today with long hours of work, short turnaround of vessels and the many security restrictions on the port, the visit on board of a chaplain or the transport to the centre for a telephone call or a moment of relaxation are essential."
Father Sinclair Oubre, president of AOS USA, presented the centre with the Maritime Samaritan Award as the building was re-dedicated following the 50th anniversary mass.
Last Word wishes the centre another half-century of grace.
Picture caption: Bishop Glen John Provost of the Diocese of Lake Charles and Deacon Patrick LaPoint, Director of the Lake Charles Seafarers' Centre at the 50th anniversary mass and re-dedication ceremony.
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AOS-USA Cruise Ship Priest and Port Chaplain available as Vacation Substitute
A reminder for all Port Chaplains:
Now that vacation time is here, please note:
Father Dick Barclift, a trained & experienced Port Chaplain is willing to sub for you at Port - and at your Parish if needed.
Father is a retired Priest of the Peoria Diocese in Illinois.
You can contact him at the following:
Rev. Dick Barclift
110 19th st. # 205
Rock Island, Il. 61201
309.737.5353
frbe@mchsi.com
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Important Upcoming Events for
AOS USA Members
AOS-USA Annual Meeting
Houston, Texas
May 15-17, 2012
AOS-USA Annual Conference Registration
National Day of Remembrance and Prayer for Mariners and the People of the Sea
2012 Maritime Day Mass
10:00 a.m.
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Crypt Church
400 Michigan Ave. N.E.
Washington, D.C.
For more information: 202-541-3225 or at www.usccb.org/aos
National Maritime Day & National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Mariners
May 22, 2012
XXIII World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea
November 19-23, 2012 @ The Vatican
AOS World Congress Invitation
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