Handbook to be Distributed Free of Charge to Mariners Worldwide

The Seaman's Church Institute (SCI) of New York & New Jersey announced that it has just completed publication of The Seafarers' Handbook, the first modern day, comprehensive handbook for mariners and a novel endeavor for SCI, which has long created new ways to enhance the knowledge, safety, and well-being of seafarers worldwide. President of Mobil Shipping & Trasportation Gerhard Kurz said: "The book is truly a seafarer's handbook with very real, basic, and practical information. It offers helpful guidance to all mariners, from the professional to the day sailor. Its usefulness and handiness has also clearly been enhanced by the Seamen's Church Institute and its understanding of mariners worldwide. It's not the type of handbook that will stay on the shelf.

"This project was years in the making," said SCIEXecutive Director Peter Larom, "and now we're going to give these handbooks cost-free to seafarers. We've just begun sending them to worldwide ports. Part of our mission, informally, has always been 'safety at sea'. Now, we feel that we've met that goal in an entirely new way. "Presently in both English and Greek language editions, the handbook is next slated for translation into Spanish. From there, it will be translated into other major languages.

The Seafarer's Handbook provides mariners working on the world's oceans with essential knowledge in a single, convenient source. It is a compendium of information about all aspects of the mariner's job as well as his ship and the ocean he travels, with listing that cover worldwide ports, foreign languages and organizations invaluable to the mariner. It is carefully written for all reading levels and will be informative to seafarers with varying degrees of training. These volumes will be given to seafarers visited by SCI's chaplains in the U.S. as well as SCI-trained chaplains in 25 international ports--including locations from Odessa to Madagascar to Titicorin in Southern India, etc,--as well as other port chaplaincies throughout the world. Funded by Ioanna Vardinoyannis-Fournier and Pyrros Vardinoyannis, well-known for their shipping enterprises in Greece, the handbook also exemplifies an unusual partnership between an industry, the maritime, and a church organization.

The Seafarer's Handbookhas four sections in addition to its extensive listings. The first section, The Seafafer, covers the mariner's legal rights as well as what to do in dangerous situations such as piracy and smuggled cargo. First aid and available chaplaincy services are also enumerated. The second section, Ports of the world, covers available amenities as well as risks the mariner may be exposed to in foreign ports. It also provides useful facts about these ports, such as climate, currency, phone numbers to contact police and ambulance, etc.

The third section, entitled The Sea and Its Regulatons, presents basic explanations of the mechanics of navigation, winds and currents, pollution and vulnerable water bodies worldwide, weather and international regulations as well as measures the mariner may take to protect the environment. The forth section, The Ship, defines terms used to describe the different varieties of vessels and what they accomplish, their internal systems, and safety of operations. The book's appendixes cover everything from knots and nautical miles to shirt sizes, useful phrases in foreign languages, and bibliographies for further reading.

Since its inception in 1834, the Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey has had as its mission the advancement of the professionalism, the dignity, and the personal and spiritual well-being of mariners worldwide. This mission is fulfilled through three seperate SCIdivisions -- the Center for Seafarers' Services, offering recreational facilities as well as ministry and counseling; the center for Seafarers' Rights, the SCIlegal advocacy arm; and the Center for Maritime Education, the nation's leading independent maritime education center.

For a copy please contact Bev Jafek at the Seamen's Church Institute; phone (212) 349-9090 X251; E-Mail; pr@seamenschurch.org.