DATE: Saturday, June 14, 1997               TAG: 9706140275

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

SEAMEN'S HOUSE NEEDS HELPING HAND TO CONTINUE LENDING ONE

For more than 28 years the staff and volunteers at the International Seamen's House in Norfolk have helped and ministered to visiting merchant mariners.

Now the Seaman's Friend Society, which runs the house, has itself fallen on difficult times.

The Seamen's House has lost its only full-time chaplain. The budget has been cut because of declining contributions and revenue from its phones, which have been used by thousands of sailors to call home, wherever it is in the world. Its cash reserves are near zero, according to a recently mailed fund-raising appeal.

``The problem we have is that we have our backs up against the wall,'' said Frank L. Sawyer, the society's president and a senior vice president at NationsBank. ``We need some breathing room, so that we have the time to reorganize and get a good fund-raising plan together.''

The house has historically been supported more by local churches and individuals than by the maritime community, Sawyer said.

``Like everybody else, we've seen a decline in contributions,'' said Charlotte Smith, the executive director.

The house's chaplains and volunteers boarded more than 2,000 ships last year, ministering, delivering magazines, offering rides to the mall and even intervening to help resolve disputes between crew members and a ship's officers or the shipping line. More than 4,120 mariners visited the house for services in 1996.

``They serve a vital need,'' said Joseph A. Dorto, chief executive and general manager of Virginia International Terminals Inc., which runs the state-owned docks. ``Unfortunately they don't get near the credit or the support from the private sector that they should.''

The house is taking steps to improve its fund-raising, Sawyer said. The society is rejiggering the board of directors, bringing in younger people who have expressed an interest and have connections in the business community, he said. The society has also approached several charitable foundations for financial support.

The house's recent fund-raising appeal was amplified by the Hampton Roads Maritime Association in an alert to its members.

``The International Seamen's House is essential to the well-being of crew members and provides them with a home away from home,'' said Jeff Keever, executive vice president of the Hampton Roads Maritime Association.

The house, located on Olney Road near Lambert's Point Docks, offers a game room, library, television room, kitchen and a chapel.

``They feel safe here,'' the grandmotherly Smith said. ``Everything is free except the phone calls.''

``So many people think they want wine, women and song, but that's not true,'' she said. ``These are very much family people.''

While the cruise ship Carnival Fascination was at Norshipco for more than a week's work last month, the house hosted 70 to 100 seamen a night.

The house's senior chaplain, the Rev. Clifford Olsen, who has been a fixture on Hampton Roads' docks for 27 years, retired in May and won't be replaced, Smith said.

That cuts the staff of the Seamen's House down to her, an assistant and two part-time chaplains, one Episcopal and one Mennonite. The Catholic Diocese of Richmond pays for the salary, office and a van for an affiliated priest.

The Seaman's Friend Society has cut the budget for the upcoming year starting July 1 to $80,000 from more than $100,000.

That's not much to support the house, an office and lounge at Norfolk International Terminals, the staff and two vehicles.

``It's something we need to maintain,'' said T. Parker Host Jr., chairman of the shipping agency T. Parker Host Inc. ``It provides a helping hand to all seamen who come into the port. Some of them need it and some don't, but the hand is always there.''

The tax-deductible organization receives no support from the United Way or from federal, state or local governments.

Besides money, the house is trying to beef up its volunteer staff by recruiting through churches and is also seeking donations of magazines, puzzles, games, religious material, paper and books, especially foreign language books and particularly books in Spanish, Smith said.

``These men bring in the things we need, the goods that we and business use every day,'' she said. ``We owe them a great deal of gratitude.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

J. Harold Buckwalter boards the Docenave, a coal ship headed for

South America, with gifts of magazines from the Norfolk Seaman's

Friend Society.

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