You're listening to the BBC World Service. I'm Mark Dowd and this is a program about the global network of chaplains working on ports such as this one in Antwerp,

Belgium, people whose job it is to improve the lives of seafarers on merchant ships.

There's currently over one.5 million seafarers

transporting goods around the world. It's a tough life. Crew members can be employed

for up to nine months at a time on any one vessel.

The works hard and often you're thousands of miles from home and your loved ones.

By running seafarer centres and visiting ships, these chaplains play a crucial role in providing not only spiritual guidance, but also practical help.

From Sim cards and free Wi-Fi to food, money and yes even legal aid. This is Chaplains of the

sea on the BBC World Service. Over the next hour we'll be meeting Chaplinains male and female from Japan, the United States, South Africa, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

2016 was a terrible year financially for the shipping industry.

I'll be talking to the crew of an Indian ship

docked in Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, which was detained by the UK authorities with the unpaid crew

left stranded abroad. But first, we're going to accompany an Anglican chaplain here in Antwerp

as he begins his morning rounds visiting the newly arrived container ships.

So I'm sitting in the back of a shiny white vehicle. My driver, a companion here is Father Brian Milton. What's the plan for today, Brian?

We'll be starting off with the Myst, Missouri, which is an American ship,

and then we'll be going on to the MSC Sero, which has an Indian crew.

How many different vessels could you board on a specially busy day?

Ate. Eight.

Turn right, R2. Then keep left.

So the officers and lower ranking members of the vessels who I understand are called

ratings.

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