“Pirates”: Who could blame us if our first thoughts about the subject included children’s stories and fables? Images of plastic eye patches, a skull drawn in black ink with running lines, an untidy everlasting tattoo of a skull and cross bones on the forearm of a friendly villain saying, “Arrrr”... the mere word conjures up images of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, his farcical opponent. It represents Robert Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island, almost a hundred and fifty years old. 

The man that Danie meets on board the ship in Port Elizabeth admits that his calm appearance is but a hair width away from the traumatic nightmare he has survived. It is the first time since then that he had to sail along the same route down the coast of Africa. He thought he would be ready, that his feelings were protected enough to handle it, but the fear and anxiety took hold in the same way as the pirates did then.  

It was only a few months ago that his ship was attacked, not by storybook villains in a fairy tale, but by brutal, armed and frightful men with every intention of killing anyone that stepped out of line. Twelve of his co-workers - his friends, his people, his comrades - were abducted. The silence following the attack was worse than gunfire. When it is raining bullets around you, with bullets hitting walls, sparking as they dance across the deck, only adrenaline keeps you going. It is the silence after this that breaks you. It is loaded with insecurity, it is unbearable and suddenly there are twelve voices gone from the ship... Now, with a new crew, he had to sail the same route again, back into the darkness.

In Coega Danie receives the emergency call. The seaman’s body language tells clearly that something is very wrong - his eyes are clouded, his shoulders heavy. They talk softly, carefully at first, knowing that the trauma he survived left him wounded. His fear covers all. It sits like a nettle, clutching his chest like a burning coal. After all, his former colleagues were only released a short while ago...

But why talk to Danie? How could he share his fears with his new crew? Just imagine if they said he could no longer work, what if they thought he was a coward? Just imagine this, just imagine that... he conjured up a thousand ghosts. With Danie, there is just enough distance, just enough familiarity. The work that we do is known among seafarers and they know they can trust us with anything they say, it remains private and between them.  After a long talk, the seafarer has new courage. It is not because he has been healed suddenly, but because he could share his burden. He sees life continuing, not because the route is safe now, only because he knows that God is always at his side.

That is what the CSO does. We are, because of the Mercy of God, the safe haven for seafarers standing at an abyss that drives them to the edge of dejection. We offer a shelter in the storm. We remind them that they are not alone and not forgotten.  Please consider us for a financial donation to continue this essential work. We do need your financial support.

PS. EFT Christelike Seemansorganisasie. ABSA. Current. 1520-230-226.