Founding organizations and early coordination

The coordination efforts out of which NAMMA emerged began in the 1890s–1930s, but seafarers' welfare charities were already established in the United States and Canada in the mid-19th century. An early example of ecumenical cooperation was the short-lived 'Boston Society for the Religious and Moral Improvement of Seamen', which had leadership from the Boston Marine Society, the Unitarian Rev. Joseph Tuckermann, and the Catholic Bishop Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, but was disbanded shortly after its founding in 1812 when the United States went to war with Britain.^[1] Most organizations were either independent or organized by denomination.

Foundation

The first gatherings in direct historical continuity with NAMMA were the meetings of an unincorporated, ecumenically Protestant ‘National Group of Seamen's Agencies' (NGSA), first in Philadelphia in 1932, alongside the National Conference of Social Work.^[4] In 1938, the NGSA had offices established in New York "for correlating and standardizing the work of seamen's agencies across the country".^[4][8] It was formally incorporated as the 'National Council of Seamens' Agencies' (NCOSA), in 1951.^[4]

Ongoing history

An ICOSA observer attended the 15th World Conference of the Apostleship of the Sea in 1972.^[8]

In 1976, ICOSA was described as a 'very loose organization of about forty-five dues-paying members', and that it was getting funding from United Presbyterian Church and a number of seafarers' welfare organizations to establish a paid secretariat and sponsor education and standardization among its members.^[8]

Advocacy

NAMMA's advocacy in the shipping industry has often taken the form of a Christian Social Gospel, calling for seafarers’ welfare as a moral and economic obligation and treating involvement in seafarers’ welfare as a form of Christian mission.^[9]  It supports seafarers’ access to amenities like shore leave, health care, and internet, supports closer enforcement of existing seafarers’ rights legislation, and promotes collective approaches to seafarers’ welfare in the maritime industry, especially through the creation of seafarers’ welfare boards.

NAMMA is a founding member of the Canadian National Seafarers’ Welfare Board.^[10][11] It was a signatory of the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change.^[12] Through its connections with ICMA and the Center for Mariner Advocacy of the Seamen's Church Institute, it has also been involved as an observer in negotiations surrounding the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.

Coordination

NAMMA is credited with building personal and institutional relationships between seafarers' welfare organizations, which tend in North America to be geographically and theologically distant from each other.^[13] NAMMA's conferences, having been held yearly since the 1900s, are where the majority of conversations and deliberations among its members take place and members are elected to the board of directors.  The conferences’ content centers around comparing approaches and issues in seafarers’ welfare, with regular guest speakers from the US Coast Guard, various chambers of shipping, and the International Transport Workers' Federation.

In its capacity as a professional association, NAMMA has acted as a collective spokesgroup for Christian seafarers' welfare organizations to provide information on their work to the industry and general public,^[14][15] as well as researchers and governments.^[16][17] It has also independently suveyed and reported to seafarers' welfare organizations about trends in their own work.^{[18][19][20][8]} During the pandemic period of COVID-19, NAMMA and ICMA collected information on seafarer vaccinations from port to port, by its members and others, and made that information available to the shipping industry through the International Maritime Organization.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Education and publishing

A large portion of the educational resources used by seafarers' welfare organizations, including outside of North America, are produced through NAMMA.^[25] A yearly training school for seafarers’ chaplains and other welfare workers in Houston is taught and operated by NAMMA.^[26] NAMMA is also involved in the creation of online professional development resources for seafarers’ welfare, with the Merchant Navy Welfare Board in creating an introductory course for ship visitors,^[27] and through its own platform.^[28]

Books and articles written about seafarers’ welfare have also been published through NAMMA. It releases the MARE Report annually featuring articles written by seafarers’ welfare workers, has published books by its members on the history of seafarers’ welfare, and oversees the International Association for the Study of Maritime Mission,^[29] which archives and tracks publications on seafarers’ welfare.