At our Information and Yen sale desk seafarers can exchange money, buy phone cards, get tourist and shopping information for Yokohama, send money to family, and receive any other assistance they may need while ashore.
Services provided are Tourist Information, Crises Counseling, Currency Exchange, Shopping Assistance, Library, International Telephone Cards and phone booths, Gift Shop, Restaurant, Bar, Shuttle Service to Ship, Tennis, Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball Court Available. Free Billiards, Ping Pong, and Darts.
Seamen Service Hours are 9:00am to 11:00pm Monday through Saturday, Sunday 11:30am-9:30pm or as needed.
Ship Visiting and Library Services. USS staff visits ships in port with information on local attractions, customs and culture and other required assistance. Fresh reading material, supplied by the USS affiliated American Merchant Marine Library Association, are brought to restock the ship's library. The center also keeps a fully stocked library for the seafarers.
Make yourself at home, pick up a book or one of our many seafarer magazines.
Worldwide Services.
In time of trouble, the families of US merchant mariners can locate their loved ones at sea through USS's 24-hour emergency hotline, 212-775-l033. USS responds to queries from the world over and
cooperates with other seafarers' agencies to resolve family problems aggravated by the marine's absence from home.
The long victimization of seafarers on the waterfronts of the world led to the first efforts to provide special programs in recognition of the unique character of the industry and its toll on seafarers. The inadequacy of international programs led to the First International Conference on Seamen's Welfare, convened in Genoa in 1920. Subsequent conferences finally culminated in Geneva in 1936 in the adoption by all major maritime nations of the Seamen's-Welfare-ln-Forts Recommendations. The preamble reads:
"By the nature of their calling seamen are frequently deprived for long periods of the advantages of family life, and may be exposed while in ports, particularly in foreign countries, to special dangers and difficulties, and....It is not always possible for them to have the benefit of arrangements made to organize spare time, promote the welfare and safeguard the health of the general body of the workers...."Today's deepening rivalries and the world population explosion underscore the growing role of seaports as areas of economic, cultural and ideological conflict. Prolonged isolation from home communities, families and friends, long periods of confinement aboard ship, and brief liberty in foreign ports make seafarers vulnerable to unscrupulous elements preying on waterfronts. For these reasons, the World Health Organization reported that "health and port authorities have gradually come to recognize welfare work for seafarers as an important contributing factor towards 'cleaning up' the waterfront." Studies reveal that seafarers have a higher rate of accidents and illness than shoreside workers; that loneliness on board aggravates mental and physical strain.
USS programs offer relief from tensions and stress, thereby aiding in preventing breakdowns. Our facilities are geared to the quick turnaround time of modern container ships, and center staff will coordinate on-shore programs with shipboard leisure time activities.
For seafarers from developing nations -- a growing population -- USS plays an even more vital role. With lower pay and less representation than their European and American counterparts, these seafarers must rely on USS for services and assistance that would not be available to them otherwise.
International Labour Office Non-Governmental Organizations
National Assembly of National Volunteer Health and Social Welfare Organizations
International Committee on Seafarers' Welfare
International Service Agencies
Combined Federal Campaign
(CFC Donor Number 0366)
Yokohama Seamen’s Welfare Association