Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Page 209

THE NORWEGIAN SEAMEN’S MISSION
203
1865 missions were started in Leith, Newcastle (Shields), and
Antwerp. Then followed Cardiff (1866), London (1867), Havre
(1872), Amsterdam (1875), Quebec and Pensacola (1876), New
York (1878), Buenos Aires (1887), and Rouen (1892). In the
nineties and following years came the transition from sail to
steam with all the resulting changes. It became necessary for the
Mission to find the permanent centres of the Norwegian shipping
trade. Temporary activities were taken up at Rio, Santos, Savan-
nah, Port Elisabeth, Durban, Cape Town, Shanghai, and Hong
Kong. But the time had not yet come to establish fixed resorts
in these places. Only in Rotterdam (1906), Hamburg (1908),
and Philadelphia (1912) as well as in a number of smaller ports
permanent stations were established. When the Great War came
to an end, a new period of fresh advances set in: Baltimore
(1918), Liverpool (1919), Manchester (1926), Montreal (1929),
Shanghai (1933), and Hong Kong (1937).
In the middle of the twenties regular work was for a time
carried on among the whalers of South Georgia. In later years
the immense development of the Norwegian oil tankers fleet has
determined where the new stations were to be laid. The first was
in Gravesend (1929), in 1937 removed to Stanford-le-Hope. In
1934 work was taken up at Constantza, and in 1939 new stations
have been established at Willemstad on Curagao and likewise
at Santos. Altogether work is now carried on in 27 ports in 12
countries. Australia is the only continent where the Norwegian
Seamen’s Mission has no station.
As above mentioned, the preaching of the Gospel is the prin-
cipal aim of the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission. The teaching is
based on the Bible and the doctrines of the Established Church
of Norway. The main purpose is to work for the Kingdom of
God in foreign ports. About 10 years ago a resolution was passed
to extend the work to Norwegian ports, too, if it could be done
without the work abroad suffering. The Mission has not, how-
ever, availed itself of this decision, partly because local societies
have worked in a deserving way for the seamen who come to
their ports, and partly because the tasks abroad have been so
many and great that the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission has had
plenty to do to keep up with the rapid development of the mer-
chant marine.
In the days of the white sails the vessels stayed long in port,
and it was therefore comparatively easy to gather the seamen to