IJCE have a long history of supporting our seafaring community, which initially started as a project to promote water safety for people who work at sea. To this end, we offered adult swim lessons and swimming lessons for dependents of seafarers for free. Children of seafarers tend to follow the careers of their parents so teaching them to swim while still young has proven to be an effective way to increase safety and survival at sea in the long term.

With the help of external funders, we expanded this project and it now includes:

•  Free access for retired seafarers to our Aquacare programme to help with disabilities and long term health conditions.
•  Free access for retired seafarers to our lunch club to help with social isolation and financial difficulties.
• Signposting and collaborative working with Citizens Advice Bureau, Ali Energy, Carr Gomm and ACHA to help with financial planning, community housing and benefits advice.
• Children of seafarers now have free access to our Rookies and Lifeguard clubs to learn more about water safety and rescue techniques and start training towards youth employment.
• Access to seafarer specific funded training. In the last few years we have run sea survival, RYA Marine Radio qualifications and Outdoor First Aid.

Case Study 1

This seafarer worked as a deck hand on the Pibroch for a number of years. He started this career in 1963. He was born and grew up on a farm on Islay. He didn’t like the thought of working on the farm for the rest of his life so going to sea was a quick way of getting away! Throughout my talks with him he remembers vividly the trips the boat took, in particular travelling around the Mull of Kintyre at night. This stretch of water was always rough and many new deckhands lost their dinners when sailing that stretch. He also recalls bad weather, including sleet battering him from the side when working the boat. He also remembers the captain of the time, Captain John Ross, who must have made quite the impression to be remembered almost 50 years later!

The Pibroch was apparently quite a famous vessel, though this is much before my time. She was called a “puffer”, which I think relates to the class of boat as it had a diesel engine. It was owned by White Horse Distillers who used the boat to transport the ingredients needed for whiskey production on the island, as well as moving whiskey to the mainland. The journey would start at Kingston Docks and go to Caol Ila where it would deliver grain and pick up barrels. It would then move to Port Ellen and do the same. Once all loaded (she could carry around 200 tonnes) she would go to Campbelltown to be discharged and then make her way back to Kingston. The whole journey would take around a week. She ended her days in Ireland.

In later life, he stopped seafaring and started a business selling coal on the island. By 1970 he was actually chartering the Pibroch himself to bring coal to the island when normal methods had failed. He is now retired and came to us originally as a referral to our Aquacare programme to rehabilitate a dislocated shoulder in the early 80s. He has been a weekly attendee of the session ever since. He also attends the 50+ session on a Thursday and does state that both sessions have become part of his weekly routine as he finds it helps him to get out of the house, socialize, keep fit and reduce chronic pain.

Case Study 2

Seafarer B has been a seafarer for most of his adult life, as he owns charter boats for sport fishing. He is also the owner of the Jura Passenger Ferry, running foot passengers between Jura and the mainland. This he has ran for 15 years. He was one of the first people to run a passenger service from Scotland to Ireland and was instrumental in setting up what was needed for building the harbor at Ballycastle. He started using both Aquacare and 50+ sessions through advice from his GP. He recently injured a knee on a trip to Ballycastle, so much so that he could not move his legs. He says that the warm pool temperature during Aquacare and 50+ (we heat the pool up for these sessions) is really helping and he can already (after a few weeks) feel a huge difference in range of movement and pain reduction. We started to see him in the pool every day as this was one of the few places that reduced the pain. His colleagues even began to joke that he was in the pool more than some of the leisure centre staff! We have since moved into the gym where we have been focusing on cardiovascular exercise to aid in weight loss and to keep the knee mobile, as well as resistance work to strengthen the muscles around the knee. Since coming to us, he has gone from being unable to walk without crutches to walking short distances unaided, which is a huge improvement in such a short space of time. The Summer is his busiest period so he has been working on his boats for the last few months. This has only really been possible due to the rehabilitation work put in over the Winter.