Like a friend welcoming his buddies home after a long voyage at sea, Jasper DelCarlino greets the crew members of virtually every working ship that arrives in the port of Portland.
With his beaming smile, DelCarlino boards the steady flow of cargo ships and oil tankers, giving seafarers snack bags or packages they have ordered through him online. He’ll offer rides to where they might want to go, or simply a comfortable place where they can sit back and relax.
DelCarlino is a port chaplain for Seafarer’s Friend, a nonprofit organization that offers international mariners a welcome break from the grind of global shipping. The seafarers come from the Philippines, India, Africa, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia, and other faraway places.
The organization has been around since 1827, when it was founded as The Boston Seaman’s Friends Society in a small church in Boston’s North End. It officially adopted its new name in 1998 and opened the Portland center on Commercial Street two summers ago.
The center has free Wi-Fi, a comfortable couch, a library, music, a conference table, and even a ping-pong table in the basement. Across the street from the Portland Fish Pier, it operates quietly in a smart brick building with plate-glass windows near some swanky shops and upscale restaurants and hotels.
Two sailors are visiting the center on a late spring morning after completing a nine-day journey from Reykjavik, Iceland, to Portland aboard the EF Ava container cargo ship. After spending the night aboard the ship in Portland, they will continue on to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the following day before crossing the Atlantic back to Iceland. The typical round trip takes 22 or 23 days, said Indika Siriwardhana, who is from Sri Lanka, an island nation south of India—nearly 8,500 miles from Portland.
Siriwardhana, who is 51 and has been working at sea for 15 years, said having the Seafarer’s Friend center in port offers a welcome break from working in the engine room on board the ship. “It’s a nice place to relax, and just enjoy our time off,” said Siriwardhana while seated with DelCarlino and Eyasa Asmara, who is from Ethiopia and works on the same vessel.
Before becoming a port chaplain, DelCarlino worked on tugboats and NOAA research vessels until late 2024. That’s when he decided to get in on the spiritual side of seamanship. His arms and hands are covered with nautical-themed tattoos, like anchors, a lighthouse, ship wheels, and a propeller.
He and Marriah Tronvig run the Seafarer’s Friend center in Portland. She is the manager and also a chaplain.
DelCarlino personally visits every oil tanker and ship carrying container or bulk cargo that arrives in port. Oil tanker crew members are primarily from Canada, he said, while container cargo ships have largely Filipino crews, with some from India and Eastern Europe. The bulk cargo ships, which carry things like salt, asphalt, and gypsum, have Indian crew members.
DelCarlino doesn’t board cruise ships—they’re too large and too busy when they arrive—but does stand outside and greet crew members as they depart the ship, inviting them to the center a few blocks away. Those crews are primarily from the Philippines, he said, and often stop by the center for some downtime.
At any given moment, the center might be filled with the sounds of mariners making video calls home, laughing, conversing, playing music, and picking up or dropping off packages.
Many have been at sea for months at a time, working long shifts far from home. When they call on Portland, time is short and the center can be a crucial stop for them. DelCarlino is also there with an open ear to those who need to talk through anything. Many seamen have bouts of homesickness, he said, and one of his goals is to create a nurturing environment that feels like a home away from home.
“We’re a friend, we’re an ally for you,” DelCarlino said. “We’re here to help with anything we can do.”
Asmara, 29, has been working on the EF Ava for about six months. He previously worked on a ship that traveled from the Netherlands to Mexico, and then onto China before ending in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. That route didn’t have any places like the Portland center to serve mariners during port calls, he said.
So it’s nice to be greeted by DelCarlino, who has become a friend and a welcome sight in port. “He’s a nice guy,” Asmara said.
Besides Portland, Seafarer’s Friend serves mariners in Portsmouth and Boston. While those cities have people to help mariners during their port calls, until recently Portland was the only one of the three with a dedicated center where ship crews could visit to relax. DelCarlino said Boston opened its own dedicated space in June.
In Portland, the center is easy to overlook for people walking down Commercial Street. But behind the front window lies a world that mariners can call a home away from home.
