Stella Maris Rotterdam
Stella Maris · at Rotterdam
- Address
- Willemskade 13b, Rotterdam
- Phone
- +31 10 213 0000
- [email protected]
- Website
- https://www.stellamarisrotterdam.nl
- Hours
- Mon–Sat
Services available
- Chaplaincy / ship visits
- Chaplains visit ships in port (port chaplains) and serve at the welfare centre. Their role is pastoral support, practical help (transport, money-changing, hospital visits, family-emergency communication), and confidential conversation. You do not need to share their religion to ask for help.
- Counselling
- Chaplains and welfare workers provide confidential one-to-one counselling on personal, family, financial, or work-related concerns. Conversations are bound by professional confidentiality. For longer-term mental-health support, the Sailors' Society's Wellness at Sea programme and ISWAN's SeafarerHelp 24-hour multilingual helpline are also accessible from any centre.
- Advocacy
- When a seafarer faces wage theft, abandonment, contract violation, wrongful dismissal, or unsafe working conditions, the welfare centre (often via the chaplaincy and the local ITF inspector) can act as an advocate. The chaplaincy keeps everything confidential while it works the case with port-state-control, the flag administration, and the operator. Bring contract, wage records, and seaman's book to the first meeting.
About Stella Maris
Stella Maris (the Apostleship of the Sea) is the Catholic Church's official seafarer-welfare ministry. Founded in Glasgow in 1920, Stella Maris operates in around 330 ports across 60+ countries and is the largest single seafarer-welfare network. Chaplains visit ships in port, run port-side centres, and provide 24-hour pastoral and practical support. Like the Mission to Seafarers, Stella Maris serves seafarers of every faith and none.
The pastoral and practical care of seafarers — Catholic-rooted but inclusive — through ship visits, centres, helplines, and advocacy.
A Stella Maris centre will offer free wifi, chapel/quiet space, basic shop, and almost always transport to and from the ship. Chaplains conduct ship visits in many languages and will help arrange hospital visits, family-emergency communication, and legal aid where appropriate. The centres are typically open daily, with a chaplain available for confidential conversations.
No paperwork is required for routine visits — wifi, shop, transport, chapel — but bring your seaman's book if you want to access advocacy, legal aid, or any case the chaplain may take up with port-state-control or the ITF. For longer pastoral conversations, no preparation is needed; chaplains are bound by professional confidentiality.
At this port
This centre serves Rotterdam in Netherlands. Check the port page for shore-leave, visa, helpline, and PSC context that affects your call here.
Editorial confidence: how we grade. Welfare centre opening hours change — confirm before visiting.