Issue 7: Christmas at Sea and Fall Afghans
You will learn how the Issue 7 sea scarf works inside Christmas at Sea and how your crochet work joins hats, cards and ditty bags for crews who spend the holidays at work. The short answer is simple: your scarf becomes part of a handmade set that volunteers pack and chaplains deliver from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through Epiphany in January.
What does a seafarer actually receive?
When you make a scarf for this program, you are not sending a single scarf in an envelope. For international seafarers, the Institute packs your type of gift as part of a 2-piece knit set inside a hand-sewn ditty bag. Volunteers add personal toiletries and individually packaged candy or treats, then place twelve ditty bags into a Santa Sack for crews calling at Port Newark and Port Elizabeth during the holidays. For professional U.S. mariners at work aboard towboats, harbor tugs and dredges on the Mississippi River system and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the route is different. The Institute mails knits to its chaplains, and the chaplains, with staff and volunteers, pack one box for each boat with a knit gift for each mariner along with other goodies. Chaplains also deliver ditty bags to harbor tugboat crews based in New York. The Christmas at Sea page does not publish stitch counts or row counts for the scarf.
Why handmade means something here
You can sense the principle behind this program when you read how the Institute describes it. The Institute presents Christmas at Sea as the oldest and longest continuously running charter knitting program in the U.S., and it describes the program as delivering the highest volume of knitted gifts to international seafarers of any nonprofit. It also describes itself as the only chaplaincy delivering knit gifts to the thousands of professional U.S. mariners on the inland river system. With limited staff, it says it reaches those numbers only because knitters, crocheters, seamstresses, packers and donors stay active. The manager, Joanne Bartosik, puts personalization at the center. The program never purchases knits in stores. Every gift is handmade, and for international seafarers most arrive in a hand-sewn ditty bag. For U.S. mariners, the boxes hold handcrafted Christmas cards often created by schoolchildren. If you want to place your work in that wider habit of giving, charity crochet with Warm Up America shows how small squares and hats add up the same way.
How can a box of cards change morale on a boat?
Captain Stephen Harris entered his first year as captain while both children were still young at home. His daughter was two years old and was anticipating Christmas for the first time. He had already missed his son's eighth birthday party on December 15 and he knew he would still be working on the boat during his wife's birthday on December 29. He describes going to a dark place and asking himself if he was selling his time and relinquishing time with his family. Phone calls and video calls did not close the gap. As captain, he felt responsible for morale and felt he had no one on board in whom he could confide without putting that morale at risk. He also describes the other side of the schedule, 28 days on and then 14 days home, when each homecoming can feel like a party and a honeymoon in one, but he was not feeling that yet. When the Christmas at Sea packages arrived, he put on a festive manner for the crew. He read the Christmas cards aloud while wearing a Christmas at Sea hat and scarf with a candy cane in his mouth. By the third name, he noticed a coincidence. By the fifth name, he understood it was not a coincidence. His son's second-grade class had made those cards for mariners without knowing where the box would go. Years later, he still remembers his hat from the box, a two-toned purple cap that became part of his uniform on the boat until spring.
When should you crochet if delivery is at Christmas?
You do not need to wait for December to start. Gathering and cataloging continue year-round, even though delivery to ships and boats runs from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through Epiphany in January. Collection for the new season begins the day after Epiphany. The Institute tries to mail the first shipment of gifts to its chaplains in the South and Midwest sometime in late summer for safe storage until the holiday season. That rhythm gives you a clear way to plan. You can crochet a scarf in spring, check it for even edges and secure ends, set it aside in a clean, dry place, and it still fits the calendar. The work of welcome centers and chaplains fills the gap between your hook and the deck. To understand that seasonal packing flow, read the Christmas at Sea program and see how collection moves toward December delivery. You will see why a scarf finished months early still arrives on time.
How do twelve ditty bags become a Santa Sack?
You can picture the steps without leaving your table. On the annual Port Packing Days at the welcome center in Port Newark, volunteers pack each ditty bag, check the 2-piece knit set, add toiletries and treats, and close the bag. Then they count twelve ditty bags into one Santa Sack. The sack travels to a crew calling at Port Newark and Port Elizabeth. The U.S. boat box follows a parallel logic. One box goes to one boat. Inside, there is a knit gift for each mariner, plus other goodies and the school-made cards. The chaplain carries the box on board or sends it through the Institute's network of staff and volunteers. No step asks you to address a parcel to a named sailor. Your job stops at making a warm, clean, well-finished piece and sending it to the central address. The Institute and its chaplains take care of sorting, counting and carrying.
What does cold at 3 a.m. teach about yarn choice?
AB deckhand and cook, Byron Druin, answers that question in plain terms. He praises the needlework on a hat and scarf set and says it means a lot that someone would take time to make gifts for people they do not know. He says tugboaters wear their knits hard, and he is glad they are made of really strong yarn. He grew up in Maine and knows cold weather and how to dress to stay dry, yet he describes stinging cold on the water at 03:00. You can use that image when you choose yarn and tension. A sea scarf takes friction against coats, railings and bunk bags. It takes damp air and repeated pulling on and off. A firm fabric with full stitches, snug ends woven in more than one direction, and no open loops that can catch, will serve better than a loose, airy wrap. If your gauge drifts, measure crochet gauge with a swatch before you commit to full length, then keep the same hook and hand position through the whole piece so the edges stay straight in the ditty bag.
Where does your hook fit in this chain?
You join as a crocheter among knitters, seamstresses, packers and donors. That community is described as inclusive and supportive, and the need is steady because every ship and every towboat turns over its crew. Your scarf does not have to match a uniform or carry a message. It has to keep a neck warm on watch, layer under a hood, and survive washing and daily wear. Crochet in one or two colors, keep the width even enough to tuck inside a jacket, and finish the ends so nothing unravels after the first pull. The mailing address for Christmas at Sea is Christmas at Sea, International Seafarers Center, The Seamen Church Institute, 118 Export Street, Port Newark, NJ 07114. Sort your finished scarf, pair it if you can with a hat, note the fiber content on a slip of paper, and mail it to Port Newark for sorting and packing.
Seamen Church Institute Christmas at Sea: The Institute runs Christmas at Sea for international seafarers and U.S. mariners on towboats, harbor tugs and dredges. The Christmas at Sea page tells how volunteers pack ditty bags and boat boxes, how chaplains deliver them from late November to January, and how school-made cards and handmade hats and scarves reach crews. You can post a finished scarf and hat set to the Port Newark address listed on the page for the next packing cycle.