The Merchant Navy Association

The Merchant Navy Association (MNA) was “launched” in 1989 and established a unique opportunity for seafarers to get together to form a countrywide consensus on a range of issues and ideas. It was something that should have been initiated many years before that date but has now made significant progress towards appropriate recognition and acknowledgement of the needs of the seafaring community. The MNA has set a “steady course”, sometimes through troubled waters, but is now a registered charity with a good measure of success but with much more to achieve. Our Constitution includes a range of objectives, supported by the Charity Commission, for welfare and advice to the seafaring community both ashore and afloat. We remain consistent with those early objectives and sensitive to the current needs of the seafaring community as we also continue to raise awareness of our maritime heritage and the opportunities for work in the maritime sector. Our founder members, two wartime MN veterans, wanted to raise public awareness of both the commitment and the sacrifice of merchant seafarers during war and conflict. Those who served in the “Fourth Service” during both world wars felt MERCHANT SEAFARERS had been largely unacknowledged and certainly undervalued for far too many years, especially the Arctic Merchant Navy Veterans. A new national lobby, on behalf of merchant seafarers, could challenge the Government, and others, towards greater awareness of our maritime heritage and the contribution of merchant seafarers and fishermen in achieving the freedoms this country still enjoys. “It could not have been achieved without them”! Today 95% of everything you see in the shops arrives by sea in ships and in all weathers, every day. The UK is still a major world centre of expertise in the maritime sector for ship-broking, insurance and legal services contributing £26.5 billion to the UK’s GDP. Port facilities are being expanded with new and deeper berths for ever larger ships.