THE STORY BEHIND
More than a hundred years
The history of the Danish Seamen's Mission goes back several years further than the organisation Indenlandsk Sømandsmission, which celebrated its 100th anniversary on 28 April 2005.
Mission work has been carried out with reading rooms and seamen's home for well over 100 years in Denmark. In both places, fishermen and sailors could come and read newspapers, call home to family, have a cup of coffee and talk to people who had time to listen. It started slowly in the years after Constitutional law adoption in 1849. In the 1870s, the pastor Daniel C. Prior (Holmen's Church) and his wife were involved in the work among seafarers, and in 1876 they came into contact with the married couple Ninna and Andreas Wollesen, who had been involved in missionary work among seafarers in New York for some years. The couple were sent by an American organisation to continue similar work in Copenhagen.
The first seamen's home and ship
In 1879, Wollesen and Prior set up a sailor's parlour in Holbergsgade, and two years later the Bethel ship was inaugurated. It was moored at the end of Nyhavnand it housed a church hall with seating for 300 people. There was also a kitchen, reading and writing room on board. For the next 25 years until 1906, the ship was the pioneer ship of the Seamen's Mission in Copenhagen.
Already in 1904, the board bought the property in Nyhavn 22, where Bethel Seamen's Home was decorated.
The idea of establishing reading rooms and homes for seamen had spread to other port cities in Denmark, and the desire to have a common organisation led to the formation of Indenlandsk Sømandsmission in 1905. When it was founded on 28 April, the organisation had four seafarers' homes, five seamen's rooms and the ship Bethel.
Big changes
Over the years, the work evolved so that at one point there were 43 seamen's homes around Danish harbours. In total, at its peak, the organisation comprised around 75 reading rooms and seamen's homes. In more than 100 years, the conditions for shipping and fishing have changed along with the rest of society, and this has led to the closure of seamen's homes. Today, Sømandsmissionen has seamen's homes in three cities in Denmark: Copenhagen, Aalborg and Frederikshavn. In addition, there is an active Sailor café in Hvide Sandewhere there used to be a sailor's home.
Seamen's Mission to Greenland
In the 1960s, the work was expanded to include Greenland. The first two Greenlandic seamen's homes were inaugurated in 1969 in respectively Nuuk (Godthåb) and Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg). Since then, two more have been added in Aasiaat (Egedesminde) and Hotel Avannaa in Ilulissatso there are now a total of four seamen's homes in Greenland. There have also been seamen's homes in Qasigiannguit (Christianshåb) and Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen) and Qaqortoq (Julianehåb), which are now closed again. From 2020, Sømandsmissionen has operated hotel Avannaa in Ilulissat (Jakobshavn). The seamen's homes in Nuuk, Sisimiut, Aasiaat and Ilulissat are also well-functioning hotels under the name HOTEL SØMA,
In addition to the many conversations that have taken place on a daily basis, Christmas Eve is one of the events that brings back many memories for guests at the seamen's homes. Christmas is celebrated in as homely a setting as possible, with Christmas dinner, dancing around the Christmas tree and presents for all guests. Over the years, these Christmas evenings have been a welcome substitute when guests could not be with their families at home. From the seamen's homes, they also had the opportunity to call home and wish Merry Christmas.
Seamen's Mission on Ærø
Until the end of 2021, Aggershøj was the Seamen's Mission's holiday home in the skipper town of Marstal on Ærø.
It was built in 1908 as a private residence for a merchant couple, but when their daughters later inherited it, they chose to give it to the Seamen's Mission with the requirement that it should also be a holiday resort for sailors' and fishermen's widows and their children.
In 1945, Aggershøj was taken over by the Seamen's Mission, and since then many widows who had lost their husbands at sea have been given a free summer holiday every year - something that was used until the building was sold in 2021.
Since 1945, the work at Aggershøj has varied, and the place has had different managers. The last 10 years with Simon and Ambrosen as managers, the main focus was on the many maritime students who live and study on Ærø. Every week, communal meals, Bible studies and social evenings were organised - a good alternative to the city's pub environment. Youth camps, senior days, harvest and Christmas markets were also part of the year's activities at Aggershøj.
Aggershøj was sold on 31.12.21.