Portsmouth Port

England

Portsmouth homepage - Peter doing a sketch board talkWeb

Port Chaplain: Peter Wells

Angela Benford, Ship Visitor

Brian Benford, Ship Visitor

Tony Cotton, Ship Visitor

Hermie Santos, Ship Visitor

Sharon Brooks, Ship Visitor

Phil Smith, Ship Visitor

Richard Shurmer, Ship Visitor

Peter Wells, Port Chaplain (Lay)

Peter Wells is a retired engineer living in the Isle of Wight. He has been visiting ships in Portsmouth Commercial docks for the past 11 years, sharing the love of Jesus with seafarers who are a long way from home and loved ones. He is one of a team of 8 SCFS volunteers who have recently expanded their work to cover the increasing number of cruise ships coming into Portsmouth.

Tony Cotton, Ship Visitor

Tony Cotton; is a retired Secondary School Headteacher and former maths teacher. He began supporting his colleague, Peter Wells, visiting ships in Portsmouth Commercial docks a couple of years ago. It has been thrilling for him, as secretary of his local church missionary committee, to be involved seeing the love of Jesus in action. He always receives a warm welcome from the seafarers and prays he is a blessing and encouragement to them as it is tough for them working away from family and loved ones for many months at a time.

Brian Benford, Ship Visitor

Brian is married to Angela. They live in Bognor Regis and have done so for the past twenty four year and love living by the sea. They have been Ship’s Welfare Visitors for some eight years plus. Having worked in Southampton port for five years they have been part of the SCFS Portsmouth team for nearly three years. They love being so warmly embraced into the team and have enjoyed a period of progressive development within the ministry to expand and explore a fruitful time of visiting the cruise ships and tug visiting.

Angela Benford, Ship Visitor

Angela, a mother of 2 daughters, and grandmother of 4 has worked alongside Brian as a Ship’s Welfare Visitor for the past seven plus years, latterly in Portsmouth. She has a heart for seafarers and loves to hear their personal stories. Visiting cruise ships has also enabled Angela to meet female crew and engage with them.

Hermie Santos, Ship Visitor

Hermie lives in Portsmouth and is part of the 1st batch of nurses from the Philippines. She is passionate to release the love of Jesus Christ to people around her both in prayer and in action. Her compassion to seafarers started when she first met and prayed with some of them during her cruise in 2019. Recently, she joined the SCFS team as a ship welfare visitor and was pleased to have the opportunity to know some of them and meet their spiritual and practical needs. It fascinates her when she hear their stories and see the works of God in their lives.

Hermie is so encouraged that through this work with SCFS team she is able to serve Jesus by caring for the seafarers.

Sharon Brooks, Ship Visitor

Sharon heard about SCFS from an email that was forwarded to her about the need for volunteer ship visitors in her local port of Portsmouth. As she enjoys anything to do with the sea/boats and meeting people from other parts of the world, Sharon met up with Peter, Brian and Angela to find out all about the role. After hearing more about the need for local Christians to visit the seafarers, Sharon joined the team. She loves to show the love of Christ through friendship and practical gifts to the seafarers and has commented on how appreciative the seafarers are of their visits.

Phil Smith, Ship Visitor

Phil is a retired Police Officer living on the Isle of Wight. As a member of the same church as Peter and Tony, I was aware that they were involved in visiting ships in Portsmouth for some while. Early in 2024 I felt compelled to speak to them about SCFS, and so got involved. Speaking to the crews from all nations I find very rewarding and uplifting as they always provide a warm welcome when we go onboard. I am trying to overcome my natural shyness to share God’s message with the crew members.

Portsmouth Port Information

Portsmouth was the Romans’ sheltered harbour and Henry VIII’s seafront bolthole. It has seen trade ships bringing exotic spices to the UK, Nelson’s departure for the Battle of Trafalgar, the launch of D-Day troops and the creation of a commercial port.