The Emergancy Box
We all know how hard it is to find a present for someone who already has everything. Some of the crewmembers of the ?Cap San Marco? had often been in ...
A Four-Legged Treasure
He?s climbing up the wall in our large entry hall as though he were still trying to escape the hunter whose bullet found him ? this ocelot from South America. ...
An Unsolved Riddle
Whenever we hear the term ?dream destination? many can immediately think of a place we are longing to visit. For me, ?Vanuatu? was such a dream, but my plans to ...
A Treasure in the Room of Silence
When the DUCKDALBEN chapel ?Room of Silence? was first furnished, Ju?rgen Bielfeldt was the chairman of the German Seaman?s Missions. Through his son-in-law Samih he had met Salameh Janini, a ...
Eighty-One
They first appeared in the DUCKDALBEN clubroom ? these life buoys from ships all over the world. They took over the entire ceiling until it was full, then spread out ...
The Lenten Veil
Some of you might have heard about the so-called ?Lenten veils? from the Catholic relief organization Misereor, which were introduced in 1976 and created every second year, always from ...
Frost
One of the walls in our billiard room is filled with pictures showing romantic tropical landscapes ? and in the middle is a painting of an iced-over ship that literally ...
The Festive Gown
Our volunteer Ursula still clearly remembers: it was a Tuesday when she first met the crew from a bulk carrier from Algeria that was moored at Pier 80/81. Tuesdays were ...
The Chinese Vase
Anyone who uses one of the telephone booths on the right-hand side of our entry hall probably isn?t aware that several herds of elephants are marching along above his head, ...
The Seven Signposts
We encounter them in airports, hospitals or train stations ? signs directing us to a chapel, a ?Room of Silence? or ?Prayer Room?. On the circular stairway in DUCKDALBEN?s large ...
Talking Pictures
?After seven months at sea, your longing for home gets stronger and stronger.?This is the caption on the watercolour portrait of Yunus, a seaman from the Philippines. All told, portraits ...
Hidden Treasures
DUCKDALBEN?s ?hidden treasures? ? every one is a keepsake. It?s not always easy to uncover their secrets, and describing their stories in just a few words is nearly impossible. ...