The Seafarers' Club, Chennai is a welfare institution for the seafaring community, run by the Seafarers' Club Charitable Society under the custodianship of the Directorate General of Shipping, Government of India.
The Society was constituted in 1945 by the Joint War Charity Committee, took its first premises at First Line Beach the same year, and moved into its present building on Rajaji Salai — opposite the Reserve Bank of India — on 1 February 1962.
Our purpose is unchanged: affordable, dignified shore-side rest, food and recreation for the merchant marine — and for the trainees who will follow them — operated under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and the welfare obligations recognised under Indian merchant shipping and port law.
Admission is on production of a valid CDC, with the requisite sea service; for trainees, a valid INDOS number, a passport and an institute recommendation letter. Sponsored and external guests are welcome at the guest tariff and are also verified at check-in.
Set up by the Joint War Charity Committee. The first premises at First Line Beach were opened by the Governor of Madras on 20 April 1945.
Land at Rajaji Salai was leased to the Society for a permanent welfare house for seafarers.
Foundation stone laid on 13 January 1960 by Dr P. Subbaroyan, Union Minister for Transport and Communications.
Constructed on reclaimed land by the Chennai Port Trust, the present building was occupied on 1 February 1962. Antiquities recovered during construction are held at the Fort Museum, Chennai.
The Club is run by the Seafarers' Club Charitable Society, Chennai — a registered body — under the custodianship of the Directorate General of Shipping. The Management Committee draws from the shipping community and includes serving seafarers.
Seafarers spend months at sea in close, demanding quarters. Safe and decent shore-based rest, food and recreation are an inseparable part of any international port — not a luxury, but the basic plank on which the welfare of a merchant marine stands.
In India, welfare obligations for seafarers flow from the Merchant Shipping Act and the Indian Ports Act. Internationally, they are recognised in the ILO Seafarers' Welfare Recommendation, 1970 and given binding form in the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, to which India is party.
The Seafarers' Club, Chennai exists to discharge that obligation, in the country's principal east-coast port, in a calm and dignified house that the seafaring community can call its own.