"Isolation and depression, combined with a lack of a supportive environment, affects the mental health of seafarers, sometimes with tragic and heart-breaking consequences."

“We are sorry to be closing this very special place but are glad that the sale will mean our Sisters in Ireland and abroad will be able to continue and expand the worthwhile work they are doing,” said superior general Sr Mary Christian.

There are cases of seafarers and fishermen being effectively imprisoned on their ships, not paid wages and held in a modern-day form of press-ganging and slavery, says Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster.