Written in English and another 11 languages, the manual will enable medical staff to ask seafarers basic personal data such as their name and last port of call.

It has been put together by the Mission to Seafarers, in conjunction with the Merchant Navy Welfare Board's Humber committee.

Goole chaplain David Whateley said: "The idea is to get books to the people who will be the first on the scene of an accident.

"If the medics can get information quickly from the injured seafarer it can help speed up treatment."

An initial print run of 1,500 is being distributed in the Humber region to ambulance services, hospitals, GPs, river pilots and port authorities.

Among the languages translated are Arabic, Farsi, Greek, Hindi and Turkish.