Wife of a Sailor: Life of a Sailor

In this article we are going to talk about how difficult is the personal life of a sailor. The sailor lives a very adventurous life. He has to fight the high waves and many sea creatures. He spends a lot of time in the sea. His life is at the mercy of the sea. The most challenging part that the sailors say about their life is spending so much time away from family. It can lead to serious mental issues and also health problems. Even for the family that they have left behind it is difficult. We will try to understand how the family members of a sailor manage with this tough life.

The sailors need some basic qualities that are essential to be at the sea. The most important of all is that they have to be punctual. A sailor has to be on time for everything. They are responsible. An irresponsible person cannot take the job of a sailor. The most important qualities that a woman generally looks for in a man are there in a sailor.

These are:

1. A sailor makes good money so money is never a problem for the family of the sailor. They will always have enough of it.
2. A sailor is punctual by nature. It comes so naturally to them. They will never be late for a date and will always be there on time. This is a quality that is highly appreciated by the women in the life of the sailor.
3. The sailor spends a lot of time away from the family as a result they try to be constantly in touch as much as they can. They pick up gifts for the loved ones from where ever they are travelling to. They also try to make up the most for the time that they have lost.
4. When they are back with the family they usually spend few months. Those days they do not go anywhere and are at home. Some sailors use this time to take the kids on holidays. They try to do the things at home so that the wife gets some time to relax. They help the wives with the house work and try to do as much as they can. They are hardworking and that is a big advantage for the wives.
5. The sailors always make a dedicated father and a loving husband. They try to make the most of the time that they find with their family. In most cases men tend to be very tired once they are home. They take the family for granted. However, the sailors spend a lot of time away as a result they value relationships even more.
6. The sailors spend a lot of time sailing and all that they want is to see their loved ones and feel love. This is why love is very important for them and all they want is love. They have a lot of value and appreciation for love. It is human nature to appreciate things that they do not get easily in life.
7. The last but not the least the training and the job of a sailor makes them well groomed and smart to look at. This is another advantage of being married to a sailor. A sailor will always be a good looking fellow. All women want to be seen with a good looking and a smart guy don’t they?
8. Some sailors can also take their wives with them on the ship. This is a good idea as the wife gets to spend some time with the husband and can be an experience of a life time
9. Sailors have travelled the world and they have a lot of interesting experiences to share. The life with a sailor can be an interesting one. They can be real fun to spend time with and also to have a good conversation with.

So far we have tried to discuss the advantages of being married to a sailor. As every side has two coins we will now discuss the other side of the coin, we will talk about the challenges of being married to a sailor:

1. The sailors spend a lot of time at sea as a result they hardly get to spend time with the family. The wife of a sailor may have a lonely life. She has to spend a lot of time all alone. Especially if she has no kids the loneliness can be killing. For example she may have to spend her anniversaries alone. It is possible that her husband is not with her at the time of child birth. The challenges are indeed many.
2. Many marriages of sailors end in divorce. This is possible in other challenging professions too. The wife of a sailor has to show a lot of understanding and care for her husband. The commitment has to be very high for such marriages to work. The trust has to be rock solid as there are high chances of infidelity in the life of a sailor.
3. Many wives of mariners seek help from doctors as they suffer from depression. They have to medication to get over their condition. Taking care of everything all alone can also make the wife of a sailor physically weak. It is important for a sailor to marry a woman who is emotionally and mentally strong enough to take the challenges of a mariner’s wife.
4. Some wives do try to join the husbands on ship but it is not easy for anyone to get used to the life a sailor lives on the ship. The challenges of the weather conditions at sea. The food is frozen. When on board they also have to attend the drills. They have to follow the safety norms. The husbands will be busy with his work so again she will hardly have anything to do on board and will hardly have any area to move around.
5. Taking care of kids alone is not easy for a woman. She has to take up the role of both the father and the mother. She has to discipline the kids and also nurture them this can be a challenging job for a woman.
6. Not only have the kids she also has to take care of her owned parents and the parents of her husband. Taking them to the doctors and keeping them physically fit is indeed a challenge. The house and all the other things have to be taken care of. Apart from that the sailor’s wives are required to be a part of all the formal socializing that happens in navy. It takes a lot of strength of character to deal with all these challenges.
7. The life at sea is full of risk so the sailor’s wives also live under the constant fear of losing her husband due to some accidents or even to pirates. We will discuss some stories of sacrifices made by sailors in our articles to come.

There is a saying that behind every successful man there is a woman. Thus in case of a mariner we can say behind a sailor’s successful life at sea there is a seafarer’s wife. We will continue this topic and discuss about some remarkable stories of women who have supported their sailor husbands. We dedicate this article to all those women who have supported their husbands and made remarkable sacrifices.

Sudipta Dutta

I love to write about seas, marine and related stuff