The Social World of Seafarers. A Sociological Research in Central Italy

doi:10.4236/aasoci.2013.34027

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Advances in Applied Sociology

2013. Vol.3, No.4, 199-205

Published Online August 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/aasoci) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aasoci.2013.34027

The Social World of Seafarers. A Sociological Research

in Central Italy

Esposito Maurizio

Department of Human, Social and Health Science s, University of Cassino and

Lazio Meridionale, Italy

Email: m.esposito@unicas.it

Received June 11th, 2013; revised July 11th, 2013; accepted July 1 8th, 2013

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited.

Background: This article analyzes the social world of seafarers, with the aim of crossing the boundary

defining the field of social sciences and entering the area of knowledge, where, to paraphrase Marcel

Mauss, scientists argue for a place. Methods and Instruments: The research is based on an empirical study

carried out at port authorities, fishermen’s cooperatives and fish markets in a few regions of central Italy

during a two year period using empirical research methods utilized in fields of sociological knowledge,

such as: semi-structured interviews, talks and informal conversations. The qualitative research was

conducted through Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software using the software Atlas.ti.

Our attempt is to study in depth, through an empirical study conducted on a sample of 119 individuals, the

heuristic subject on seafarers, in particular sailors and fishermen, specifically from a sociological point of

view. The focus is an analysis of the life-worlds of these people in connection with variables such as the

socio-economic characteristics of households, the relationship with the primary nuclear family, the ele-

ment of solitude (in connection with individual feelings like melancholy and nostalgia), the relationship

with peers and the crew. Results: From empirical research, it is seen that sailors and fishermen, despite

their different local facets, represent a social world characterized by the richness of its material, social and

symbolic expressions. The craft of the sea unites them, sometimes creating a subculture absolutely dif-

ferent from that of other populations and subcultures.

Keywords: Sociology; Qualitative; Society; Seafarers; Community

Introduction

A sociologist is a person who has a passionate, inexhaustible,

shameless interest for facts regarding men, and Peter Berger

wrote in his book Invitation to Sociology (1963): his natural

habitat—he continues—is any place where men meet. The soci-

ologist may have an interest for many things, but his dominant

interest is for the world of men, their institutions, their history,

and their passions.

The most frequent accusation towards social scientists is that

they want to be all-round experts, at all costs want to trace back

every aspect of daily life to “sociology”, whether it is private or

public. On the contrary, sociologists really try to subdivide the

discipline, sometimes creating insurmountable barriers within

their own fields of study. From our point of view, presented in

this article, fishing is not just a means to procure food or to

make a profit; a world of images, representations and rites

rotate around fishing, which have inspired great poets and

novelists over the centuries, have created a well-rooted com-

munity in society, with its own customs and traditions. Socio-

logy, therefore, can not in any way neglect these elements;

indeed, by moving away from single statistical data, and en-

tering the world and core of sea life, we can rightfully speak of

sociology of fishing.

The Relation between Sociology and Sea Life

Over the centuries, in the communities developed on the

shores of our country, cultural, historical and highly distinctive

dynamics have spread, so that we can indeed speak about the

true and real culture of the sea, meant as “representations, feel-

ings, mental life, social character, which nevertheless refer to

particular aggregates” (Cipolla, 1997: p. 627). Therefore, in our

opinion, life at sea is characterized as a real social behavior: to

sail or be a fisherman, one must have a technology and a tenac-

ity, a memory and a high level of coll ec tive cohesion, present in

communities where “intense relationships between individuals

characterized by their mutual identification, union, solidarity,

integration” (ivi: 466). Obviously, the hallmarks of this unique

community culture are discernible in many interpretative cate-

gories all within the culture of the sea, settled over the centuries,

where the collective identity of these people has arisen. The

unique elements of these cultural categories are: knowledge of

the sea, customs, rituals and traditions associated with it, and

lastly, its trades. The latter category of interpretation is perhaps

more than any other one well suited to be analyzed to thor-

oughly examine the experience and cultural identity of those

living in and for the sea, not only as a simple scenario of natural

background, but as a primary source of income for many com-

E. MAURIZIO

munities through work activities, from a sociological view,

traceable to specific patterns of life with specific systems of

social and cultural relations. The study of these sea trades, such

as the fisherman or the sailor, is well suited to identify common

and emerging cultural traits within a community that considers

the sea its lifeblood (Corsi, Esposito, & Meglio, 2012).

In our opinion, the sociological study of fishing can follow

two lines of research. The first sees the locations of the sea as

local communities outside urban areas, with their own rules of

life, customs and crafts anchored to tradition but also open to

the changes that the post-modern society brings. In sea places,

in fact, time seems to have stopped, you can still breathe the

smell of a world that seems to look out for the first time to the

sounds of modernity. Belonging to a community or a country,

for those who live the sea, does not mean belonging to a purely

geographical or physical area. The identity of those who live

there is lived in symbiosis with their peers, as in the case of

Amalfi, an ancient maritime Republic, when on the feast day of

its patron, St. Andrea, all the fishermen, young and old, par-

ticipate in the rite of the simulacrum exposure, to ensure that

the fishing of the night is propitious to the new fishing season.

Sociology of fishing must turn its attention to the sea as a

place of identity, daily life (Montani, 2000), the sharing of cus-

toms and traditions of a community. It is in fact within these

social environments that the life-worlds of individuals that live

there are built, worlds with a widespread inter-subjectivity

which, starting from the authentic values of life, create lasting

bonds with the great organized systems. In this manner the

life-world of seafarers is connected to the global changes af-

fecting the macro-social areas of the country, with what the

sociologist Achille Ardigò, in his successful work, define s “pa-

rallel convergence s” (1980).

The second interpretative line follows a few paths of modern

sociology, in relation to the attention social scientists gave the

attitudes and behavior of individuals towards the environment

in general and to specific natural resources, such as marine or

river water. The entrance of sociology within the international

debate on environmental issues was neither simple nor prompt.

The problems had to become quite relevant before the subject

was given public attention, and in turn, institutional interven-

tions had to be significantly of social importance to attract the

attention of sociologists (Pellizzoni & Osti, 2003: p. 55). Pollu-

tion, waste and climate change are only a few of the concerns

with which the national and European public opinion have to

deal with, characterizing the environment as an “epistemology

with an eco-social or global interpretation, that is, including

biological and physical elements together with cultural dimen-

sions of conscience within it” (Cipolla, 1997: p. 112). In par-

ticular, it is the climate change, more than others, which has a

major impact on the marine world. In March, 2009, the FAO

presented its Report on the state of world fishing and aquacul-

ture. The fishing sector employs more than half a billion people

worldwide. Unfortunately, little is done to implement responsi-

ble fishing practices aimed at tackling the on-going climate

change. According to the report, in fact, fishing and aquaculture

contribute little to climate changes but are significant for green-

house gas emissions during the fishing, transport, processing

and storage phases. This is closely related to the increase in

world fish production, which reached a new peak of 143.6 mil-

lion tons of fish in 2007. The increase in production is due to

the aquaculture sector, which currently accounts for 47% of all

fish consumed by humans as food. Production levels in capture

fisheries has leveled off and is unlikely to increase beyond cur-

rent levels. The report also identifies the overcapacity—a com-

bination of too many boats and highly efficient fishing tech-

niques—a key problem affecting fishing (Beck, 1992).

The two views above intend to propose a series of studies

associating fishing to sociology. Indeed, overlooking the mere

statistical calculation of people employed in the fishing Indus-

tries, the marine world presents itself to the social scientist in a

double vision: as a community full of values, norms and cus-

toms often resisting globalizing lifestyles still constituting an

unexplored microcosm, and, as an important ecological issue,

presented to the attention of sociological studies of the sector.

Research in the Field: Participants, Methods

and Analysis

Empirical research was carried out at port authorities, fishing

cooperatives and fish markets in a few regions of central Italy

during a two year period using methods utilized in sociological

fields such as: semi-structured interviews, talks and informal

conversations.

A sociological type of study can not contemplate a culture

taken out of its historical and territorial contexts, thus resulting

invalid in a notional and socio-graphic sense. Therefore, we

decided to turn the empirical investigation to fishermen and

sailors of long voyages (mostly oil tankers and cargo ships).

The division of the two professions is not random: without

doubt both the sailors and fishermen know the secrets of the sea,

but nevertheless there are great differences. The sea of the great

expanses of oceans is undoubtedly not comparable to the voy-

ages off the coast, as well as the absence periods from home,

which are much longer for the former group than for the latter.

Therefore, on one hand, the sea can be the same for both but, on

the other hand, different. The interviews to the fishermen were

all carried out on the coasts of central Italy, where small-scale

fishing and mussel farming is practiced. The interviews with

the sailors were done at the shipping and landing of the ports

considered.

The subject of this study is not fishing or navigation stricto

sensu: our model remains the qualitative analysis of narratives.

The method used is therefore part of the micro-sociological

view, allowing to grasp, in the everyday life dynamics, the

ways the material and symbolic reproduction of individuals

takes place in every day life (Ricolfi, 1997).

The qualitative research, conducted through Computer As-

sisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software using the software

Atlas.ti, was based on semi-structured interviews, aimed at

investigating mainly the experiences of seafarers in regards to

their life and their work, but with a specific intention to explore

new themes through their answers. Using the grounded theory

model (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), the text was analyzed from the

data and returning back to the text, in order to complete the

construction of categories, concepts and relations among them.

Accordingly, during the first stage of analysis there was not

an advance plan, which enabled recurrences to emerge from the

text and, by extrapolation, development of one or more topics

of investigation. The contents were then encoded initially with

an open coding, mostly reporting the words of the protagonists;

only later were the “quotations” coded for recurrent themes in

Code Families, in order to build families of concepts that could

address reflections, also through the definition of relationships

within the Network themes.

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E. MAURIZIO

By crossbreeding the Family Codes, operative Super Codes

were derived (by Boolean operators) which enabled us to ob-

serve significant relationships.

In reporting the interviews verbatim, the code “F” is for

“fishermen” and “S” for “sailors”.

Regarding the socio-demographic characteristics of the re-

spondents, the sample is characterized heterogeneously for the

number of subjects, their jobs, age and geographical origin; the

only absolute consistent data concerns their gender, all being

males. There were 119 semi-structured interviews with profes-

sional sailors and fishermen, precisely 65 sailors and 54 fish-

ermen, divided in three age groups: 18 - 39, 40 - 55, 56 and

over. The majority of respondents, 50.4%, are in the second

band, followed by the young ones. The instruction level is

mostly the common high school diploma, among which, the

nautical institute; it should be noted, however, the high number

of people who have no formal education beyond secondary

school. It is common that the sailor profession, over the centu-

ries, has always been handed down from father to son; indeed,

in this way, the ancient seafaring societies, for example, the

Mediterranean with its coastal areas, arose. Important seafaring

traditions developed, in fact, on the coasts and in the Aegean

islands, in the northern Adriatic, Sicily, in the Gulf of Naples

and the coasts of Liguria. It is the productive, social and cul-

tural specialization of these populations that can be defined as

the culture of the sea. To date, however, there seems to be a

decrease of generational continuity in the professional choice of

seamen: 37.8% of the seamen are fishermen’s sons, compared

to 58.8% of men whose father is or was a general worker or a

craftsman.

Discussion

Work at Sea

The primary focus investigated was the degree of individual

satisfaction with their job. From the respondents’ answers, a

certain degree of overall satisfaction was seen, although there

were negative replies also. Summing up the responses to the

question “Are you happy with the job you are doing?”, indeed

the absolute majority (88%) said yes, including 32.8% firmly

convinced. It is noteworthy to see that the younger ones declare

not to be satisfied, which is soon confirmed by the quality data

of the answers given in the interviews. Substantial differences

between the two professions are not detected: many fishermen

still associate sea life with working in the fields, which some-

times appears as a way to enjoy their leisure time, but more

often becomes a real double job, as stated also by the French

historian Fernand Braudel who wrote in his well-known book

on the Mediterranean: “Our fisherman-craftsman, however,

does not only live in his boat, among fishing lines and nets. He

is also a farming expert, careful, he cultivates his own garden

and fields. Therefore, he has two professions, otherwise, how

could he and his family live? He is forced to draw an income

from both land and sea... Transferred to urban centers, a group

of Greek fishermen can not now make ends meet” (Braudel,

1987: p. 35).

If some chose the profession because forced by circum-

stances, such as unemployment and economic emergencies,

many, especially sailors, associate this choice to a personal

passion due to the love for the sea, as can be seen from the first

coding phase of the descriptive codes:

I really chose it because I love the sea very much, then it

is a job that helps you become responsible because it re-

quires a lot of effort and then finally because it is a well-

paid job (Interview 8S).

I chose it for passion, in fact I chose a school like the

Nautical Institute, which helped me for this life, it was my

passion, because I grew up among boats and nets (Inter-

view 33S).

Some, especially the younger ones, in the absence of work,

and not having continued their studies, have somehow been

forced to choose this profession, and do not hide their dissatis-

faction, with the passing of time, especially for the difficulties

and sacrifices they continually face:

Not much because it is sacrificed; I chose it because 20

years ago I did not know what to do, living near the sea,

the only alternative was to learn how to fish (Interview

12F).

No, I’ve never been happy with this job, but it was the

only opportunity we had to survive. If I could choose, I

definitely would not do it again, I chose it only because it

allowed me to make a li ving for me and my family (Int er-

view 15F).

Only those who are born and live the sea can understand the

bond that develops between man and his habitat: this seems to

be the leitmotif, beyond the negative conceptions, which is seen

from the interviews:

I chose it because we are a race of seamen, it is like an

inheritance, as a child we always went to see dad at the

port, I was fascinated by that life, the sea was and is my

world, it was almost a “heritage”, my family has always

been a family of fishe r me n (Interview 3F).

The Boat as a Total Institution?

Erving Goffman writes Asylums in 1961, a text that becomes

a milestone for anyone interested in marginalization issues.

Starting from the concept of social organization, which defines

a group of places, premises, buildings, constructions where a

specific type of activity is regularly carried out, he distinguishes

between a total or non total institution: this characteristic is

symbolized by the barrier to social intercourse with the outside

world, often based on the physical structures of the institution:

behind closed doors, high walls, barbed wire, rocks, waterways

(Goffman, 1961).

The key concept of this work is that of total Institution.

Among the various types of institutions—the author lists five—

there are those established for the sole purpose of pursuing

some work like tasks justifying themselves on these instrumen-

tal grounds: the ships are part of this category.

This assimilation was most recently repeated by the Polish

sociologist Janiszewski, who, in an article in 1993, supports the

classification of merchant vessels and fishing boats as total

social institutions; life in these contexts is suspended between

work demands and family needs experienced by sailors and

fishermen, in connection with the contradictions between the

fathers’ and husbands’ duties and responsibilities on board (Ja-

niszewski, 1993).

From the evidence of empirical research carried out by us,

the men interviewed, and more specifically the sailors than the

fishermen, perceive the boat where they live, work and relate as

E. MAURIZIO

a world apart, a reality in itself, which is affected totally with

that insider element typical of the primary “familistic” commu-

nity type. The crew of the ship, as well as the groups of fisher-

men (those called paranze in Campania), are contexts that, des-

pite the inevitable internal conflicts, appear as strong and com-

pact externally. These specific conflicts are sometimes miti-

gated by moments of almost absolute silence, in which “some-

times someone speaks. But almost all the boats were silent,

except for the dip of the oars” (Hemingway, 1996: p. 29).

For the seafarers, the paranza is only one of the cases, per-

haps the most organic you can ever meet in micro-fishing or-

ganizations. However, specific strategies develop in every sea-

faring organization, regarding relationships within the group as

well as with the outside world. Competitiveness, for example,

is turned to the outside world, while cooperation and involve-

ment are enhanced within the group, in a delicate balance of

roles and relationships. Valued are also courage and determina-

tion in work experience accrued over the sea, where prestige

and authority are fundamental for the function of leadership,

found in different degrees among all crew members, in any case

(see Mazzacane, 1989: p. 16).

In the case of sailors, internal compactness adds the charac-

teristic of self-defence to the sense of cooperation, since con-

tinued exposure to foreign ports conveys, besides feelings of

surprise and curiosity, feelings of discomfort, if not fear and

anguish too.

From the descriptive codes of interviews with sailors, there

are no particular problems in the relationship on board between

the shipmates:

Excellent relations. They’re the only friends I have and I

can talk about my problems. We are one for all and all for

one (Interview 54S).

We have fantastic relationships! We feel a big fami ly and

we never make distinction of degrees: we are all friends,

because I think when you share many years of work and

many experiences of danger, the bonds become more and

more close and are therefore fraternal relations (Interview

31S).

Although some respondents emphasize the fact that these

bonds are often “forced” to get along with the need to live to-

gether a long time and the fact that the shipmates are not freely

chosen:

Relations must be necessarily good, since we spend so

much time together, but sometimes also occurs nervous-

ness, because often you are nervous because of the dis-

tance from the family (Interview 52S).

Relations must be good, you have to sail together months

and months, you can not argue. Sometimes it happens, but

it lasts a maximum of 5 minutes because we seek to live

in the best way (Interview 34S).

The relationship with shipmates is only a working coop-

eration, but a true friendship can be born; and then we can

not argue, because we spend too much time together. I

personally talk a lot with all staff, both when we plan a

job, and when it comes to politics, to various events. I

speak equally with everyone. Let’s say that the relations

on the ships actually have to be very well together, you

have to try to be like a family to work the best (Interview

49S).

If the above elements have somehow confirmed the goffma-

nian intuition of ship-total institution combination, this should

be reinterpreted in the light of a more open and global world-

view of the sea. If the li fe of the inmates or detainees stands out

mostly for its characteristic of temporal indeterminacy, on the

contrary, the sailors’ voyages are temporary, changeable and

free above all, lived in the open air, in contact with worlds

away from their own. Moreover, in a total institution, the

guidelines are rigidly imposed from above, from a “big brother”

who tends to control everything with his longa manus; contrar-

ily, on the boat there is greater cooperation between the crew

members, giving rise to a differentiation of social roles, each

different, in the pursuit of a collective goal that can be traced in

an excellent fishing trip, or trying to save themselves during a

storm.

The Sea and the Mainland. Family Relationships

The deep dividing line between life on land and at sea is de-

scribed with great narrative effect by Jorge Amado: “He was

asleep in a net, which of all things on earth is most similar to a

ship, rocking as if it were rocked by the waves” (Amado, 1985:

p. 109). The seafarer spends most of his day, and therefore,

most of his life, at sea, or in activities connected to his work. In

the case of sailors, the time spent at sea is sometimes immeas-

urable, being offshore for months, or even years; in the case of

fishermen in the context of our research a typical day is, count-

ing the time to prepare for fishing, out at sea, auctions and sales,

an average time of at least 15 - 18 hours per day. It is therefore

obvious that the relationship with the mainland is in both cases

extremely marginal and seafarers feel cut-off from the wider

community, both in the physical and temporal sense and feel a

sense of withdrawal, substantially a “retreat” as Lévinas stated.

From the interviews conducted, it is clear that the feeling of

resignation emerges, however not considered—as we might

expect—as feeling distressed or victimized, but rather as a con-

notation of a life often emphasized as non-binding and of lib-

eral choice.

Sometimes you get the feeling of being alone, away from

the world, from your loved ones, from your land, at the

beginning one suffers, but with time the passion and love

for the sea heal your wounds. I did choose it for passion,

if I could not stand it, I would give it up (Interview 21F).

A lot of sailors are not even recognized by their young chil-

dren when they go back home, and many fishermen tell us with

regret that they have never been able to take their children to

school; all this constitutes a reality where, in spite of the current

economical guarantees granted as well as the recognition of

inalienable rights, the life of the seafarer continues to be a mar-

ginal existence, in intra-family relationships and during his

leisure time and social activities outside the family. Thus, the

theme of temporality is strictly linked to the sailor’s and fish-

erman’s professions. Moreover, the periods of those who live

the sea go over the simple counting of lunar calendars, they go

through stages of life, childhood moments, places of memories,

which sometimes shatter like waves on the rocks.

It is, above all, the “time for the family” (Gasparini, 2000: p.

58), which includes the social occasions of each person, such as

births, child care, housework, that strongly suffer from the

physical distance of those who live the sea. In our research,

though the great majority of men interviewed stated they had a

good relationship with their wives, more often complained

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E. MAURIZIO

about missing their children, the informal conversations with

the same people have instead shown a partly discordant reality,

especially for the world of sailors.

Regarding the relationship with their wives, on one hand,

unity and strength of the couple prevail, while, on the other

hand, there is a sense, almost of resignation, in accepting the

situation that takes their husbands away for months. There are

obviously cases where things do not always go well, or the

distance and husband’s continuous absence from home cause

problems for the couple’s life, above all for sailors forced to

spend long periods of separation from the family:

It is better now, but two years ago she took a period of re-

flection and went to live with her mother for about a year,

because she no longer wanted to be alone with the child.

We talked a lot and now she realized that I can not do

otherwise. Our relationship has improved and she is much

more serene (Interview 59S).

Wives are not accustomed to the presence of their husbands

at home, a presence which upsets the daily routine and makes

housework more tiring. The presence of the husband sometimes

implies a questioning of the running of the house and the edu-

cation of the children, two very important tasks which for many

months remain under the wife’s exclusive responsibility and

authority. The fathers do not find in their children what they

hoped or expected and at the same time “the children find it

difficult to recognize and accept the authority and even the

affection of a father who is not involved in their everyday

lives” (Giglia, 1989: p. 150).

This is also confirmed by a recent sociological research

(Heikell, 2010: pp. 68-70), which attests through the life story

of a fisherman’s son the perception of the father figure as an

outsider, a foreigner, an occasional visitor of the house: the

mother and the children take the scene of the family organiza-

tion as protagonists, while the contribution of the father figure

is described as marginal and insignificant: in the end, it was the

mother who found the apartment for Robert (the protagonist of

the research) for his undergraduate studies, she provided for his

basic needs and solved his everyday problems. It is no coinci-

dence that the title of an interesting book on the life of fisher-

men written by Michelle Thomas in 2003 is called Lost at Sea

and Lost at Home.

Therefore, despite the lack of interest in scientific literature

on the role of women in the seafarer’s life, they have a signifi-

cant and important role in the economic and managerial sector

of the productive and reproductive life of this social world. As

rightly stated by Paul Thompson et al. (1983), fishermen de-

pend on the role of women in three areas:

1) Women who work directly at sea as crew members (a mi-

nority of cases);

2) Women who have a substantial role in raising (in a physi-

cal but also cultural sense) future generations of fishermen;

3) Women who have the task of organizing the home and

family life during the man’s absence.

Ultimately, the nature of the profession of the fisherman and

sailor makes it impossible for the man to actively participate in

the domestic life. Very often, the social roles usually belonging

to the male figure in these families are covered by the female

counterpart, often done skillfully and absolutely essential for

the maintenance and economic reproduction and management

of resources (Marciniak, 2010: p. 76) .

The Ports, Danger, Loneliness

Books on travelling by sea and about life on board vessels

are numerous, as well as legends and mysteries that sometimes

surround this argument passed down by sailors: whole days

away from their countries, their families, with rites and work

that are repeated regularly every hour with the same cadences

and the same precision. In the analysis of our interviews, hav-

ing to work with a large number of descriptive codes, we pro-

ceeded to build “families of codes” that have helped us to build

more efficient analytical dimensions. So our respondents, be-

longing to the sub-sample of sailors, tell us about their days on

ships:

Navigation at sea is tough because you go away for a long

time. The day starts very early depending on the guard

duty and maintenance shift. You work 4 hours and then

rest 8, but in fact you work all day for friends who are in

trouble. Sometimes unexpected circumstances happen,

such as storms or accidents onboard, but we manage to

adapt to every situation. When everything goes well we

are able to sleep at night. When something goes wrong

and there is a problem with the ship we must stay on

guard or fix the ship. Recently I had to be the head boat-

man. I took care of all the on-board equipment, the water-

tight doors, fire doors, I did the maintenance work on all

these. In addition, there was the on-call service at night,

because at night the ship is like it is during the day, noth-

ing changes, it is always under control and supervised

(Interview 45S).

Loneliness is without doubt one of the most common feel-

ings for those who work and live the sea. The distance from the

family, house and affections, can not be erased in front of the

infinite expanse of the sea. From the findings of our research,

we can see that the sense of loneliness in the fishermen and

sailors is indeed present but not extensively. In many cases the

seafarers never feel really alone, because they are with other

well-known comrades, often relatives, helping to create a

mechanism of belonging to a community (it is no coincidence

that the metaphor of community traced by sacred texts is often

in reference with the image of a boat). When they have mo-

ments of solitude, they think of their family or the mission they

have to accomplish. The unwritten rule, to respect and to avoid

hetero-destructive reactions related to territoriality, for example,

is to be silent, to avoid, as one interviewee told us, to speak

only “to let the tongue grasp air”. This feeling is described by

Hemingway when he says that “it was considered a virtue not

to speak at sea unless absolutely necessary. And the old man

had agreed and respected that rule. But now he often said his

thoughts aloud because there was no one to disturb” (Heming-

way, 1996: p. 41). More than a feeling of loneliness, however,

one could speak of melancholy, in the case of seafarers. Even in

times of joy, in fact, there seems to lurk, almost always, a sense

of anguish and abandonment, which, for example, when fishing

days are no good you feel sad, and when they are good you

worry, in any case, for the uncertain future.

I often think about my children and all the things that I

have not been able to give them. In fact, I think about all

those things that I could do on the mainland, or simply

stay at home with the people dear to me. But then the

work takes over. I can think about this a whole day, but at

E. MAURIZIO

the end, you have to concentrate on fishing (Interview

54F).

The situation is different for those working on large vessels,

because the timing and mode of work onboard convey more

obvious and tangible elements of loneliness, where “silence is

so that hearing seems lost” (Comisso, 1988: p. 200). It is the

family, however, the theme and most recurrent analytical cate-

gory in the sailors’ thoughts:

We often think of things to do, which are many, but just

as often we think about the family, with great mela ncholy .

Many do not feel alone, because they have a lot of friends

around, but to me personally it seems like a thousand

years since I last saw my family and I often feel bad (In-

terview 35S).

The results of many studies conducted in various countries

on the profession of fishermen and sailors agree in inserting

these professions among the ones with the highest number of

accidents and deaths. For example, an Australian study pub-

lished in 2006 on Work Related Maritime Fatalities (O’Connor,

& O’Connor, 2006) has proven that the number of accidents or

death at sea continues to increase despite improved security

conditions on modern boats. On this issue it seemed interesting

to evaluate, through specific questions, the attitude towards

weather aversion and risk when “the dead sea does not reflect

the stars in its heavy waters” (Amado, 1985: p. 240). The at-

mosphere that develops between comrades on board when a

storm passes without serious consequences is always character-

ized by a sense of joy and mental relaxation. The interview

results attest rather cold and confident attitudes towards storms

and tempests. Fortunately nowadays the lives of fishermen, and

even more of sailors, are protected by safety rules and regula-

tions that make the usual terror read about in books an old

memory. Exploring the analytical categories of “queries” pre-

sent in our interviews, there are many incidents of danger

which the men at sea meet:

Dangers? Yes, many times. While we were at sea in the

middle of a storm the engine broke and so we were at the

mercy of the waves, without being able to control the boat.

It was the worst experience that I had, I was so afraid of

not being able to go back home. Luckily, after two days

we managed to go back home exhausted and hungry (In-

terview 1F).

When a sailor arrives at a port unknown to him, an alternate

mechanism of social adaptation is activated: if you are alone,

fear and distrust prevail more than the desire to explore new

places and experience new sensations; if you go out in a group,

ports and surrounding areas suddenly become places where to

find fun and entertainment that for too long, at sea, have been

abandoned. In interviews, the majority of the sailors declared

being happy to know and venture into new places, even to get

acquainted with new people and cultures. The port, therefore,

presents itself not only as a place of departure, but becomes a

place of meetings, non-return, greetings, fear of the unknown,

or simply landing and anchoring. In this context, the port be-

comes a stage for the reception of vital worlds, feelings and

adventures of seafarers.

Conclusion

To understand a community, it is essential to grasp the lan-

guage surrounding it, identifying in the daily routine, in ritual

occasions, in beliefs and values, like in social institutions, the

relationship created between the individual and the socio-

community dimension. In the case of seafarers, we have seen

how this relationship can be considered fundamentally impor-

tant in building a “material” culture of the sea, and in strength-

ening the sense of belonging to a group, intended as an “eso

that is socially recognized” (Cipolla, 1997: p. 1220). From our

research it is possible to see how sailors and fishermen, despite

their different local facets, represent a social world which is

characterized by the richness of its material, social and sym-

bolic expressions. The craft of the sea unites them, sometimes

creating a sub-culture, completely different from that of other

populations and subcultures. These men share the risks of

storms, the religious rites of propitiation and thanksgiving, and

they create strong ties of friendship and strongly believe in

values such as the family and sense of belonging.

The sea is the background of their existence. For any other

person this vast expanse of blue water may represent a holiday,

or perhaps a romantic setting; for those who live it and derive

their income from it, the sea is life, and you love it just like you

love your birthplace, where you were raised and protected. The

research clearly shows the close relationship that develops be-

tween the sailor/fisherman and the natural environment in

which he lives in. Even if fishing techniques or working hours

change, even if family ties remain sound and solid, that great

blue expanse calls them like an invisible siren, makes them

remodel, rebuild and in some cases, strengthens the pieces of

the puzzle that makes up the human life-world of the sea, creat-

ing a sense of belonging like deep roots that grow and nourish

stems, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit (see Groth, 1982).

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