Navigating between Sea and Family: Sociocultural Dimensions of Seafarers’ Lives and Their Wives in Split

Gorana Bandalović, Kristina Siničić

Abstract


The maritime profession is widely recognised as a form of employment that profoundly shapes family organisation and intimate relationships, primarily due to long periods of physical absence and cyclical patterns of separation and reunion. Such working arrangements require continuous emotional, social, and practical adaptation from both seafarers and their family members.The aim of this paper was to explore the impact of the maritime profession on the lives of seafarers and their wives in the city of Split, as well as to analyze the dynamics of marital relationships in the context of prolonged separation. The research was conducted in 2019 using semi-structured interviews with seafarers and their wives. The results show that seafarers tend to perceive their wives as bearing a greater share of the burden, while the wives report that sacrifices are distributed equally. The main advantages of the maritime profession relate to financial stability and the possibility of spending intensive, high-quality time with the family during periods at home, whereas the key disadvantage is prolonged separation, which places greater responsibility on wives for household and family duties. Despite these challenges, both groups of participants express a high level of satisfaction with their lives and their long-distance marriages. Overall, the findings emphasise the sociocultural specificity of maritime family life.

Keywords


seafarers; seafarers’ wives; family; advantages; long-distance marriage

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.51558/2490-3647.2026.11.1.321

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