Havlock is obsessed with safety.

On shore, he reminded his children to always stay vigilant of dangers. He would chide his wife for not paying attention when walking down the stairs. Woe to those who dare text and drive in his presence. Multiply his obsession by ten when he was on the job. Because tragedy awaits those who let their guard down. He knew this when a close friend, the very one who convinced him to take his Merchant Mariner Credential and start a career as an Ordinary Seaman, would get into a tragic accident on a fishing boat out in Bulgaria due to an oversight. His friend was paralysed for life. So Havlock swore no one in his crew would ever befall such a tragic fate. A lesser man might have hung up their sea legs. But there was no turning back for Havlock. He was already locked to the life the oceans offered.

In the peaceful hum of the engine room, Tio almost forgot the way his stomach rolled like the swell of a wave just hours earlier.

A typhoon that the vessel had just sailed through kept the crew busy. They had lost much time, barely making headway as the vessel pushed against the might of the wind at a mere 0.2 knots. As he hunkered down in his bunker, unable to keep down any food, he wondered if he had made the right career choice. A seafarer that couldn’t shake seasickness. Laughable. But as he tinkered about his task, shoulder to shoulder beside his family at sea, the only thought he had in his mind was “wonder what’s for lunch.”

Some days, Xu Chao wonders what happened to his brother from Malaysia. Is he married? Does he have children? Is he a grandfather now?

He searches for Ahmad Safwan’s face at every dock he reports to. Scans the manifest for ID number 2008. Hoping, against all odds, that he would meet Ahmad Safwan again. The one who showed him that a crew could be of different nationalities, different faiths, different beliefs, and still love each other like family. A bond made in Singapore, on a November day in 2009, that was lost but never for a moment, forgotten.

The crew of seven in the middle of the South China Sea had just about lost hope.

Their day started on a high, celebrating on their way home after winning a regatta. But while sailing back to the Philippines the boat capsized. Completely and in a most devastating fashion. They had no way to radio for help, and could only leave it to fate. So fate sent Captain Tong. His vessel was charting its path right to where they were. A lookout would alert the crew of the men overboard, and a lifeboat sent their way. How literal. That lifeboat would bring them home, and the village chief of the rescued Filipino crew tried to reach out to Captain Tong to return it. But by then, he had already signed off the vessel, getting ready for his next post.

Four barrels of water, 20 litres each, stood between Captain Maksym and his carefully laid out plans.

He had been planning all his life, from when he was given a book on history's greatest captains and decided that he, too, would go down in history as one of the greats. But that day, nothing was going the way he wanted it to. He received word of two typhoons, one after the other, hurtling towards Okinawa. With a short window to get ahead before they closed the route to the South China Sea, he was in a hurry to make headway. Then, an emergency was radioed in by a sister vessel nearby, adrift and in urgent need of a few spare parts. Of course, the incoming typhoons made the waves that day unforgiving and unsafe for any manned boats. Whatever parts they needed had to be sent by a remote controlled lifeboat. Before putting everything on the line, he ran a simulation using barrels of water to replicate the weight of the spare parts. Now, his entire plan hinged on whether the boat could carry the load there and make the return. It could, and it did. Once the spare parts were delivered, he turned his vessel around and was off at full speed. Racing ahead of the typhoons. And making it to his next destination precisely on schedule.

Nicole never wanted an ‘easy’ job.
She was a woman who embraced pressure.

During her training, she naturally gravitated towards the heat of the boilers. Imagine her disappointment laced with fear, the first time she entered the overbearing presence of an LNG vessel’s engine room, when she was tasked with tending the ship’s purifiers. 10 in all. A subdued equipment that Nicole never quite understood in school. But even machines need love. So, as with anything that you love, she started to pay attention. The grumble it makes at a touch. The racket it emits when all isn’t well. Pretty soon, the purifiers spoke to her with a clarity that even words could not. Perhaps there's nothing to be afraid of after all. Not if she could find a way to understand how it worked. All it takes is time, attention, and a bit of love.

Isaac and his wife had all but called it quits on the baby-making factory after having two beautiful daughters.

One born just two weeks before he left for his very first contract. The second girl arrived just as he did to the hospital, straight from the airport after signing off a vessel. Right in the nick of time too. They were content. They felt blessed. But just when they settled into life as a family of four, another wiggled his way in and made himself right at home. On June 25th, the Day of the Seafarer no less. His miracle son will forever remind Isaac of his calling to the ocean. Although, sadly, his son has taken a shine to being a pilot instead.

Abu’s wife asked him for the second day in a row: “When are you coming home?”

Perhaps she should try coming to him, he suggested in what he thought was an appropriately joking tone. She didn’t see the joke. Only the opportunity to spend some time with her husband. After getting the necessary clearance, his wife met him at Bintulu Port in Malaysia, and boarded the vessel with him. For the next 30 days, Abu was there for his wife as she found her sea legs. He explained to her that he wasn’t playing a practical joke when items started falling repeatedly off the shelf due to the rocking of the vessel. He tended to her when she had bouts of seasickness. And he stood by her side as she took in the wondrous sunsets, sunrises, and infinite shapes clouds made in the horizon of an open ocean. A sight he knew to be the most beautiful in the world.