What If We Are Trying to Fix Seafaring Without Changing It?

The future of seafaring may depend not only on who we recruit, but on what gives people a reason to stay.

A high street made me rethink seafaring.

I was walking along the high street recently in Glasgow City Centre and found myself thinking about how much it had changed from the one I remembered.

There are coworking spaces in the middle of shopping malls now. People work from cafés as if they are offices. Shops are no longer just places to buy things, but also places to collect parcels, return online orders and meet other people. It feels very different from the high street I remember from childhood.

A casual stroll through Glasgow got me thinking: are we trying to fix seafaring without changing the underlying model?

The high street didn't become relevant again by asking people to behave as they used to. It adapted to how people live now.

For years, we tried to force people to shop locally. But the world had changed. Online shopping was cheaper, easier and always available. Simply asking people to behave differently was never going to be enough. We tried. It did not work.

The high streets that started to feel alive again did not just ask people to come back. They gave people a reason to come back. Coffee. Conversation. Familiar faces. Somewhere to meet. A sense of connection.

In short, they looked at what people wanted. And more than anything, people wanted connection.

That stayed with me, because I think maritime may be facing a similar question.

The maritime question

The 2026 BIMCO/ICS Seafarer Workforce Report highlights the growing demand for certified officers. But an officer shortage is not something we can fix quickly, because you cannot simply recruit a Captain.

Senior officers take years to develop. They need education, sea time, experience, responsibility and progression. If we are not bringing enough people in, or helping enough people stay, the problem will keep growing.

The real shortage may not only be officers. It may be reasons to stay.

So perhaps the real question is not only how we attract people into seafaring. It is what would make them want to stay.

Fixing the extras is not enough

We keep adding solutions. Better connectivity. Better salaries. Family support. Mental health apps. Wellbeing programmes. Training.

All of these things matter. But I wonder whether we are sometimes improving the extras while leaving the central experience largely unchanged.

The latest Seafarers Happiness Index gives us a reason to pause. Overall happiness fell to 6.87 out of 10 in Q2 2026, with continued pressures around workload, shore leave, wages and life at sea.

That does not mean seafarers are completely miserable. But it does suggest that the experience is under strain.

The question younger people are really asking

And when I speak to younger people in maritime, I do not usually hear people saying they do not want to work hard. I hear a different question.

Is this life worth the sacrifice?

That is not a lack of commitment. It may be a very rational question.

A career at sea asks a lot from people. Time away from family. Rotational crews. Pressure. Responsibility. The need to build trust quickly with people you may only work with for one contract.

Yet belonging, meaning, respect, good leadership and feeling listened to are not young-person needs. They are human needs.

The difference may be that younger workers are less willing to accept the absence of these things as simply part of the job.

Designing for people, not only roles

So maybe the challenge is not to make the old model look more attractive. Maybe it is to rethink the experience itself.

What would seafaring look like if we designed it around the people we need for the future?

Not by lowering standards. Not by removing responsibility. Not by pretending life at sea is something it isn’t.

But by asking better questions. How do we create trust more quickly? How do we make leadership feel more human? How do we help people feel they belong onboard? How do we make the sacrifices of a career at sea feel worthwhile?

Because perhaps the future of seafaring is not about making the old model more comfortable. Perhaps it is about making the experience more human.

So the question I keep coming back to is this.

If you could change one thing about life at sea to make people want to stay, what would it be?

I would genuinely like to hear your thoughts!