A person who is connected to the sea, who may be immoral, raunchy, anti-social, or spiritually lost. A jokester, antagonizer, and risk taker. This persona is in the maritime industry, he is a Navy Sailor, Coastie or Maritime Cadet.  He is in the fishing industry. Ferrymen, Stevedores, Submariners.  There are all types. He acknowledges the spirituality of the sea and the necessity of shipmates, though is not necessarily loyal to either.  Dirty Sailors come from history: the poor bastards who survived the first roundings of The Cape of Good Hope, the transatlantic crossings, or the accidental circumnavigations.  They are the men who suffered under Columbus, Drake and Magellan. Dirty Sailors are just that, dirty sailors

I am no fan of strict definitions, so I disclaim the verbiage above to be a formality, and not a tone setter. I have seen a culture of immoral seaman.  I’ve witnessed my officers and my superiors act recklessly and shamelessly at sea and in foreign ports.  I believe the social isolation, even if it is aboard a crowded ship, works the mind on a predictable way.  The history of sailors has many consistencies throughout the centuries.  Beginning with Homer, men at sea were notorious for mischief.  Currently, the pop film trend sends us surreal images of pirates of the Caribbean, fantasies of lust and war. The reality of sailorhood is much more potent.  The life of men at sea is short. Fishing is still the world’s most dangerous job, though sea life in general is inherently dangerous.  The isolation and the intrinsic proximity to danger creates a unique breed.

There are more aspects to mariner culture, other than isolation and risk; there is ambiance and nature.  The scenery at sea is dreamlike, taking us further from the standard patterns of civilization.  There is no concrete pathway, guidance signage, or wifi-hotspot here.  The sights underway induce nostalgia with it euphoria and spirituality.  The sailor is forced to recognize nature, to fall in tune with the natural rhythm of the Earth.   The sounds of moving water, of wind and of nautical devises are all relevant to our status aboard the ship.  Unlike the sounds of a city, which are arbitrary and carry no relevant meaning, the sounds of the ship and sea are pertinent to our mission and our daily chores, and thus again we are thrown into our surroundings the more so. A Western Gull call, a channel marker bell, or a howling wind directs us.

There are a lot of common cultural attributes sailors have across the board.  These are the attitudes and beliefs that unite the mariner culture into one facet and these common features are what it takes to be labeled as a sailor. Once we have a sailor we just have to apply the moral, spiritual and life style choices mentioned above to have a Dirty Sailor.