Anchor of Security: Why Seafarers Must Prepare for Tomorrow’s Storms
Navigating waves at work daily Experiences of Seafarers. (Photo? Courtesy)
By Andrew Mwangura
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
The maritime industry has always been defined by its inherent uncertainties, unpredictable weather, fluctuating freight rates, and the constant dance between supply and demand that shapes global trade.
Yet perhaps no uncertainty looms larger for seafarers than the question of financial security in retirement.
As men and women who have dedicated their lives to keeping the world’s commerce flowing, seafarers face unique challenges that make comprehensive health and financial planning not just advisable, but essential for dignified aging.
The stark reality is that seafaring careers, while often financially rewarding during peak earning years, carry significant risks that can devastate unprepared retirees.
The physical demands of maritime work often lead to earlier retirement than shore-based professions, while the irregular nature of employment and varying international labor standards create gaps in traditional pension coverage.
This reality plays out differently across the globe, but the underlying challenge remains universal.
In Norway, Captain Erik Larsen exemplifies successful retirement planning. After thirty years sailing between Arctic ports, Larsen supplemented his mandatory pension contributions with additional private savings and comprehensive health insurance.
When a back injury forced his early retirement at fifty-eight, his foresight allowed him to maintain his Bergen home and access private healthcare that expedited his recovery.
Larsen’s experience reflects broader patterns in OECD countries, where robust social safety nets provide a foundation that seafarers can build upon through personal financial planning.
The contrast becomes evident when examining the experience of Filipino seafarer Roberto Santos, who spent twenty-five years working on international vessels.
Despite earning competitive wages, Santos relied primarily on remittances to support his extended family in Manila, setting aside minimal savings for retirement.
When diabetes complications ended his career, he found himself dependent on limited government healthcare and family support.
Santos’s story illustrates a common challenge faced by seafarers from developing nations, where immediate family obligations often overshadow long-term planning, and where social safety nets may be inadequate or nonexistent.
The difference in outcomes between Larsen and Santos isn’t merely about individual choices—it reflects systemic inequalities in how different regions support their maritime workers.
However, both cases underscore the same fundamental truth: relying solely on government benefits or employer-provided coverage is insufficient for most seafarers’ retirement needs.
The maritime industry’s globalised nature creates additional complexities. A seafarer might work for a Greek shipping company, sail under a Panamanian flag, and hold citizenship in Bangladesh.
This jurisdictional maze can create gaps in coverage and confusion about entitlements.
Moreover, the industry’s notorious boom-and-bust cycles mean that even well-paid positions can disappear suddenly, leaving seafarers scrambling to find alternative employment or facing extended periods without income.
Health considerations add another layer of urgency to retirement planning. The physical demands of seafaring, combined with limited access to preventive healthcare while at sea, often result in accumulated health problems that become expensive to manage in retirement.
Additionally, the mental health impacts of prolonged family separation and the stress of maritime work can manifest as costly psychological conditions later in life.
Multi-pronged approach
First, seafarers must prioritize financial literacy and long-term planning from the beginning of their careers. This means understanding compound interest, diversifying investments, and recognizing that high earnings during peak years must compensate for potentially lengthy retirement periods.
Second, the industry must evolve to provide more comprehensive benefits and clearer pathways to retirement security. This includes improving portability of benefits across employers and jurisdictions, and ensuring that all seafarers have access to adequate healthcare coverage.
Third, governments and international maritime organizations must work together to create more uniform standards for seafarer welfare and retirement benefits.
The Maritime Labour Convention provides a framework, but implementation varies widely, leaving many seafarers vulnerable.
The ocean has always been an unforgiving environment that rewards preparation and punishes complacency.
The same principle applies to financial planning for retirement. Seafarers who invest in their future security—through systematic saving, comprehensive insurance, and careful planning—create the stability that allows them to weather life’s storms.
Those who fail to prepare may find themselves adrift in their golden years, dependent on others for support they could have provided for themselves.
Kenya’s maritime sector offers a particularly instructive case study in both the perils of inadequate planning and the potential for positive change.
Veteran Kenyan seafarers who began their careers in the early 1950s, during the colonial period and Kenya’s early independence years, often fell into familiar traps—sending most earnings home to support extended families while neglecting personal retirement savings, lacking access to financial literacy programs, and trusting that government pensions would suffice.
Today, many of these experienced mariners face difficult retirements, dependent on family support or minimal government benefits that fail to match their contribution to Kenya’s economy.
For the Kenyan government, the path forward requires decisive action. First, Kenya must establish a specialized maritime workers’ pension fund that follows international best practices, ensuring portability across employers and adequate contribution rates.
This benevolent fund for retired seafarers must be anchored in comprehensive legislation that amends both the Merchant Shipping Act and the Labour Relations Act, creating legal frameworks that protect seafarers’ retirement rights and establish mandatory contribution mechanisms from both employers and employees.
Such legislation would provide the legal foundation necessary to ensure that maritime workers receive the same retirement security afforded to other professional sectors.
Second, the government should mandate financial literacy training for all seafarers before they receive their certificates of competency, making retirement planning education as essential as safety training.
Third, Kenya needs to negotiate bilateral agreements with major shipping nations to ensure Kenyan seafarers receive fair treatment and benefit portability regardless of where they work.
Young Kenyan seafarers entering the profession today have a unique opportunity to learn from their predecessors’ experiences. They must resist the cultural pressure to shoulder excessive family financial burdens at the expense of their own future security.
This doesn’t mean abandoning family obligations, but rather creating sustainable support systems that include dedicated retirement savings.
They should take advantage of modern financial tools—mobile banking platforms like M-Pesa can facilitate automatic savings transfers, while emerging investment platforms can help diversify their portfolios beyond traditional assets.
Most importantly, young Kenyan seafarers must advocate for themselves collectively. They should demand transparent benefit structures from employers, seek out additional insurance coverage, and establish professional networks that share financial planning strategies.
The mistakes of veteran Kenyan seafarers—noble in their family dedication but shortsighted in their personal planning—need not be repeated if today’s generation embraces both responsibility to family and accountability to their future selves.
The choice is clear: seafarers must become the captains of their own financial destinies, charting a course toward secure retirement while they still have the power to navigate their futures.
The author is a policy analyst specializing in maritime governance and blue economy development.
