ABSTRACT

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually everyone on the planet. But the impacts have been diverse and uneven. In this article, I reflect on the plight of seafarers during the pandemic. I suggest that being ‘locked in’ is intrinsic to life at sea, as one can’t simply leave a ship. What makes the experience of the pandemic so challenging at sea is being ‘locked out’ of land. With border closures prohibiting ‘crew change’, many seafarers have been forced to extend their contracts, stay aboard, and postpone going home for long and often undefined periods of time. My article combines a reflexive personal narrative of being confined to a ship at sea for five months, while being excluded from land, with the question of how spending the pandemic at sea could be understood in relation to maritime labour.

摘要

2020年COVID-19大流行几乎影响了地球上的每个人。但是影响是多样且不均衡的。在本文中，我回顾了大流行期间海员的困境。我建议，“被困”是海上生活的本质，因为人们不能简单地离开船。使这种大流行病在海上如此具有挑战性的原因是被“封锁”在陆地之外。由于关闭边境禁止“船员变更”，许多海员被迫延长合同，留在船上，并推迟回家的时间，而且通常是不确定的时间。我的文章结合了反思性的个人叙述，即被限制在海上航行了五个月，而被排除在陆地之外，以及如何理解海上花销与海上劳动有关的问题。