Mariner Nick Landon’s life at sea
David Helvarg speaks with Nick Landon, a young mariner who chose to bet his future on the sea. Landon traces his path from four years at the California Maritime Academy to the working reality of life as a third mate aboard an oil tanker — the long watches, the constant decision-making, and the particular solitude of open water. He recounts the ship’s stretch in dry dock in the Bahamas, where steel meets salt and the unglamorous machinery of maritime commerce gets laid bare. The conversation moves through the environmental shifts reshaping the modern fleet, the marine wildlife Landon has encountered along the way, and the message he carries to high school students weighing a life defined by tides and trade winds over one anchored to shore.
