Boat people 2

The more I think about boat people, my thoughts move in circles and almost spiral. I draw and list and try and articulate my pondering. Eventually I identify five different categories of boat people. I call them Leisure sailors, Adventure sailors, Luxury sailors, Explorer sailors, and Escaper sailors. This is crude and lacks the complexity of reality, as most categorisations do. It’s also subjective; it’s very much MY version of groups of boat people. They also fit into my circular thinking, which is the pattern I eventually settle in and draw.

It feels natural to begin with the boat people like myself: the Leisure sailors. We’re the ones I’ve written about previously, the boat people who love the sea and want to be in nature, with all the challenges that come with that. Some have money, some don’t. Some, most people, also live on land for most of the time, but some live on their boats full time. This is the holiday makers who aren’t afraid to work on their holiday, where their leisure is their hobby and, to some, their real life and identity, when work is just a necessity to keep the hobby going.

From this group of boat people I take a short, clockwise step to the Adventure sailors (which is what many Leisure sailors, realistically or not, aspire to be). This group tend live on their boats permanently, sail around the world, maybe write books, make films or create social media content as influencers. They also don’t mind roughing it, and will have different means to support themselves. Some do it as a sport, so an Adventure sailor can also be an Athletic sailor. Individuals I would include in this group are authors like Tristan Jones, environmentalists and film-makers like Rolf Bjelke & Deborah Shapiro, and (retired) competitive sailor Tracy Edwards.

Next in my circle are the Luxury sailors, who in some ways represent an opposite to the previous two categories. While there might be a love for the ocean and competition and adventure amongst some people in this group, they are distinguishable on account of their wealth. They are rich holiday makers with big and expensive boats. They are the James Bond sailors who love gadgets, equipment and all nautical stuff. They are like leisure sailors but with money, and are easily recognised with their expensive sailing jackets, gloves, sunglasses and well-combed hair. The extremists of this tribe are the superyacht vacationists. They don’t do any of the actual sailing or boating themselves, but enjoy a very particular lifestyle. Here I’m thinking Goldie Hawn in Overboard, Princess Diana in a turquoise swimsuit, the film The Triangle of Sadness and the reality tv show Below Deck. They are much fewer than the other tribes but still represent a significant image of boating life, as they might be what many non-sailors think of when they talk about people with boats.

By mixing the last two tribes, the adventurers and the sailors of means, you get to the Explorer sailors. These are mostly historical and had both money and wanderlust. They helped map and understand the world, and in the process changed it to the world we know today. In this group I’m envisaging the likes of Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo and Ernest Shackleton. They represent trade, science, collaboration, exploration and internationalisation. But they also represent competition, nationalism, colonisation and imperialism. In the wake of their explorations followed exploitation, and often conflict and violence. This brings to mind the vikings, which are certainly a group within this category.

These explorers are just the tip of the historical iceberg of human movement and discovery over sea. Before these Europeans “discovered” the world, humans had populated every continent on the planet (apart from Antarctica). Whether these migrations and discoveries were driven by curiosity or need, we don’t know. We also don’t know how many were made by boat, as of this movement might have taken place before the continents drifted to their current positions. But considering evidence like the sophisticated navigational tools and knowledge the peoples of the Pacific Islands had long before the Europeans arrived, I’d like to think that curious boat people got around the world. A contemporary Explorer sailor, Thor Heyerdahl, set out on his raft Kon-Tiki to prove that prehistoric migration may have taken place from the Americas to the Pacific Islands on very simple structures by using the Pacific currents.

I’d like to think that humans have always wondered what was on the other side of the water, but I realise that quite often people might have taken their chances at sea simply because they had to. Starvation, natural disasters or conflict, or any other hopeless situation are likely reasons for why people will have moved both over land and water. And while we don’t always know for certain what the reasons for historical migration were, we do know that people have continued to migrate over millennia. Whether it was the Irish, Germans and Scandinavians that left poverty and crop failures in their homelands for better lives in the newly United States in the 19th Century, or the Vietnamese boat refugees in the 1970s, or 21st century migrants in dinghies crossing the Mediterranean, people have continued to move. And they are boat people too, my final group: the Escaper sailors.

With this category, which might be what most of us think of when we hear the term ‘boat people’, my circle begins to close. This final group is the most desperate one, the one we see in the news and most likely have strong feelings about. These people encompass elements from all of the previous categories: they can be poor, but they can also be rich, and they have existed throughout history and do so still today. Anyone can become this kind of boat person. And all the other categories of boat people have one more thing in common with the Escaper sailor: they are all seeking a better life. If this is defined by peace, security, food, financial stability, reuniting with family, happiness or freedom, or all of it, is different from person to person. This makes the Escaper sailor – though often vilified or victimised – emblematic of all people.

I believe that we are all descendants of boat people migrants. Evolution dictates that we move for survival; both our own and that of our species. We see a new version of this in the current space race. And the so called migration crisis is also happening for this very reason: it’s in our DNA to try and save ourselves. We are all boat people, seeking a better life and a better world.