Reporters Jeremy James, Jeanne La Chard, John Pitman, Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson

Men may go to sea for adventure and romance but the appeal doesn't usually last very long and the shipping world is worried about the wastage. One out of three merchant seamen leave the life within the first year and nine out of ten return ashore, for good, before they have served ten years. For some men, life at sea represents an escape from the rat race of shore life, or from domestic responsibility. And, behind a man's decision to leave shipping and return home, there is usually a wife.
At sea on two very different ships - an old passenger boat and a new container ship - seamen talk, to Harold Williamson and a Man Alive team, about their love - and hate - of life on board. And, back home, the wives have their say.