ABSTRACT
Historians have generally argued that in the wake of industrialization at sea, maritime migration levels rose significantly in order to meet the increased demand for unskilled labor. However, structural changes cannot fully explain why certain seafarers moved to a particular port, while others did not, or why some pursued longer careers, while others took temporary positions at sea. The maritime career of Carel Hendrik Bloebaum, a fireman from Amsterdam who sailed from the port of Antwerp during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, illustrates how individuals made choices within a social and familial context in response to broader historical processes. Bloebaum embodied the newly created industrial laborer at sea, a group of seafarers who have largely remained an anonymous mass, although his life course also highlights the uniqueness of each story.
