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A former superyacht chef has revealed how working in the industry led her to a state of exhaustion and the brink of suicide.
Melanie White, 30, now based in London, discusses her traumatic time at sea in an eye-opening book titled Behind Ocean Lines: The Invisible Price of Accommodating Luxury.
In the tome, she mentions the grueling schedule she was put through, working 18 hour days non-stop for 11 months out of the year, and how she was shocked by the crew’s nonchalant attitude towards sexual harassment.
At one point she reveals: ‘At anchor, when a man touched me without my consent, I experienced loneliness and fear on another level. I told two people what happened. You won’t be surprised if they weren’t. They didn’t like me, and I didn’t want it, but they supported me.’
Melanie White, 30, now based in London, talks about her traumatic time at sea in an eye-opening book titled Behind Ocean Lines: The Invisible Price of Accommodating Luxury.
In the volume, she mentions the grueling schedule she was subjected to, working 18-hour days non-stop for 11 months of the year.
Before entering the world of superyachts at the age of twenty, Melanie worked as a publishing editor in Cambridge.
But he decided to leave “the drudgery of office life” to pursue a career in the boating industry.
She managed to get a job through her boyfriend George, since he worked as a a start-up pattern for a luxury boat builder.
At one point, he was making more than $47,000 a year and was able to save for a down payment on a house because he had no expenses like room and board.
While the financial side of things was a huge plus, this was outweighed by the negatives, with Melanie saying that after a stint below deck, “there was no piece of me that I could recognise.”
While working on one particular million-dollar sailing yacht, Melanie says the conditions were pretty unbearable.
On the ship, the fridge was located on the starboard side, and as a result, when I opened the door, the contents often rolled out.
She reflected: ‘Three times I had been crushed by a pickle jar… Life at sea was officially a puzzle my body had to piece together until I felt whole again.
At one point, he was making more than $47,000 a year and was able to save for a down payment on a house because he had no expenses like room and board.
On a ship Melanie worked on, the refrigerator was located on the starboard side, and as a result, when she opened the door, the contents often rolled out.
In the book, the brunette also paints a damning picture of some of the super-rich clients who chartered the boats.
‘I received at least five new bruises, or ‘boat bites’ as yachtsmen like to call them. My body quickly slammed into the countertop corners and bulkheads (walls) without my permission. The ocean was my boss now.
Along with the unsettled conditions, Melanie said the logistics of cooking at sea were also challenging.
She offers an example for readers, stating that for a two-week trip with three meals a day, she would need to stock up on enough ingredients to prepare forty-two meals before leaving.
Then the next challenge was that I only had a household size fridge-freezer to store the chilled and frozen items.
In the book, the brunette also paints a damning picture of some of the super-rich clients who chartered the boats.
He didn’t know who he was on a desk and he didn’t know who he was on a ship either. Which one is worse? The latter, it turns out
She says she ran into one of her friends who was working on a 141-foot motor boat that cost $150,000 a week and said her guests had been complaining about the water temperature.
Melanie wrote: ‘Could you do something about it? Maybe warm the Adriatic?
The superyacht guests also had very high expectations, which meant she was working around the clock to make sure they avoided the captain’s ‘ab***** king’.
Proving how overworked she was, Melanie wrote: “Excellent service is when beds are miraculously made even though guests are given full table service during meals.” When the shower is completely dry, just five minutes after taking one. But Mel wasn’t serving me champagne?
‘When the hand towel is inexplicably re-folded and replaced, and there’s not a single water mark in the faucet after every hand wash. But didn’t I see her come into my cabin? Just because a guest went to the bathroom mid-run and didn’t put the toilet seat down shouldn’t make a difference.
Melanie said the superyacht guests had very high expectations, which meant she was working around the clock to make sure they avoided the captain’s ‘grandpa’.
As a result of the high-stress situation, Melanie said she became dangerously thin and could see hip bones she hadn’t seen since she was 12 years old.
The cook, who has since become a mother, hopes her book will help others in a similar situation get the help they need.
‘The fact that your 200 euro bath towel fell down the toilet should never appear in your conscious mind.
“It is important that a guest feel welcome. Regardless of how tired or overworked we do our best to keep you under the radar.’
As a result of the high-stress situation, Melanie said she became dangerously thin and could see hip bones she hadn’t seen since she was 12 years old.
At one point, she had a kidney infection because she hadn’t drunk enough fluids, and later, she had to fly home with her worried parents and a doctor prescribed antidepressants.
Things got even worse, and Melanie admits that at one point she considered taking her own life.
Behind Ocean Lines: The Invisible Price of Accommodating Luxury details Melanie’s eye-opening experience
She wrote: ‘I slipped underfoot in the mud that reeked of depression in another pit. Surely this isn’t what it feels like to be suicidal? The severity of this final, desperate word, ‘suicide’, frightened me to such a degree that I turned the heat of the shower up to unbearable heat to use as a deterrent to my own mind.
“This was it, this hit rock bottom, and I was convinced that if I uttered this terrifying thought to someone, they would never have the chance to come out on top and tackle the problem with the stamina and willpower I knew I was capable of. No I didn’t want medicine or doctor’s appointments.’
In an attempt to heal, Melanie said she felt she had to go back to sea, but in the end she realized it was better to leave the industry altogether.
While she thought sailing on a yacht would be an adventure, taking her from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean to the Arctic, she said it was ultimately a harrowing experience that broke her.
She reflects: ‘I didn’t know who I was on a desk and I didn’t know on a ship either. Which one is worse? The latter, it turns out. I was a shadow of my old self, unable to figure out my place in all of this.
The cook, who has since become a mother, hopes her book will help others in a similar situation get the help they need.
She writes in the preface: ‘It is difficult to help someone experiencing a decline in mental well-being on land, so imagine how many more obstacles there are to helping someone at sea.
‘It’s not going to happen overnight and we’re not always going to get it ‘right’, but raising awareness of the mental health challenges seafarers face is a start, and so I’m sharing my story. “.
Behind Ocean Lines: The Invisible Price of Accommodating Luxury, published by Lemon Quartz Publishing, is available at Amazon