The present study focuses on the pattern of Swedish seafarers’ occupational commitment relative to gender and family situation. Statistical analyses are employed, using a survey material of Swedish seafarers randomly collected from a national register in 2010. It was hypothesized that the effect from having children at home should be negative on commitment to seafaring occupation. However, the effect was found to be strongly positive and statistically significant for women and close to significant for men. Another important family effect was, as expected, the positive effect of having a relative working, or having worked, at sea. This effect was, however, only significant for male seafarers in the age group below the early 40’s. When controlling for possible mediating effects due to gender distribution in the onboard departments, it became clear that working in the catering department comes with a strong negative effect on commitment to the seafaring occupation, but only so for women. This effect did not, however, alter much of the already observed gender patterns. In the concluding discussion, the findings are discussed in more details and recommendations put forward.