How To Make a Sailor's Valentine

In olden days, Sailors' Valentines were handmade gifts by sailors to be given to their wife or girlfriend. How sad it must have been to be a sailor in the 19th century and to be away from your true love for months, possibly even years at a time. There were certainly no phones or the internet for regular communication and there was no mail delivery at sea. A sailor could write to his love and mail a letter to her when he was in port, but mail to him would be sporadic, if at all. It would require a great deal of devotion to remain bound to someone you couldn't see or talk to with any regularity.

Photo by Sylvestermouse

No doubt, the sailors chose their occupation to either prepare to provide or to provide for his loved ones. Hard economic times have always plagued our world and people have always done what they have to do to earn a living. I don't deny there were some who loved the sea and wanted to be at sea, but that doesn't mean that they didn't long to be with the one they loved.

Some believe that when the sailors would land on beaches, they would collect seashells. They would then make intricate, detailed seashell artwork. It would have taken months to collect the right shells and assemble one of these treasures. When they returned home they would present these labors of love to their wife or betrothed as a symbol of their devotion. It would say to the recipient "I was thinking of you always" without a word having to be spoken.

I noticed as I was searching sites on the internet for completed Sailor's Valentines to purchase, that most of the artists stated that when the sailors were in port at Barbados, they would purchase these tokens from the local natives.

I tend to prefer the more romantic legend. The imagine of a sailor bending over a table top or overturned barrel on-board a rocking ship and personally placing every seashell on a piece of wood in an intricate detailed pattern to give as a gift to his wife or girlfriend upon his return home, is just so enchanting!