This article draws on the authors' experiences conducting research on-board cargo vessels as part of a project on Transnational Seafarer Communities. It considers dangerous fieldwork in a hazardous occupational setting. Specific attention is given to the ways in which the ambient risks of particular research sites combine with the situational risks associated with being a female researcher in a male-dominated, rigidly hierarchical setting with a strong occupational culture. It concludes that issues of researcher health and safety are frequently under-emphasized and under-reported in both written and verbal accounts of fieldwork. The article highlights the extent to which gender contributes to situational risk in some research contexts and ambient risk acts to amplify situational risk potentially creating a dangerous environment for fieldworkers. Whilst some risks are immutable, greater steps should be taken at both an institutional and a personal level to minimize the dangers associated with fieldwork.
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