The sea and Ryuji

One of the things I noticed in the novel The Sailor Who fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mashima is that the images of the sea, or the sea-related images are always associated with Ryuji wheneven he is presented. I think this perfectly make sense because as we all know Ryuji is a sailor who lives in a 10,000 ton freighter, called the Rakyo, in an environment where the images of the sea and sea-related are dominant
.In my opinion, to Ryuji the imagery of the sea is really important to him. It symbolizes his pursuit to glory because if he lives in the sea there is still hope for him to find his glory. However, as the story move on, the sea-related images started to fade whenever Ryuji is presented. Ryuji, toward the end of the novel, is valuing the  materialistic objects more than the image of the sea.  I think Mishima does so to achieve Ryuji's character shift, showing to the reader that Ryuji (toward the end of the book) is become more materialistic rather than minimalist which he orginallly is at the begining of the novel.

Here is the picture of a 10,000 ton freighter: