I've been in the Merchant Navy myself. If you can train as a Deck Officer, Engineer or Electro-Technical Officer you've got it made. I started out as a radio operator in the early 1990's but as a profession it became obsolete. I did some time in the cruise industry as an ETO and am thinking of going back to start making some decent money again. You could make a lot of money and use it to do flight training when the industry is more promising in the future and still have something to fall back on.