“As the son of a son of a sailor I went out on the sea for adventure Expanding the view of the captain and crew Like a man just released from indenture” -Jimmy Buffett

For five generations, the Julian family business has been the sea.

Harry Julian, co-founder and owner of Pure Florida Cruises at Tin City in Naples, is the latest in the long line of Julian mariners to build his business on the water, following in the footsteps of his father, Lance, and his grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather.

Together, Lance and Harry bought a cruise and charter boat business at Tin City in 2009 and renamed it Cruise Naples. The family, originally from New Zealand, had already worked together for years in the film and television industry with their company Marine Team International — the Naples-based company has provided marine consulting on locations around the world for films including Titanic, Waterworld, Quantum of Solace and The Beach, and on television series including “Survivor” and “Outer Banks.”

The cruise business, still based at Tin City, is now known as Pure Florida and has grown from two boats to 20, and from nine employees to more than 30. Harry remains at the helm of Pure Florida, which offers nautical experiences including private charters; sightseeing and sunset cruises; boat and ski rentals; and eco-, shelling and dolphin-watching cruises.

Lance — who calls himself “very much the elder gentleman now” — continues to run Marine Team International and recently finished serving on location as marine coordinator on the fourth season of the hit Netflix series “Outer Banks,” which follows the adventures of a bunch of treasure-hunting teenagers and takes place mainly on boats and in far-flung island locales. MTI provides a wide range of maritime services for film and television projects — “basically for everything on, under or next to the water,” as Harry puts it — including transporting crew, operating the camera boat, putting together dive safety teams, underwater construction and surface logistics.

It’s not just Lance and Harry who have built the family businesses: Lance’s wife, Sharon, has been involved since the beginning with Marine Team International. In addition to Harry, she and Lance share two daughters, Sharlan and Hilary, who live in New Zealand with their families and also have been involved with the company at various times. Harry’s wife, Libby, worked with MTI on location in the jungles of Brazil on “Survivor,” which is how the couple met; they have a daughter, Madeline, who graduated from high school this year, and a son, Lance, who is a sophomore.

And on one film project, the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, Lance and Harry had the opportunity to work together on marine coordination in Panama with Lance’s dad, also named Harry. (One of the younger Harry’s roles on that project was to teach Bond actor Daniel Craig to drive a jet boat.)

Harry remembers working on the Bond film with his father and grandfather fondly as “a remarkable multigenerational professional experience” that helped him understand the generational development of the “Julian mariner.”

It was shortly after finishing Quantum of Solace that Harry and Libby decided they wanted to spend more time in Naples, where Libby had family, to raise their children and “quit living out of suitcases.” When he bought the cruise business in 2009, Harry’s focus turned in that direction so that he could spend less time on the road with MTI and more time with his growing family.

“That’s what Pure Florida did: It really anchored us,” Harry said recently during an interview at Tin City, steps away from the docks where their boats are moored. “We got sick of traveling, to be honest.”

As Harry has built Pure Florida, Lance has kept MTI going with a crew that he says “has become like family.”

“Getting the right crew [at MTI] was a major, major part of our success,” Lance says. “And they do become part of the family; several members of that crew followed us all around the world.”

On the Pure Florida front, Harry credits his crew of 32 employees with its success, as well, saying that the loyalty and commitment of the team have made the difference as the business went through major hurricanes including Irma, Ian, Helene and Milton, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harry said he takes “the long game” with his staff, offering higher pay and more hours than some other cruise companies “because we realize people need a steady and stable income.”

“That, I think, brings a certain level of loyalty,” Harry says. “I mean, we have very low turnover for our industry.” He cited as examples five current employees who have been with Pure Florida for eight, nine, 12, 14 and 15 years.

He said the company focuses on helping train employees for roles they may want to play in the future, which he thinks aids in retention.

“For example, say they start off working on jet skis, which teach them the basics of seamanship, good work ethic, how to treat people and communicate — all the important things,” Harry says. “Then they go and [serve as] mate on a boat, then they go on the bigger boat, then they go on the biggest boat of all: the Double Sunshine. It’s kind of your ‘holy grail’ of being a mate. And then you get your captain’s ticket (license) and you come back down and start on the little boat and then the next boat up, and the next, and that’s your training process. I’ve had probably 10 or 11 people in the last 15 years that have come through the company on that route.”

In addition to building a sense of family at Pure Florida that helps keep staff on board, over the last 15 years, Libby Julian said, the company has become involved in many local charitable projects that keep it involved with the community — including the Freedom Waters program that provides free nautical adventures for local veterans, children with chronic illnesses and other groups that may not have access to spending time on the water.

“I think [Pure Florida] has done a great job of being Neapolitans, part of the community, by being so charitable and making the Gulf everybody’s Gulf,” Libby says. “Because really, if you don’t have a boat in Naples, you’re not going out. There aren’t very many ways to access getting out on a boat; not everyone can afford that. So, we’re a good option.”

As for the future, Harry said it is too early to tell whether any of the kids in the next generation of Julians will find their way to the sea. If they do, he knows that he and Lance will be happy to help them find their way and instill some of the lessons they each have learned — especially the importance of a hard work ethic that has been passed down through previous generations.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that hard work ethic,” Harry says, “and also don’t fall into the trap of doing everything how your father did it, because my dad never did anything exactly as my grandfather did it. I haven’t done anything exactly how my dad did it, but I’ve taken the lessons and history of not just these three generations, but the numerous ones prior that made me who I am today. Hard work is something the Julian family never had a choice in.”