The Mercies takes place by the sea, highlighting the importance of ships and boats. Ships and boats are literal survival mechanisms for the communities in Finnmark. Boats help people fish and provide food to their community, while ships help transport people between disparate communities that the unforgiving landscape would otherwise keep separate. Ships and boats are also symbols. With fishing a traditionally male-dominated industry, Kirsten’s seizure of the fishing boats subverts gender roles and transforms a masculine space into an equal one; she too can fish and row, so she is just as strong and valuable as any man. Ships hold a different connotation. The ship brings foreigners to Vardø—people like Absalom, who do not appreciate Vardø’s people and customs. Thus, the ship symbolizes imperialism, colonialism, and the arrival of dangerously dogmatic thinking.

The novel opens with a horrifying storm that swiftly kills all the men of Vardø. This storm is based on historical records of a real 1617 storm, but the fictional storm symbolizes grief, the terror of nature, and the unpredictability of life. Though the community of Vardø has learned to deal with the changing moods of the sea, this storm is the worst anyone has ever seen.