telephone marriage

Usually, ship's crew members, ofiicers or ratings might be at sea working on various ships something like 80% of their time, sometimes even one year or more at a time, continuously. In case they are married they often call their wife from different ports of call or from the ship herself via satellite telephone, thus having actually a "telephone marriage" instead of a normal marriage.

Ben: You know, Mark calls his wife so often!
Steve: Yeah, I know, he has a "telephone marriage"