I don’t choose books lightly. As a voracious reader who also reads for a living, I’m mindful about consumption, even down to the environmental impact of printing books. So when a synopsis describing piracy, maritime disasters, and the shadowy underworld of international shipping caught my attention online, I knew that William Langweische's The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime had something special (and new) to offer. The promise of uncovering hidden, largely unknown dimensions of the sea—a place that has uniquely held my interest throughout my life—spiked a curiosity to learn more about what goes on in the ocean out there on the high seas.
Langewiesche delivers. Drawing from the depth of reporting one might expect from a national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, he exposes the murky inner workings of global maritime shipping and the realities versus the regulations in international waters. He guides his readers through an understanding of what are international maritime agreements, the prevalence of piracy and profiteering on the high seas, and the quasi-legal shell game of tanker ownership - otherwise known as 'flags of convenience'.
In detail, we learn what happened in the hostile takeover and subsequent disappearance of the Alondra Rainbow - a 370-foot general cargo freighter carrying 6,972 metric tons of aluminum valued around 10 million dollars - that was catagorically assaulted, boarded and hijacked on its way to Omuta, Japan from the loading dock at Sumatra, Indonesia. How does a 370-foot freighter disappear on the high seas? The logistics of such a feat are highly involved but curiously obtainable within the loopholes and blind spots of the international shipping community.
Langewiesche also exposes the consequences of extending ships far beyond their safe lifespans by giving a rich education on what happened with the Exxon Valdez disaster (along with several other tanker failures) and finally, he takes us onto the chaotic beaches of India - most notably Alang - where massive steel vessels meet their end in a largely unregulated, human and environmentally costly process known as shipbreaking.
What makes The Outlaw Sea so compelling is Langewiesche’s ability to hold the frame steady for readers like me—complete outsiders to this deliberately foggy realm—while revealing an offshore world governed by its own set of rules, functioning largely beyond nationalism, accountability and the law. Written with a lyricism and attention to detail that captivates the reader, the author succeeds in both educating and engrossing his audience. His writing provides a gripping narrative including well crafted dialogue, first-person accounts as well as deeply researched trenches of timelines and tragic events to keep the book's pace moving forward.
"In principle, the leading industrial nations continue to promote the idea of the ocean as a governable place, and they actively participate in the IMO and the other diplomatic forums that are supposed to make it that way. In practice however, they are rapidly backing away -- recoiling from the growing chaos and attempting to build national defenses against the threat that it represents." -- The Outlaw Sea
In the end, The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime is a gripping work of nonfiction that unveils to the reader how the open ocean remains one of our planet's last true frontiers. Through stories of the prevelence of piracy, toxic pollution, terrorism, and heart breaking disasters like the sinking of the Estonia ferry, Langewiesche argues that the ocean’s freedom—so often romanticized by people—has created a viral breeding ground for crime and exploitation, as well as human and environmental catastrophes. Essential and unsettling, the book reframes the sea as both vital to our world and far more dangerous than we might like to admit.
Publisher : North Point Press
Publication date : June 1, 2005
Edition : First Edition
Language : English
Print length : 239 pages
Item Weight : 8 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.65 x 8.5 inches
For addiitonal book reviews about the ocean and the people who live by it, CLICK HERE
