The Outlaw Sea

William Langewiesche’s The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime describes the wild world of international commercial shipping, which is a lot more interesting than it sounds. Shipping is a weakly regulated, cutthroat industry that plays an essential role in the global economy. However, nations have limited control over international waters, giving rise to the freedom, chaos, and crime mentioned in the book’s subtitle.

Langewiesche, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, starts by describing the sinking of the Kristal, a tanker shipping molasses from India to Amsterdam. The Kristal, which was at least five years past its retirement age, had typical international associations: Italian owners, a Croatian captain, Spanish & Pakistani crew, and a British customer. The ship ventured forth into treacherous oceans in order to maintain their schedule, a high priority in the modern business climate. Eleven men, almost a third of the crew, died at sea. And such events are common; each year, dozens of large ships and hundreds of small merchant vessels sink, killing several hundred sailors.

The next chapter focuses on criminal activities. Terrorism is a major concern, since searching the massive commercial fleet for dangers in infeasible and al Qaeda, surprisingly, owns several merchant ships. Piracy is another major concern. Langewiesche describes, in detail, the capture of the Alondra Rainbow, a $10 million ship carrying $10 million of aluminum, near Indonesia. Out of the handful of major piracy attacks each year, the Alondra Rainbow stands out in that a few of the perpetrators were captured and received jail terms.

The Outlaw Sea next discusses the environmental problems of oil spills and government efforts to prevent accidents involving oil tankers. After that, two long chapters describe the sinking of the ferry ship Estonia in the Baltic in 1994, killing 850 people. Langewiesche spends way too much time on the experiences of the passengers and the investigation into what happened; that’s the weakest portion of the book. Systematic problems interest me a lot more than an isolated high-profile disaster.

The final chapter analyzes the ship-breaking industry, which salvages raw materials from obsolete ships. The Indian port and industrial zone of Alang breaks down half of the world’s condemned ships. Western groups, such as Greenpeace, are aghast at the miserable working conditions and the environmental impact of the activities there. However, Alang provides a livelihood for around a million Indian workers who can’t find anything better.

The Outlaw Sea is a very readable account of a world I knew virtually nothing about. The journalistic writing style and a couple of maps make it a very easy read. It reminds you of the widespread Third-World working conditions that underlay the quality of life we all enjoy, along with the difficulty of addressing problems in the global economy.