The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime [Hardcover ed.] 0865475814, 9780865475816

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"Astonishing ... As [Langewiesche] demonstrates time and time again in this brave, often electrifying book, [the sea] is

a world that

is

both new and very old, and we ignore

—NATHANIEL PHILBRICK,

The

New

York Times

it

at our peril."

Book Review

WILLIAM

LANGEWIESCHE •

IHI

E

JLLD

EEDOM, CHAQ AND CRIME*

''

~i

THE OUTLAW

praise for

'[Langewiesches] nail-biting description

The Perfect Storm or

Tit a

is

SE

\

more gripping than

me

— Brad Knickerbocker,

w

The Christian Sciena

'Langewiesche has evolved into perhaps our leading for journalist, a voracious student of

all

thai

can go wrong

literary-minded accident investigator, he digs for ever)

whom

evidence, without worrying about

—

offend."

conclusions might

Ins

W

Gifford, The Washington Post Book

Bill

'An ambitious and

Like a sir

evocation

lyrical

oceans pla)

of the role the

an increasingly interconnected planet

.

.

,

in

Elegant.'

— New York Post ("Required Reading

'In

understated prose that highlights the dangers inherent

freedom

Mr

ot the seas.

who

believe thai a large-scale maritime

currentk poses the most serious threat

national securit)

.

.

.

the ocean, which

Mr.

1

angewiesche

looks tight

is

—

'Punctuated with harrowing scenes pirate attacks. The Outlaw Sra

A

journalism has

ot

\le\

is

that rare

a shell life

'Langewiesches prose stramt. But there

is

is

to put

>d

to

magazine w

Philip

spills

oil

down

riter

(

h

m

/

wh\

size,

home

because

in part

regulations

The

result

terrorists

seem

own

haw come the officials

in

k

-•

its

all

more

Their morals and moti

have learned to work without the

1>\

complying with

order to move about IreeK and

th«

tin

to hide in plain sight

hasix-eato place the oeeans increasingh

power these

recent years as a surprise talk bra\el\

l"r

pnhln

about the impact

and the promise of technology, but

in

private

l

1»«

officials

securit)

London and Washington

traditions of national

still

n
n

the) got then

doors to the outside were swinging open and shut apparent!) because well

a lateli

had broken and

carpel leading from

tin

was soaked with saltwater

Three

spra)

ol

th
\

t

eminent which .

is

the

tries to


.

; ,

1»«

t

— THE OUTLAW SEA

200

out of the darkness, thrashing the ocean s surface with

screw

raising a large white

7 ,

beach.

could

I

Now the

who had been

me

at

of the engine.

A

like that

group of

The Pioneer kept coming.

was

It

briefly to the side.

it

the keel hit the bottom, and the ship drove hard onto the

flooded beach, carried by

power

until the

stood.

slid to a halt

Anchors the

size

splashed into the shallows.

of cars rattled

to stern,

down

the sides and

the lights switched

and abruptlv the Pioneer

can be animate, as people

that the Pioneer died.

It

had been

say, it

lay

Cosmos

Altair,

now, as

I

moment

in 1971,

and had

owners

Zephynis, Bangkok Navee,

and

Normar

stood watching from the beach,

in Indian

at that

was

Japan

built in

wandered the world under various

—

forward

still.

If a ship

corpse

full

not a hundred yards from where

The engine stopped,

bow

off in succession from

dark and

weight, slowing under

its

rudder no longer functioned and the hull veered

out of control and

we

single

standing nearby scattered to safety. Pandey

the waters edge.

caught by an inshore current that carried

Then

its

rushed toward the

it

sound of the bow wave,

drumming

of a waterfall, drowned the

workers

as

the figures of men peering forward from

make out

the bridge and the bow.

joined

bow wake

it

names

Pioneer.

became

And

a ferrous

law as well as in practice no longer a ship but just

a mass of imported steel.

The seamen who

lingered aboard, prob-

ing the dead passageways with ,their flashlight beams, were waiting for the tide to

climb

down the

would have I

his

go

side,

he did

of powerful

if

start cutting

he found

not.

officials:

and then they could lower a rope

ladder,

and walk away on dry ground. The new owner

workers

asked Pandey

ically that

out,

He was

the corpse in the morning.

this sad,

and he answered emphat-

a powerful state official in a nation

he was the port

officer of Alang, a

man who

i

11

!

ON m

rode

achauffeured

II

I

I

Ml

\
\

hull

chiet

go after the subject

investigative reporter

ghinds more cerebral

The two

I

of poor oversight. Englund's

John Carroll, then decided in his star

(

-

wholesale exposure once again to tint

ran as a front-page stoi)

brought

I

that the

dangerous dust. The U.S. Navy, which it

Bali

shipyard workers had !>een disabled

oi

was evidence

bestos,

()t

i

th



Uang, along with a statement in Dutch

at

.1

who tended

P&O Cruises operated a fleet ol

to public opinion, [n

ship

anch

Greenpeace and would quietly keep it apprised ol

and cruise ships P&
tov( nt\ tins

Greenpeace needed a culprit to serve as a symbol oft!

(

its

tli.it

ihip

1

every day one dead," went the saying aboul thf report's authors admitted

the

t

I

Greenpeace needed

resistai*

le

OUl

THE OUTLAW SEA

216 Nedlloyd, and

it

would have had

pany had submitted

to

its

to rethink

its

strategy

P&O

Nedlloyd did not submit

for that matter, could not afford to submit. After

openness,

it

went

its

Greenpeace staged a

for.

banner unfurlings, and

dogged a doomed

it

pathizers

watched with

campaign that ship

glee.

errands. Millions of

P&O

it.

in the spring of

1999

it

P&O

Nedlloyd

evil.

went

This

new name on

in order, perhaps, to disguise

Greenpeace found out and shouted

turned to

it

Greenpeace sym-

painted a

Nedlloyd then refused to comment,

man

Green-

P&O Nedlloyd was so unnerved by the

bound for the Indian beach,

owned

old

its final

—and,

series of ship-

container vessel, appropriately called die Encounter Bay, as

about the world on

scrap-

brief attempt

into just the sort of sullen retreat that

peace might have hoped side

the com-

demands and obediently stopped

ping in Asia. But of course

at

if

made

for

it

in indignation.

began

a

who

When

to look like an

good theater

—

especially

against the backdrop of the ubiquitous pictures of Alang.

With public opinion now

fully aroused, the

northern Euro-

pean governments began to move, introducing the

first

dedicated

shipbreaking initiatives into the schedules of the European Union

and the

I

MO.

In June 1999 the Netherlands sponsored an inter-

national shipbreaking conference in

tone was established

at the outset

Amsterdam

—

a meeting

by an emotional condemnation

of the industry by the Dutch Minister of Transport. to

whose

It

was obvious

everyone there that the movement for reform was gathering

strength. It

was hard

to

know what changes would

which shipbreaking nations would be affected

were ambitious, and

their zeal

was genuine.

ulate the oceans, or truly affect the business

could

at least

had reason

to

result

—and

—but the reformers

If they

could not reg-

on a global

scale,

they

embarrass India into shutting down Alang. Pandey

be

afraid.

ON

III

London

thai

Parkinson,

I.

ill

I

met

I

who worked

II

HI

I

,111

\(

||

affabll

irishman

I

and operatioi

as a trade

Chamber of Shippings an umbrella group

the [nternational

tonal shipowner associations. Parkinson had

don die

anarch)

for the

,,.,•

natural

.1

the sea and an equal]) natural

oi

Greenpeace campaign. He

Shippin

said

i

gets blairu ;

everything. Global warming.

Wh)

the British

For lunch we wont

football team."

to a

dark

have been on the docks. Parkinson told

end

He

was struggling gamel)

things that shipowners can do.

public relations.

We Ve

ardous components,

He

a

looking

First,

sihle way."

I

omething

it

a bit

regulation, at

more

said,

he had

e with the

b)

N

a

real

.is

but

"Maybe then in

mind

a nice hit oi

We

want

t

to the re< vclers in th