I suppose it has to do with growing up on and around Navy bases where I was always near the ocean, but I love reading about life at sea. Living in central Texas, the ocean isn’t exactly close by. There’s the Gulf of Mexico, but even that’s several hours drive away and as nice at it is to drink Coronas and watch the waves and gulls while sitting in bars along Seawall in Galveston, it’s not excatly majestic. So I miss the ocean and read about it as much as possible.
I picked up William Langewiesche’s The Outlaw Sea a few days ago after having thought about buying it for several years. I realize that I’d already heard or read much of it. Large sections of the short book had previously appeared in Atlantic Monthly, particularly the vivid account of the ferry Estonia’s ill-fated trip across the Baltic Sea in 1994. I had read that feature a few years ago with great interest and was pleased to see that he expanded on the account for the book.
I believe some of this book was also used as source material for the high school debate topic a few years ago and my debaters must have found it because I remember pieces of the text being cited as evidence while I listened to them practice their speeches. All of this made the book a fascinating read filled with the kind of external associations that make reading so pleasurable.
The book is subtitled “A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime” and the first part of the book was the most fascinating for me. This was where Langewiesche described the modern form of piracy, which is a far cry from the romance of Jimmy Buffett songs. I was stunned to learn that whole freighters are sometimes taken. The stunning part is the lack of coverage, I suppose. But then the people who typically crew these ships are often the poorest members of the poorest societies. Not exactly the kind of people the American media tends to cover. The description of pirate activities in and around the South China Sea (where I swam as a kid – another association) and one particular incident of a ship being stolen is absolutley riveting.
Langewiesche focuses not just on piracy, but its cousin maritime terrorism (he mentions the so-called Al-Queda navy) as well as the regulatory confusion caused by flags of convenience, a troublesome issue that lies at or near the bottom of many of the problems he describes. I can’t say I learned much that I didn’t already know about issues on the high seas, but I did enjoy his style and his very well documented accounts of the various maritime disasters he describes.
It’s a good read, but drinking beer and eating shrimp while watching a calm gulf lap at the shores suddenly seems like a very nice way to appreciate the ocean.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
Have you read Erik Larson’s “Isaac’s Storm,” which describes the hurricane that struck Galveston in 1900?
The Gulf may look calm, but it can generate storms of unbelievable force.
Jeffery Hodges
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I have. Isaac’s Storm was another one I wasn’t able to put down.
My brother and my wife’s whole family live on the gulf so we all got a lesson last fall in how violent it can be. As recently as December (the last time we were down there) Port Arthur still looked demolished, though Beaumont is faring better. Galveston dodged a major major bullet as the storm veered north (towards the Golden Triangle) at the last moment. This was a relief to our Galveston friends who spent forty hours evacuating to our house in Austin. The drive usually takes four.
But you’re right, the Gulf can certainly fool a person.
There were quite a few ships sunk by German U-boats in the Gulf during WWII