Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Brings You 90% of Everything

Description

There are 100,000 freighters on the seas. Between them they carry nearly everything we eat, wear and work with. And yet this massive global industry has remained largely unexamined: it passes by out of sight for most of us and, through the 'flags of convenience' system, its dubious practices often slip under the radar of regulators. In this unique investigation, Rose George travels the high seas with their powerful naval fleets, pirate gangs, and illegal floating factories, and visits the ports and their land-bound dockworkers, tycoons, missionaries, stevedores, border control guards, and ship-spotters. She meets the beachcombers who track the 10,000 containers that are lost every year, the robots who are gradually replacing human crews, and the environmentalists campaigning against the tide of marine pollution. Intrepid, informed and tenacious, George steers a sure course through the murky, character-rich waters of international shipping.

ROSE GEORGE is a freelance writer and author of A Life Removed: Hunting for Refuge in the Modern World (long-listed for the Ulysses Reportage Prize) and The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste (Portobello, 2008; shortlisted for the BMA Book Prize). She contributes regularly to the London Review of Books, the Guardian, the Independent and others. http://rosegeorge.com/site/

Arresting, sharply observed, deeply researched and compelling... Plenty of books promise to reveal the secrets of little-known worlds but few actually deliver. This is one that does -- Melanie McGrath * Sunday Telegraph * From the always intriguing catalogue of Portobello Books, [this book] goes behind the scenes of those mammoth vessels that ply the oceans bringing us all our lovely stuff -- Melissa Katsoulis * Daily Telegraph * As fascinating as it is troublingly insightful... This is a remarkable work of embedded reportage - hair-raising, witty, compassionate - that deserves to be read -- Sukhdev Sandhu * Guardian * A marvel of information, insight and intelligence laced with humour, humanity and high spirits -- Iain Finlayson * The Times * With her precise and beautiful clarity of prose, [George] has now fired a brilliant star-shell over the wine-dark sea and the ships that pass in its night, illuminating the details of the invisible ocean industry that is, and always will be, essential to all of us -- Simon Winchester, author * Atlantic * Fascinating and insightful * Observer * A stunningly detailed and absorbing piece of investigative journalism, combined with a gripping and very human account of a long sea journey, with all its loneliness, fears, and moments of magic -- Michael Jacobs, author * Andes * Beautifully captures the surprising nuances of this little-known world... [George's] strong, spare, gleaming prose steams along, powered by curiosity, compassion, outrage. As a writer, a reporter, and a human being, George is-stand by for nautical term-First Rate -- Mary Roach, author * Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal * The two greatest stories are supposed to be "A man goes on a journey" and "A stranger comes to town". In this enthralling, literally wide-ranging book, George tells both: she goes on a voyage that few other journalists have accomplished, and she unveils the unknown seafarers who bring us all the world's goods. Sympathetic, deeply reported and unexpectedly poignant -- Maryn McKenna, author * Superbug * To the classic incredible journeys-Moby Dick, Two Years Before the Mast-George adds another, her voyage round the world aboard a container ship, revealing what happens before the big bang of merchandise explodes from the high seas into civilization -- Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer, author * Flotsametrics and the Floating World * [An] engaging voyage through the shady world of international shipping * Bookseller * Riveting * Nature * Few readers will be left in any doubt as to the importance of this opaque industry on which we all depend -- Sarah Mishkin * Financial Times * It is a travelogue of sorts, written in clear, straightforward English, about the people, pirates and machinery that make up the modern maritime industry * New Statesman * A very good book -- Michael Burleigh * Literary Review * A very important book. [George] has vision and curiosity really does ask the right questions. You should read this book * Lloyd's List * Absorbing engrossing * New York Times * Cleverly constructed, carefully researched, moving, vivid... Thoughtful and provocative, written with style and passion * Nautilus International * Fascinating * Hythe Herald * A fascinating exploration of the world of container shipping * Yorkshire Post * A remarkable work of embedded reportage - hair-raising, witty, compassionate - that deserves to be read * South China Morning Post * She uncovers many serious (and murky) issues -- Pascal Lamy, Former Director General of WTO, Best Books of the Year Excellent... panoramic -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * Interesting, relevant, and [full of] surprising facts * Hill Dickinson Newsletter * Eye-opening * Mail on Sunday * Very readable and compelling * The Maritime Executive * Fascinating troublingly insightful. This is a remarkable work of embedded reportage - hair-raising, witty, compassionate - that deserves to be read by anyone interested in the cartographies of the contemporary world -- Sukhdev Sandu * Guardian * Absorbing -- Ed Power * Irish Independent **** * In a work of great insight and sympathy, George conveys the monotony and loneliness of the modern commercial sailor's life while also describing the omnipresent dangers -- Tom Moriarty * Irish Times * A very well researched and written appreciation of the modern maritime industry and most of its people * Baird Publications *