Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes and Showdowns That Built America's Cruise-Ship Empires [Hardcover]

Kristoffer A. Garin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2005

Left for dead after the advent of cheap, reliable air travel forty years ago, cruise shipping in the decades since has been reborn as a $12 billion industry on the cutting edge of twenty-first century global capitalism. Today, nearly ten million Americans take cruises each year, sailing to exotic destinations on floating cities that can cost upwards of $600 million each to construct.

In this terrifically entertaining history, Kristoffer A. Garin chronicles the industry’s rise from humble and comic beginnings in the early sixties through waterfront corruption and the incalculably huge impact of the hit television series The Love Boat in the seventies and eighties to the recent consolidation wars. Entrepreneurial genius and bareknuckle capitalism mate with cultural kitsch as the cruise lines dodge U.S. tax, labor, and environmental laws to make unimaginable profits while bringing the world a new form of leisure. Few businesses in America today are as colorful, lucrative, and innovative as cruise shipping, and Devils on the Deep Blue Sea is the first book to give readers a compelling behind-the-scenes look into these floating empires and the modern-day robber barons who shaped them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's hard to imagine now, but when The Love Boat premiered in 1977, it was considered so sexually suggestive that Princess Cruises almost didn't allow the show to film on its ships because they were afraid it would give people the wrong image. Yet, in the long run, Garin points out, the series proved to be a critical factor in repositioning ocean cruises as an attractive luxury for middle-class consumers. Just a few years ago, Princess and three competitors accounted for almost 90 percent of the cruise industry's $13 billion annual revenues; when Princess began merger talks with Royal Caribbean, rival firm Carnival swooped in, made the deal themselves and wound up controlling more than half the market. Carnival's founder, the late Ted Arison, provides this lively industry history with one of its most engrossing narrative threads, from the running aground of his original flagship's maiden voyage to his emergence as one of the world's wealthiest individuals. But Garin's as interested in the ships themselves as he is in the boardrooms, and he turns up disturbing stories of corrupt labor practices and cover-ups of sexual assaults of passengers by crew members. The solid reporting ensures readers will come away with a healthy respect for Garin's work and for the very powerful industry he documents.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

It was the Love Boat, an insipid television show, that actually launched the wildly successful and still-popular cruise ship as an affordable fantasy vacation for middle-class consumers. It also jumpstarted Carnival Corporation, which controls more than half of today’s cruise ship market and constitutes this book’s primary subject. Garin, an investigative journalist, dives into the history of the industry, exploring the depths of the business and exposing (unfortunately, to a lesser degree) the grueling work of those who serve these flagship fantasies. Part investigation, part admiration, Devils suffers from an identity crisis. Don’t be seen with it anywhere near the Lido deck.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Viking; 1st edition (June 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670034185
• ISBN-13: 978-0670034185
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Ships > Passenger
  • #72 in Books > Travel > Reference & Tips > Cruises
  • #72 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Transportation

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An even treatment with a fascinating storyline..., September 2, 2006

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes and Showdowns That Built America's Cruise-Ship Empires (Hardcover)

Being a vacationer who has been on numerous cruises, this book recommendation looked like a certain fit... Devils On The Deep Blue Sea by Kristoffer A. Garin. He does a very good job in revealing how the cruise industry works, and the forces that have shaped it along the way.

The story starts in the late 1950's, when the cruise industry was really nothing more than a way to transport passengers from one location to another. The rich often had a lavish experience, while the "steerage" passengers were cramped and confined to the lower decks with restrictions on where they could go and what they could do. But in both cases, it was still a case of traveling from point A to point B. The airline industry quickly made cruise ships obsolete for rapid travel, and the shipping lines were becoming a footnote in history. But a few people thought that cruising could become a destination in itself, a way to vacation, see other lands, and then return to where you started. But the appeal had to be broad, and the luxuries of first class had to extend to all the passengers. Thru visionaries, financial risks, and mergers, what we have today is a $13 billion dollar industry that is truly global in numerous aspects. But behind the glitter and glamour, there are some less appealing items of interest...

Garin talks about how the cruise industry is largely staffed by impoverished workers from third-world nations who sign on for low base wages and whatever tips come from passengers. To many of us, these base wages wouldn't even support poverty, but they are considerable in the countries where the workers come from. The hours and rules aboard ship are harsh, with 12 to 16 hour days with little time off the norm. The industry also pays little in the way of taxes due to their ship registration being out of country to take advantage of international treaties preventing retaliatory fees. The laws and rights of the United States are not always in play either, as the ship is actually foreign territory. And if that's not enough, many of the tourist destinations are unable to get additional fees from the industry to support their infrastructure, as the industry will threaten to pull out of the port and destroy their tourism. It can be capitalism at its worst...

Personally, this book was better than I expected. I thought it was going to be a muck-raking, "boycott cruises" diatribe, and one that I wouldn't necessarily agree with. But the balance between the story of the cruise lines and the less-savory parts of the industry was just about right. And even the "expose" part wasn't hypercritical. I came away understanding the abuses, but (in many cases) understanding both sides of the issues. And really, it's not much different than what most other industries would do in the same circumstances...

Yes, I'm still going to go on cruises, and I'll still enjoy them. But I'll be even more considerate of the staff that makes it all work, and more in awe of what it takes to pull off the experience, week after week after week...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cruise Book, August 15, 2005

By 

A. Rosen (Boca Raton, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes and Showdowns That Built America's Cruise-Ship Empires (Hardcover)

As the owner of a travel agency, I found this book fascinating. It gives a great history of the 2 major cruise lines, Carnival & Royal Caribbean, and the history of their rivalry over the years. I am not sure that this book is for the everyday cruiser, but if you are involved with the cruise industry I would consider it a must read.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all-time best business case studies, January 3, 2006

By 

BuzS "buzs" (ny, ny) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes and Showdowns That Built America's Cruise-Ship Empires (Hardcover)

I cannot say enough about the strong points of this book. Garin would have earned much praise for simply recounting the history of Carnival's extraordinarily rapid conquest of the global cruise industry -- earning founder Ted Arison at his death the title of 'world's richest Jew' and leaving son Micky at the helm of a company that took just over 25 years from its 1971 birth to reach annual profits of $1 billion. Beyond Garin's entertaining story of how the Arisons created both an industry and a fortune, there is so much more to this book: it's a wonderful social history of American vacationing and travel rituals and preferences; a tale of entrerpreneurial takeovers and strategizing every bit as intriguing as 'Barbarians at the Gate'; an investigation of corporate corner-cutting in the labor, environmental, tax, and other regulatory fields as eye-opening as 'Silent Spring'; WildWest-style episodes of mutinous crews and commando-led cruise-ship rescue operations; marketing coups and blunders; the impact of TV's 'LoveBoat' series; along with Caribbean cultural and economic lore from Bob Marley to CARICOM (the island nations' version of the EU). This massive reporting effort is wonderfully well-organized and unfailingly pleasurable to read.