Customer Reviews

Ocean Titans: Journeys in Search of the Soul of a Ship

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a seafarer, I always view books about merchant shipping with some trepidation. The exerpt from the prologue quoted on-line for this book included a reference to corridors on a ship; ships have alleyways instead, just as they have bulkheads and decks rather than walls and floors. Despite this small niggle, I bought the book simply because there are so few in the genre, and it's always interesting for a seaman to see how 'outsiders' view our environment when they get to know something of it.

There are a few other small mistakes that the editor should really have picked up; a reference to 'salty brine' - what other type is there?, 'immense clipper ships like the Cutty Sark' - clippers were not immense, even by the standards of the day, and there are now ocean going tugs that are bigger. The author refers to captains still being able to perform marriages at sea, but I am certainly not aware of any statute that allows this, I think it is another popular myth. Later in the book a container ship burns through 20,000 tonnes of fuel a day! Probably just bad proof reading.

Nevertheless I was glad I bought the book and, these few errors aside, it is a well above average picture of deep sea merchant ships and the people who man them, and a credit to Daniel Sekulich, the author.

The book broadly follows the life of a ship, after the prologue which starts at the end on a ship at the breaker's yard at Alang in India, the author encounters firstly a consultant who co-ordinates for the prospective owner the design and ordering of the ship, a sort of project manager from conception of the owner's requirements right through to when the ship completes sea trials. Next, we visit one of the largest shipyards in the world at Ulsan, Korea, for an overview of the construction process and the environment around the Hyundai 'company town'.

After this we visit a shipowner in Monaco, where the author manages to get a surprisingly personal view of shipowning from the owner of the ship that Daniel visited completing sea trials at Ulsan.

Following are chapters titled Masters, Engineers and Deckhands, where the author describes his time on the bulk carrier Antwerpen on a US East Coast voyage. Daniel describes well the naturally taciturn and wary manner with which seamen of all ranks regard 'outsiders' but the views he does get from them are I think representative of our type. Similarly, later in the book he meets the crew of a container ship whilst on a trans-Atlantic voyage.

Probably the most illuminating chapter though is the penultimate one, where among other things, a Master gives his views on his 'relationship' to his ship, which are certainly similar to my own. There is mention of the increasing suspicion with which seafarers are regarded in many countries, especially the US, after the 9/11 attacks, and increasing restrictions on shore leave and the resultant hardships this creates.

The author covers well the sense of isolation and loneliness that many if not all ocean-going seaman feel, with the long tours of duty and the distance of modern shipping terminals from cities - observing that the Europa Container Terminal in Antwerp is a $100 cab ride from the house of Rubens.

After meeting a port chaplain who tells him that 'I don't have the courage to be a seafarer', the author follows with a very perceptive passage - 'When one thinks of the "courage of the seafarer", the images that often come to mind are of a sailor being swept overboard in rough seas and his crewmates struggling to save his life. Or of a battered and beaten ship, whose crew is trying to keep her afloat in mountainous oceans, fighting its way through the waves to a safe haven. But a more practical representation of the courage required of a mariner is the ability to withstand months, even years, away from your home; to endure crappy weather; and to be isolated from the rest of society in a tiny cabin.' The author has hit the nail on the head with this.

The 3rd Mate on the container ship laments that when he does go home after say, a six-month stint at sea, all his former friends have moved on, he has no girlfriend and little prospect of finding one, so often the seafarer ends up just as alone when he gets home as he was on the ship. Sounds all too familiar to me from my deep-sea days, now thankfully in the past.

The author goes on to describe little known phenomena, at least outside the shipping fraternity, of rougue and mountainous waves, up to 30 metres high, and of the threat of modern day piracy - a theme I feel the author perhaps could have developed in more detail.

I would thoroughly recommend Ocean Titans to anyone who wants to know more about the realities of modern day merchant shipping, a world that is, as the author notes, largely invisible to the general public, notwithstanding that it is essential for the very existence of global trade.