Super Cargo: A Journey Among Ports (Lonely Planet Journeys (Travel Literature)) [Paperback]

Thornton McCamish (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet Journeys (Travel Literature) | Publication Date: February 2002

Fascinated by the shabby mystique of port cities, and drawn to the lingering romance of travel by ship, Thornton McCamish embarked on a journey to explore the disappearing culture of the high seas. This book traces his travels, setting out from Marseilles, following the smell of fish and diesel around the Mediterranean and the Middle East before heading to Cape Town via the Canary Islands and on through East Africa and the spice and slave routes of the Indian Ocean. The book is all about the romance and menace of the ports, an attempt to find a place that never really existed, where the girls are always friendly, the aces are always high and the treasure is still where Blackbeard buried it.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

McCamish, an Australian journalist and playwright based in London, sets out to reach various port cities of the Mediterranean, Africa, and India aboard freighters. His aim is to describe not only the ports he visits but also the crews and the far-from-glamorous life onboard. His journey begins in Marseilles, then proceeds to Tunis and ports in Corsica, Sardinia, mainland Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. On the next leg of the journey, he starts in the Canaries and then travels to Capetown, the east coast of Africa, and finally southern India. For the most part, life aboard ship is exciting but often miserable, with terrible food and poor quarters. But despite the hardships, McCamish preserves his humorous style till the very end. For the American reader, some of the British/Australian language and references may be hard to decipher. Also, some photographs of the ships or the port cities would have lent a great deal to the prose. Recommended for public libraries. George M. Jenks, Bucknell Univ., Lewisburg, PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864503467
• ISBN-13: 978-1864503463
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,706,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Lackluster Excursion, November 11, 2003

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Super Cargo: A Journey Among Ports (Lonely Planet Journeys (Travel Literature)) (Paperback)

More often than not, travel literature is sparked by the imagination. That reality rarely coincidences with the imagination is more or less to be expected in the genre. As long as the journey is inquisitive and interesting, the reader remains satisfied. What is less successful is when a writer's imagination exceeds their own verve and boldness, as in this lackluster tramp through ports of the Mediterranean, around Africa and into the Indian Ocean.

Australian writer McCamish embarked in search of the "idea of the port", a restless place on the edges of civilization, where cultures meet to trade, and the dregs of society cluster. He prepares us for disappointment by admitting up front that this kind of port "may have already disappeared," but proceeds to book passage on several cargo ships. It doesn't take long for him to realize that in the era of the container cargo ship, ports no longer carry much sense of adventure-or at least, not as far as he's willing to pursue the matter. For, even though he's enamored with the idea of dingy dockfront bars full of brawling sailors and women of ill repute, he shrinks from any contact with them. Bemoaning the absence of any "characters", he is too timid to place himself in the kinds of situations where he might meet interesting people with stories to tell. Constant references to calling his wife back home give the sense that he took this journey about a decade too late in his life. It also doesn't help that he can't get ashore at a number of stops due to bureaucratic hassles or the obstinacy of the ship's captain.

Which is not to say there aren't some interesting stories and some amusing characters. The snippets of history and tales from other sources are woven in rather well, and life aboard a massive cargo ship is moderately interesting for a while. At the beginning and the end, McCamish is joined on his trip by friends, and these parts are noticeably better for the addition of another perspective. Eccentric sailors, stewards, and captains fill up the middle, but there's little made from the potential. Too often, McCamish seems to have little to say, and the result is a work that at times barely rises above the level of a good journal.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life, literature and a ship of fools, September 15, 2002

By 

"palinurus250" (Birmingham, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Super Cargo: A Journey Among Ports (Lonely Planet Journeys (Travel Literature)) (Paperback)

McCamish sets out from London to India on several ships (and some planes) with a mission to immerse himself in an obsolete idea of ports: the edginess of port towns, their last-chance saloons, their toothless old salts. Has the romance of sea travel vanished from towns built from the dregs and riches of the sea? The answer, in this warm, engrossing story, is a qualified no. As he makes his way from Marseille to Cape Town to Cochin, India on various cargo ships, McCamish gradually accepts that the days of adventures before the mast are over, but finds that the workaday tedium of modern container ships has been amply filled by a bizarre cast of lonely sailors, prostitutes, missionaries and mystical drunks.

The strength of this book lies in McCamish's dry humour and his passion for his subject. There are some great lines and some lovely writing, evoking the atmosphere of the empty sea, the pleasures of a long journey, and the comedy and dignity of the ordinary sailors he meets. This is a journey begins with travellers' nostalgia and ends in a celebration of real life at sea in the 21st century. Highly recommended to armchair travellers.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A good idea spoiled by a boring writer, April 26, 2002

By 

Tommy (Vegas baby) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Super Cargo: A Journey Among Ports (Lonely Planet Journeys (Travel Literature)) (Paperback)

The idea of travelling from port to port sounds like an exciting prospect. And it probably would be a great subject for a book if undertaken by anyone with any sense of adventure or, better yet, someone with more degenerate qualities than McCamish. There is no question that such a voyage, especially one that is essentially arranged by a travel agent on the writer's behalf, is not going to necessarily live up to the cartoonish view of salty seamen brawling and whoring (although a fair share of the latter appears to have survived). However, the adventure is a basically sound concept that would have been better had it been vicariously lived through someone who was completely willing to immerse themselves into it instead of calling his wife at every port and trying to avoid prostitutes. McCamish's story is that of an obviously well-to-do Australian keeping an arms length distance from his subject.