This book—really a collection of essays—reveals the world’s oceans in all their terrible power and lawlessness, despite nation-state efforts to subdue or at least effectively manage them. Langewiesche brings an immaculate reporter’s detail to these accounts, and adds a storytelling flair that made this book a quick, enjoyable read for me.

I’ve long been fascinated by the immense majesty of earth’s oceans, and the ships and stories its waters have borne across time. Even as modern technology has brought some mastery to man’s seafaring ways, the sea remains unconquerable. The world’s oceans do not yield to man in the same way that the elements do on land.

The first account is a primer on the international shipping regime and the efforts by nations and their navies to better manage its complexities and dangers. How does a country protect its coasts and ports? How does it manage the personnel and cargo coming and going in such unmanageable numbers and ways?

The shipping industry is largely an uncontainable shell game of multi-national, trans-national, and extra-national operators, moving furtively in the shadows and enormity of the space in pursuit of slim profits. Piracy is real, and large container ships are not immune. In a second story, Langewiesche tells the story of one such hijacking in Southeast Asia.

In a third and final story, we learn about the Indian ship breakers with welding torches who speed up the decomposition of decommissioned ships on the backs of poor laborers (who prefer this work over abject poverty) on the beaches of India in the face of international campaigns to stop them. The reality of this work is more complex than Greenpeace would suggest.

Langewiesche’s books have a poetic realism to them, where facts and characters are grittier than fiction. For those who love the mysteries of the ocean, and who want an introduction to the complexities and hazards of the global shipping industry, this is a fluid, eye-opening primer.

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I found this book in Pioneer Bookstore in Provo, Utah after enjoying the author’s book Sahara Unveiled a few years ago. ( )

Thought I would take another look at this review given all the pirate action recently. I wish the poobahs on TV would have read this book. The piracy in the Malacca Straits is perhaps more dangerous than that off Somalia.

If you have any interest in the actions of pirates and their effects on the shipping industry, this is the book for you. He doesn't spend much time on the Somali pirate actions; much more on the dangers to shipping around Indonesia and Malaysia. It's astonishing how easy it is for these huge ships to be taken and then held for ransom, or, the crew killed and the ship renamed and re-registered, the cargo then sold. Since most of the actions occur in international waters, little can be done. I suspect that as the hazard to shipping increases and insurance rises, the navies of the world will have to take some kind of concerted action, although large naval vessels themselves are notoriously defenseless against swarming attacks.

See my short blog article on the efficacy of swarming attacks with several references at http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=49623 ( )

While ocean travel might be safer now that is has ever been, that's not to say it isn't trouble-free. Profit motives and lax regulations can lead to maritime disasters, such as unseaworthy ships sinking in rough seas losing most of their expendable crews, or ferry disasters caused in part by overloaded ships. Then there are nefarious activities, such as ship graveyards that can destroy coastlines of countries desperate enough for the business. Some of these stories made a splash on the news when they occurred (such as the sinking of the Estonia). Most news stories garner but a few days attention -- here we find our about the aftermath involving court battles many years later.

The Outlaw Sea is somewhat dramatized, particularly when the author ostensibly follows individuals that did not survive the incidents recalled in this book. The audio version is read in a rather dead-pan monotone...in some cases appropriate, but mostly the stories seem less interesting than they might otherwise be. If you're going to add some drama, the voice should bring excitement as well. Still, Langewiesche attempts to tell the stories of people that otherwise escape our notice and tries to humanize these stories a little more that we get from the news. ( )

I listened to this on audio, read by the author himself. It was a random pick from the library, though I am somewhat familiar with the author’s work for Vanity Fair. In reading other reviews once I finished, I learned that the books was really a collection of articles Langewiesche wrote for The Atlantic. I would not have guessed that, as it was pretty seamless, though more interesting in some parts than others. Langewiesche recounts various episodes of crime, piracy and tragedy on the high seas (especially moving was the account of the sinking of The Estonia, a ferry between Talinn and Stockholm which sunk in 1994). The overarching concern of the book seems to be the effects of economic globalization on the safety and health of the world’s oceans. ( )

Tales of disaster, piracy and mayhem snare readers into William Langewiesche’s The Outlaw Sea. Exploring chaos on the high seas and the difficulties faced from a global perspective, he delivers poignant accounts of modern day piracy, economic and environmental disasters, as well as lack of functional maritime regulations. Langewiesche presents a problem plaguing 80% of the earth’s surface without the average sea-side citizen’s knowledge.As a reporter for The Atlantic Monthly, Langewiesche uses investigative skills to remind readers of the ocean’s vastness and how little governmental control can be exerted. He covers new ground by divulging into uncharted areas revealing a topic to the world that desperately needed exposure. Original reporting in journalistic style sets sail with historical accounts of shipwrecks, ecological disasters and other tragedies that result in staggering losses of life and wealth.Take for instance The Estonia which set sail on September 28, 1994 from Estonia intended to port in Stockholm, Sweden. After an explosion toward the bow, The Estonia met its end with 88% of the 989 passengers dead. Langewiesche write “Survivors described a capsize progressing so fast that most people had been trapped without a chance to reach the lifeboat deck, and crowds dressed in nightclothes or nothing at all had scrambled for their lives across the outside of the inverting hull.”Crossing international waters, Langewiesche reaches out to the far ends of the earth ensuring a holistic account which represents problems faced by all countries. He travels to India and notes “an India drowning in the poverty of its people” and reveals how such poverty leads to workers shipbreaking, the process of dismantling and scrapping old ships, without any protection for the workers or the air from the toxic waste released. Investigative reporting coupled with vivid descriptions and nail-biting storytelling enable Langewiesche to capture the reader in a state of page-turning suspense, even when one already knows the outcome. Although many know The Estonia sank killing most on board, passages such as “Where a luxurious ship had just been, now there were only people in the water, some in rafts, some trying to swim. Their cries for help could be heard above the howling of the wind” keep the desire to put the book down from waning.Langewiesche goes to great depths to provide ample statistical data. Such a wealth of information guarantees understanding the magnitude of chaos across the oceans. From this data, he transitions into tales citing examples of how such dilemmas affect maritime travel in some manner. For each individual problem, Langewiesche returns with a story giving the reader a tangible instance to ponder. Back to The Estonia, a dramatic description from passengers’ views is provided and followed with details providing what caused the ship to sink.Langewiesche’s objective viewpoint and the originality of the subject make the storyline interesting. A quick scan of sea-faring terminology aids in visualizing the compelling imagery during powerful scenes such as survivors’ accounts of the ship Estonia’s demise. Langewiesche’s writing approach takes a hard edge in combining factual data and historical narratives with rough transitions between the two. Mind-numbing bureaucratic jargon laden with acronyms “…designed, built and maintained to full IMO standards… Italian classification society known as RINA…”The Outlaw Sea makes it clear that political figures and governing bodies across the globe have a difficult task ahead of them. No obvious answer to such a vast problem presents itself and hope of finding a solution appears bleak. Langewiesche, however, raises awareness and ensures that the problem will not soon be forgotten. While the book broaches a new and highly important topic, Langewiesche falls short in docking his final thought leaving the reader wondering when the story will end its course. ( )