Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Brings You 90% of Everything Paperback – 3 July 2014

I had read Horatio Clare's 'Down to the Sea in Ships' before this, and was extremely disappointed. I had learned something reading that book but felt that it was a missed opportunity. So I was rather unsure about reading another book on exactly the same subject but I bought Rose's 'Deep Sea...' anyway. The difference between the two books was incredible. George's book it better written, better researched and she links her voyages to a wider range of geographical, economic, political, environmental and sociological issues in a way that Clare does not. It was a pleasure to read and incredibly educational. As someone who mainly reads non-fiction, I would rank it as one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. Rose's voyages are covered in great detail and, unlike some of the other reviewers, I felt she gives the reader a real sense of what it feels like to be at sea. Rose is also very modest about her work. The dangers of working at sea are covered extensively but it is clear that being on a ship is particularly risky for a woman. While she never makes the connection explicit, just being on the voyages that form the backbone of this book was an incredibly brave endeavour.The scope of this book is so impressive. Not only does she describe her experiences onboard in great detail, but she manages to link these to very important aspects of this 'invisible' industry that impact on our lives. Reading this book I learned about: the history of the shipping industry (and international trading more broadly); the environmental impact of shipping; the economics of global trade and shipping; the international shipping labour market and exploitation of migrant workers; the welfare of workers in the shipping industry and those that work to protect them; the histyory of shipping containers and how they changed trade; and much more.If I'm being really picky, a few more maps and pictures would have made this incredible book even better. Regardless, I recommend this book unconditionally. I now intend to read everything else Rose has written.

This brilliantly written and researched book brings into sharp focus the dark blue empty expanse that we glimpse from our airplane windows, or more likely see on our screens as we glide slowly by. We might think that expanse has nothing to do with us, but anyone reading this book will soon discover otherwise. The facts and numbers revealed are truly astounding, covering anything from the sheer volume of stuff transported, to the capture of ships by Somali pirates, and practices within the industry (or lack of) that make life on land seem like a positive paradise.The anchor to the book that holds its parts together is George's journey aboard a cargo ship from Felixstowe to Singapore. With her expertly honed and evocative style, she manages to bring out all the colour in the day-to-day drudgery of the sea life that she was able to experience first-hand, and all that she learnt from the crew who were her only company for five weeks. She seamlessly weaves this with a historical exploration of life at sea and in the ports, focusing perhaps most importantly on what it means to be a seaman in the modern day, and imbues the reader with a newfound respect for those that do this brave, lonely, and often thankless job.My only criticism (and it is a minor one) is the title, which I found vaguely misleading. Yes, she goes inside the shipping industry which, yes, does bring us 90% of what we own, but this is by no means the book's sole focus. And though the book is deeply revealing in an array of aspects, those wanting to learn about the nuts and bolts of the shipping industry specifically, could be forgiven for wanting a little more detail than the title might suggest.But as a highly informative and evocative travelog mixed in with a broad sweeping hand over shipping and life at sea, this book is first class.

Am I really going to recommend a book about container ships? Yes. It is fascinating - an insight into how 90% of what we buy reaches our shores, a far higher percentage than I ever realised.The prose is excellent, and there are many interesting anecdotes.Certain parts of this book stick in my memory, such as:- The English Channel is called `the sea of sore heads and sore hearts by sailors who knew they should fear it, who were not fooled by its small size or its proximity to two reassuringly safe, civilised countries'. This refers not least to the fact that it is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.- Weather at sea is `a more malign, more elemental version than the weather we have ashore'- The long hours that merchant seamen work. `A 2006 study found that half the seafarers worked at least 85 hours a week and one in four had fallen asleep while on watch'. The author adds that when Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in 1989, and investigation found that the watch officer had been mostly awake for 18 hours before his shift.- How ships have rat guards (plastic collars on the mooring ropes) which are there `more to prevent rats climbing off the ship than to stop them climbing on it, a disturbing thought'.- A homing pigeon landed on the ship the author was aboard. One member of the crew said he was going to put a sticker on it to say that it was "on the `Maersk Kendal' (the ship) and it cheated. It didn't fly. It sailed". Within less than 24 hours, this pigeon had become the ship's mascot.- Maersk's parent company is Denmark's largest company, its sales equal to 20% of Denmark's GDP, and that its ships use more oil than the entire nation. It is active in 130 countries and has 117,000 employees and 600 vessels. Yet it is not a household name outside Lloyd's List (a shipping register).- 'Maersk' is a first name. As the author puts it, 'It is like a massive global corporation named Derek'.- Maersk's company symbol is a seven-pointed star. An employee joke is that that is because crewmembers work seven days per week.- The incredible horsepower of tugs, and how onlookers stare at the ship rather than at these workhorses on steroids and their ability to turn on a sixpence. I have to admit that I have never appreciated the power and agility of tugs, despite the fact that they must be both of those things in order to do their job.- A British sailor in a lifeboat asked a Dutch sailor how far it was to land. "Two miles", he replied. "Straight down".- How the biggest container ship can carry 15,000 containers. It can hold 746,000,000 bananas, one for every European, on one ship. How, despite that, a container ship will be emptied and leave port within just 24 hours. And when it does so in the UK, the containers are invariably empty when they leave UK ports because we have little to export. When the author asked a port official what UK exports consist of, he replied "Waste and hot air".- How, before container shipping, transport costs ate up 25% of the value of whatever was being shipped. Due to container shipping, costs are minimal. `A sweater can now travel 3000 miles for 2.5 cents' (just under 2 pence).- How shipping is so cheap that it makes financial sense to send Scottish cod 10,000 miles to China to be filleted and then sent back to Scottish shops and restaurants, than to pay Scottish filleters.The product description states that the author `contributes regularly to the London Review of Books, the Guardian, the Independent and others' and it shows. It is well written.I found this a fascinating read.