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Category Archives: seafaring
Abandoned Seafarers
Abandoned at Sea: Sailors and COVID-19 The stranded Indian crew members on board MSC Grandiosa, docked in Italy at present (Al Jazeera) On the list of COVID-19 afflicted countries tallied by the Johns Hopkins University Corona Resource Centre there … Continue reading
Posted in labour, logistics, political economy, ports, seafaring, shipping conditions
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The poetry of medieval maritime travel
I have been reading Arab navigation manuals and travelogues, and there is such poetry in the navigation manuals in particular. It is the liminality of the navigation texts in particular – between art and science, familiar and wholly other. I … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East, seafaring, the sea, Travels, Uncategorized
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Medieval Arab Naviation
“More interesting is the testimony of Ibn al-Mujawir who reports that in 626 A.H./1228-9 A.D. a ship arrived in Aden from Qumr (Comoros or Madagascar); the art of navigation of the people of Qumr impressed him as superior to that … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East, ports, seafaring, the sea, Travels, Uncategorized
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Fouq El-Nakhl: Masaculinities aboard the ship
“and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.” Herman Melville, Moby Dick The first incident of its kind happened last night. Hopefully, also the last. I was in the wheelroom in the dark, keeping easy … Continue reading
Posted in 2015 Trip, infrastructure, labour, Middle East, political economy, ports, seafaring, shipping conditions, transport
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About Today: Steaming the security seas
10 February 2015 Everything anticipated our entry into what I can only call security seas. There are ships that do not send signals: they turn out to be warships of a sort, small, compact, going only at 7 knots with … Continue reading
A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes: The factory at sea
9 February 2015 20.00 “Going forward and glancing over the weather bow, [… the] prospect was unlimited, but exceedingly monotonous and forbidding; not the slightest variety that I could see.” Herman Melville, Moby Dick For the next few days, we … Continue reading
Stand-Up Beer Hall
Stand-Up Beer Hall Walter Benjamin Sailors seldom come ashore ; service on the high seas is a holiday by comparison with the labour in harbours, where loading and unloading must often be done day and night. When a gang is then given a … Continue reading
Pirates Pirates Pirates
They are EVERYWHERE! Here is Michael Dirda writing about campy pirates: Many [film pirates] are also distinctly camp. The first pirate most of us encounter is Captain Hook, who, as played by Cyril Ritchard in the Mary Martin version of Peter … Continue reading
Posted in literature, piracy, readings, seafaring
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By the Sea
A truly beautiful book, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea is full of quiet insight about leaving home, about families, about illegal immigration, and about malice. It has a brilliant humour. Here is a bit about a madrasa, a chuoni on the … Continue reading
The docks as a non-place
Francisco Goldman and Jean-Claude Izzo speak to each other through their respective novels, The Ordinary Seaman and The Lost Sailors. Both are stories about waiting in the docks, literally, in a floating metal tub full of holes. Both tell stories within stories … Continue reading
Posted in capital accumulation, labour, logistics, ports, readings, seafaring, shipping conditions
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The Gamming 