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The book "Ninety Percent of Everything" from author Rose George — The book “Ninety Percent of Everything” from author Rose George

If there was only a book to be read to learn about the unknown aspects of the maritime business, it would be “Ninety percent of everything” from Rose George. The New York Times says of this book that “it is consistently absorbing, timely as well as deft and that it cracks open a vast, treacherous, and largely ignored world“.

This book holds real surprises. The author was authorized to come aboard the container ship Maersk Kendal to make the journey from Rotterdam towards Singapore, via the Suez Canal. The reader thus learns about the daily operations on these immense ships. But there is more: because the book is extremely well documented, links are established between significant facts of the maritime history and today’s events.

Maersk is Denmark’s biggest company and its sales are equivalent to 20 % of the gross national product of the country. Maersk’s fleet counts more than 600 ships. Its 2011 income was established at 60 billion dollars, which places it just under Microsoft.

Trade carried by sea increased by 400% since 1970. A majority of ships (68 %) navigate under flags of convenience, such as those of Panama or Liberia. It allows for tax reductions and the hiring of low wage immigrant workers. The seafarers are also less protected because the laws of a specific country differ from those in effect once the ships are in international water. The statistics show that 2000 sailors die at sea annually. On the flags of convenience black list: North Korea, Libya, Sierra Leone and Montenegro.

According to International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) ” the maritime and fishing industries “ continue to allow astonishing abuses of human rights of those working in the sector…Seafarers and fishers are routinely made to work in conditions that would not be acceptable in civilized society””. A striking example: a Manila company requires that seafarers looking for a job work for free for several months before they can be hired officially. It is worth reading this book, if only to acquaint of the MV Philipp seafarers story. The owners of this vessel, Vega Reederei in Germany, paid their Philippine sailors only a third of the agreed salary.

Given that a container ship can unload and reload thousands of containers within 24 hours, the crew does not have time any more to leave the vessel to profit from stop overs in the various countries like that was done in the past. A seafarer is confined on the boat for months.

There is no efficient way to know what is in all the containers. The United States receive annually 17 million containers and can inspect physically only 5 % of them. In Europe, the percentage is lower, between 1 and 3 %. This means of transportation is thus favored for weapons, drugs and human trafficking. Illegal weapons are regularly sent in separate parts, through several containers, and then reassembled once at the destination.

When a container ship goes through the Suez or Panama Canal, there is no rest authorized for the staff. The captain can be on watch for up to 36 hours in a row. The Suez Canal is nicknamed Marlboro Canal because of the packages of cigarettes handed to the customs officers, the police, the security guards and other official representatives in order to avoid delays that would immobilize the vessel for the most improbable reasons. The transit expenses, as for them, amounts to $300,000 for a ship the size of Maersk Kendal.

The Maersk Patras on the St-Lawrence seaway. The shot is taken from La Malbaie in 2012

The reader learns about the facts surrounding the wreckage of several ships, among which the Danny FII and the Erika. He also acquaints with obligations that bind the companies when a maritime shipping accident arises. The bodies and conventions dictating these procedures are UNCLOS, SOLAS and MARPOL.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) considers maritime transport as “a relatively small contributor to atmospheric emissions”. However, if we consider the global scale of trade carried by sea, it then becomes a top issuer of greenhouse gases. The fifteen biggest ships were the cause, in 2009, of a pollution equal to 760 million cars. It is interesting to note that “seventy percent of the pollution occurs within 250 miles of land, near coastlines linked to busy shipping lanes […]. In Los Angeles, half of all smog from sulfur dioxide comes in from ships”.

Part of the book deals with hijacking at sea. Again, Rose George offers extremely pertinent information. She explains what the easiest preys are for the Somalian and Yemenites pirates and indicates that the cargo does not present real interest for the pirates. They wish only for the ransom. The chapter covers the adventure of Maersk Alabama, the recent hijacking of MV Golden Blessing, the international recommended transit corridor (IRTC) along the Yemen coast, the protection obtained by the EU-NAVFOR, the pirate’s behavior once aboard ships and the effects on the equipage, before and during the lengthy negotiations.

She unveils surprising information as to the ways negotiations are made during situations of K&R (Kidnap and ransom). The negotiators, often working from London, know the habits and particular requests of the pirates and kidnappers of every problematic region. They know what amount of money will be demanded and how long it will take to solve a crisis. Act too quickly and the demands will increase. If an owner agrees to pay a high amount of money within a short time, the sums are going to increase. The negotiators thus respect the established scales.

There are so many interesting subjects in this book. The reader even learns about the help offered by rare volunteers to needy sailors, during certain stopovers. It is also possible to learn about the increasing noise pollution at sea, a pollution which largely affects marine mammals. There is also a very interesting section covering rescues at sea and the exploits of the merchant navy sailors in period of conflict.

This is a book that I strongly recommend. You will not see a container ship the same way after reading “Ninety percent of everything “.

Title: Ninety percent of everything

Author: Rose George

©Picador Edition September 2014

ISBN: 978-1-250-05829-4

A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

The book recounts the events surrounding a disaster caused by a major hurricane having taken place in the United States in 1900. The author ensures that the scientific notions connected with meteorology are explained in a simple manner, knowing very well that a big part of his readership has only elementary knowledge on the subject.

I appreciated the way the events were told, since Erik Larson’s book is not limited only to human or material disaster which ensued from the passage of the hurricane on Galveston and the surrounding cities. The reader can learn about the development of Meteorological Offices in the United States, the equipment used at that time as much as the help brought by ship captains with regards to weather observations. It is also interesting to read about all the political and commercial pressures felt by some staff of the US Weather Bureau.

The Galveston disaster was not due to the malfunction of the meteorological instruments nor their limitation. It was rather caused by the disproportionate egos of the forecaster Isaac Cline and some of his managers, as well as pressures of all kinds on Isaac as an observer and forecaster.

Isaac Cline: a disproportionate ego

Isaac had acquired an excellent reputation throughout the years. Little by little, his scientific approach gave way to a certainty of always being right and the desire to be perceived as the leading expert in the field of meteorology. In one of his papers, he refutes openly one hundred years of accumulated knowledge in meteorology.

The Galveston population had asked for a breakwater to be built in order to limit the potential damages caused by a major hurricane. But Isaac wrote an article in which he explained why Galveston was not susceptible to suffer the effects of a major hurricane. The breakwater not being seen any more as a pressing project, the idea of its construction was abandoned.

An ego bigger than nature from some administrators of the US WEATHER BUREAU

On the island of Cuba, in 1900, there were American observers working for the US WEATHER BUREAU and Cuban observers monitoring the weather for their own country. The Cubans, as natural residents of the island, had gradually acquired a huge experience in the prediction of the passage and the trajectory of major meteorological systems. Powerful countries having a natural tendency to underestimate the capacities and experience of inhabitants of smallest nations, warnings coming from the Cubans were regularly brushed aside.

If the US WEATHER BUREAU had been attuned to the Cuban weather observer comments in 1900, the terrible hurricane which destroyed Galveston would have had much less tragic consequences. But, in the “Isaac storm” book, we learn that the communication links were voluntarily cut between both countries by the US WEATHER BUREAU. The Cuban forecasters were considered like poor inhabitants capable of announcing a storm only when it had practically left the island.

“The same day that the Weather Bureau published in the newspaper of Havana that the last hurricane had reached the Atlantic, the Belen Observatory (Cuba) said in the same papers that the center had crossed the eastern portion of the island and that it would undoubtedly reach Texas. A few hours later the first telegraphic announcement of the ravages of the cyclone in Galveston was received”. Six days after the Galveston disaster, the War Department revoked the ban on Cuban weather cables and the communication of information was re-established.

Of pressures exercised by the Galveston businessmen on the forecaster and weather observer Isaac Cline

A first type of pressure on the observer was of commercial order: there was a competition between Houston and Galveston to determine which of both cities would become the major commercial center in the South of Texas. Galveston was however more vulnerable to hurricanes, because it is an island while Houston is farther away inland. Isaac Cline, the observer and forecaster based in Galveston, minimized the chances that his city could suffer the devastating effects of a major hurricane. It was out of question to depreciate Galveston in the eyes of potential investors.

Of strong pressures exercised by administrators of the US WEATHER BUREAU on the forecaster and weather observer

Another type of pressure on the observer resulted directly from Isaac’s managers, in the US WEATHER BUREAU. At the time, weather forecasts were only at an elementary stage and the US WEATHER BUREAU wanted to avoid alarming the population by using words like “hurricane”. They did not want to be the laughing stock of the population if the famous hurricane announced ended up to be only a standard storm. Isaac knew that his role consisted in delaying as much as possible the use of the word “hurricane”. Not wanting to go against the orders and to preserve his reputation with the Bureau, he possibly convinced himself that there was no major meteorological system approaching Galveston. He even told the population to stay put.

Galveston has always suffered and still does from an unfavorable geographical position. The hot waters in the Gulf of Mexico have always been an essential ingredient in the recipe of a major hurricane. This is where a storm will draw much of its energy. But, in the 1900 disaster, Galveston was also a victim of the combination of disproportionate egos, lack of judgment and commercial and political pressures exercised on the forecaster and the observer. All in all, approximately 10,000 people died in Galveston while thousands of others suffered the same fate in the surrounding cities.

If the population had been informed correctly, damage to property would nevertheless have been extremely important, but the losses of life would have been negligible.