Ocean Titans: Journeys in Search of the Sound of a Ship

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

They sail the world’s seas, tens of thousands of them, but most people
are only vaguely aware of their existence. Cargo ships rarely make the
news unless a fierce storm sinks them or drives them aground with
ruptured tanks that spew thick oil on pristine beaches. Yet we rely on
these ships to deliver the ever-increasing quantities of goods that we
import. And we count on them to take our exports to distant lands. The
ships have only one function: to carry cargo from one port to another.

But do these utilitarian vessels have a soul? That is the question that
Daniel Sekulich asked himself. He concludes that they do, although he
admits that he has felt nothing spiritual about them. In his quest, the
author visited a ship-designing firm in the Bahamas, a shipowning
company in Monaco, a shipbuilding yard in South Korea, and a
shipbreaking location in India. He also made voyages in several ships
where he held enlightening conversations with captains, chief engineers,
and deckhands.

Sekulich is a skilled interviewer who knows how to draw out his
subjects’ stories about design, ownership, construction, the dangers
of the sea, and the hazards of shipbreaking. He writes compellingly
about sailors’ lives aboard ships, problems caused by their absence
from home, their often demanding working conditions, and the like. While
his choice of topic at first glance looks unlikely to generate a
reader’s interest, Sekulich has produced an absorbing book that
gripped this reviewer from start to finish. Ocean Titans is an admirable
achievement.