Rating: 
Summary: very interesting book with somewhat misleading title
Review: The book is titled "the outlaw sea" and from that I would expect to learn a lot about laws and their misuse at sea. But the title is misleading, it should have more aptly been called "the tragedy of *Estonia*", a ferry ship that floundered, and drowned ninety percent of its passengers and crew.
Although the author initially describes the corruption and abuse by ship owners, their disregard of and escape from law, and their lack of concern when accidents happen, he dedicates half of the book to the capsizing of the ferry Estonia describing the catastrophe and the ensuing law suits in detail. He writes well and arguments convincingly and therefore makes the book an interesting read, but from the title I would have expected a more balanced account of problems on international waters.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: The book should have been named " the Tragedy of Estonia".
Langwiesche is an excellent contributor to the Atlantic monthly, unfortunately he seems to be under the impression that a book is simply a compilation of several articles strung together.
You will hardly learn anything new from this book.
Although he is an excellent writer he should really just sick to periodicles.
See other 2 and 3 star reviews for more detail, they hit the nail on the head.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging read, fascinating introduction to maritime commerce
Review: The Outlaw Sea is a great read. Langewiesche takes the reader on a tour of the perils afflicting modern maritime shipping and attempts to trace the origins of those perils through the attempts of nations to establish some kind of regulatory control over the seas. While I'm sure Langewiesche meant his book to be, at least in part, a cautionary tale about the Wild West nature of much of the world's oceans (underscored by his caveats regarding how easy it would be for terrorists to sail explosives into the US aboard a cargo ship), the book better serves the reader as an introduction to the world of maritime shipping and its laws (or lack thereof). Langewiesche doesn't try to make his work exhaustive - it's actually too brief, I think, owing in part to its readability and the fascinating nature of the source material - but rather he tackles three episodes in modern shipping history and describes them within his greater framework. I gave the book four stars because I found the subject interesting enough that I wanted more details, more stories - The Outlaw Sea was, to be frank, just too damned little of a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Scenes on the High Seas and Beaches
Review: The Outlaw Sea is a short book with a wide-scope, including the history of international regulatory efforts, problem of piracy, the practical effects of international regulations, terrorism, the sinking and investigation of the Estonia ferry accident in 1994, and the global `ship-breaking' industry and its malcontents. William Langewiesche is a talented writer and his description of what it was like to be on the sinking Estonia is breath-taking. Here is an excerpt:
"Survival that night was a very tight race, and savagely simple. People who started out early and moved fast had some chance of winning. People who started late or hesitated for any reason had no chance at all. Action paid. Contemplation did not. The mere act of getting dressed was enough to condemn people to death, and although many who escaped to the water succumbed to the cold, most of the winners endured the ordeal simply naked or in their underwear. In any event, the survivors all seem to have grasped the nature of this race, the first stage of which involved getting to the Deck 7 promenade without delay. There was no God to turn to for mercy. There was no government to provide order. Civilization was ancient history. Europe was a faint and faraway place. Inside the ship, as the heel (angle) increased, even the most primitive social organization, the human chain, crumbled apart. Love only slowed people down. A pitiless clock was running. The ocean was completely in control."
`Love only slowed people down...' This is one powerful sentence. One reads about ferry accidents from time-to-time in the paper, and then moves quickly to the sports section. The name of the ship and country fades quickly from memory. But after reading Langewiesche's chapter on the Estonia, you will have a new appreciation of how hellish these accidents are for passenger and crew.
The book bogs down in places - in particular, in the detailed forensic analysis on the investigation of the Estonia disaster and some other places. Langewiesche heroically describes the detective work but it would have been useful to include a few photographs - or even some drawings - to help people without a nautical background understand various parts of the ship. The chapters are self-contained, and overall the book has the feel of several unrelated long articles put together for a book. There should have been an afterword to bring the disparate topics all together.
At the end of the book, Langewiesche offers up another excellent chapter on the beaches in Southeast Asia (India in particular) where ships go to die, and be scrapped. The danger, slave-wages, and ecological catastrophes are brought to life in a very visual, compelling way. This chapter, and the minute-by-minute account of the Estonia disaster, spotlight the author's talent at bringing extraordinary scenes to your mind's eye.
Rating: 
Summary: Case histories of trouble at sea
Review: The title is the premise.
The premise is interesting. The writing journalistic and a bit pedantic (though highly acclaimed on the books back cover).
It's interesting in parts, like the "recycling" that goes on
in India and the fact that almost all carriers fly flags of
convenience, the real owners often hidden behind
double blind dummy corporations. It is a real warning note on the dangers inherent in the lack of regulation in shipping.
I was surprised to find that large scale piracy of freighters
exists today (on the order of roughly 1-2 ships a week, world-wide).
The book is essentially a collection of 4 or so articles.
While interesting, I think it lacked overall cohesion.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Writing on a Fascinating Subject
Review: This review is written as a complementary supplement to the previous reviewer's comments that this is a "fascinating look at an unfamiliar subject". I came to this book as a person who spent over a dozen years in the ocean shipping industry. I left the industry to go to law school and have now spent a dozen years as an admiralty attorney handling many of the issues that the author discusses in his book. For me, this is a fascinating look at a subject with which I am intimately familiar.Langewiesche's gloomy, albeit accurate, portrayal of life at sea for the 'low-end' portion of the ocean shipping industry is marked by excellent research and even better writing. The book has some of the hallmarks of the best fiction. It unfolds dramatically and keeps the reader's attention. Langewiesche's portrayal of the passenger ferry Estonia is heartbreaking. The author pulls no punches. At one point, Langewiesche discusses the horror of the loss of 852 lives on the Estonia, notes the worldwide outpouring of grief (particularly in Northern Europe) but then pauses to mention that ferry accidents such as this are a routine way of life in the third world (in Asia and Africa in particular) and yet these accidents barely attract our attention. The terse, matter-of-fact fashion in which Langewiesche imparts this information has a greater impact than it would have if set out in a dogmatic fashion. Last, Langewiesche turns his eye to the ship breaking business in India. Vessels that have reached the end of their useful life (and as set out in the book a ship owner's definition of useful life is far longer than may be prudent for safe operation) are run onto beaches in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan where they are dismantled in a manner that endangers everyone involved. Life for these ship breakers is nasty, brutal and short. Langewiesche's portrayal is so well written that one can almost smell the befouled air that lingers over the work area. The author also sets out the political confrontation between the ship breakers and Greenpeace. It is an excellent overview of the conflict that arises between first-world political activists and third world throngs struggling to make a life for their families. I only take two minor issues with the author. First, in discussing the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige off the coast of Spain, I think the author did not pay sufficient attention to the horrible decision of the Spanish government to deny safe harbor to the damaged vessel. It is mentioned in passing. The decision to force the Prestige out to sea, before she was damaged beyond repair and before there was a major loss of oil, into stormy and unsafe seas was as much, if not more, to blame for the environmental disaster that followed as the general condition of the vessel before the accident. The actions of the Spanish government in this regard were reprehensible. Second, Langewiesche makes much (rightfully) of the negative impact on foreign flag registration, specifically flags of convenience, in terms of vessel safety, poorly trained seamen, etc. However, it would have been useful to point out as a counterbalance the fact that the Exxon Valdez, the vessel responsible for one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history, was a U.S. flag vessel, built to U.S. flag standards, fully accountable to all U.S. maritime laws and regulations with U.S. officers and crew. This book is well written, informative, and interesting, whether or not one happens to be in this business. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in first rate, well researched and written non fiction.
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