A fascinating history of the world economy over the last fifty years told through the life of a single ship, from a brilliant young historian.
Capitalism. International law. Imperial decline. National sovereignty. Inflation. Sectoral stagnation. Gentrification. Mass incarceration. Booms. Busts. Racism. Greed. Empty Vessel is the story of globalism in one boat. First built as a Swedish offshore oil rig in the 1970s, it went on to house British soldiers in the Falklands War in the 1980s, prisoners from Riker's Island in New York's East River in the 1990s, Volkswagen factory employees in Germany in the 2000s, and Nigerian oil workers off the coast of Africa in the 2010s. In each of its lives it arrived as an empty vessel, filled at the behest of both public and private interests, for purposes of war, incarceration, and commerce - connecting people thousands of miles apart, all shaped by the same global economic transformations. So much of our global economy is composed of specific innovations, decisions, and human experiences as concrete as the barnacles scraped off a hull. Through this party boat, prison, oil rig and war vessel. Empty Vessel reveals this economy to us - and warns of its troubling consequences.
'Thrilling, meticulous and wondrously original' PHILIPPE SANDS
A jaw-dropping microhistory of the global economy over the last fifty years told through the many lives of a single ship.
At 94 meters long and 9,500 deadweight tonnes, once called the Bibby Resolution, is an unremarkable hulk, crossing the oceans unnoticed. And yet, the astonishing journey of this boat can tell us the story of the modern world.
First built as a Swedish offshore oil rig in the 1970s, it went on to become a barracks for British soldiers in the Falklands War in the 1980s, a jail off New York in the 1990s, a prison in Portland in the 2000s, and accommodation for Nigerian oil workers off the coast of Africa in the 2010s. It has been called Safe Esperia, HMP The Weare, even 'The Love Boat'. In each of its lives this empty vessel has been commanded by economic forces much larger than itself: private investment, war, mass incarceration, imperial interests, national sovereignty, inflation, booms, busts and greed.
Through its encounters with a world of island tax havens, the English court system, exploited labour forces, free banking zones or immigration politics, the ordinary boat at the heart of this story reveals our complex modern economy to us, connecting the dots of a dramatically changing world in the making, and warning us of its dangerous consequences.
