Perils at sea: according to The Navy League of Canada, one third of Canada's gross domestic product is transported by water. In short, we're a maritime nation dependent on water for transportation, commerce, food, minerals, power, employment, and recreation.

The international shipping industry handles 80 percent to 90 percent of world trade. That makes it an indispensable ingredient in the global economy. It's estimated that ships, which themselves can cost more than $100 million to build, put another $380 billion (U.S.) into the economy every year in freight rates. As worldwide shipping organizations point out, without shipping, intercontinental trade, the bulk transport of raw materials, and the import/ export of affordable food and manufactured goods simply would not happen.

At any given time, 40,000 vessels are chugging across the world's oceans--globalization's super-highway--employing more than a million seafarers of virtually every nationality. Over the last four decades, total seaborne trade estimates have nearly quadrupled, from less than six thousand billion tonne-miles (tonnes carried, multiplied by the distance travelled) in 1965 to 23 thousand billion tonne-miles in 2002.

Most merchant ships sail under flags of convenience. This allows them to operate under minimal safety and maintenance standards: by registering their vessels with different nations, ship-owners can choose the laws under which they operate. By doing so, they can avoid the stricter regulations of their home nation and cut their costs substantially. That translates into lower costs for consumers, but there's a downside. The crews are mostly from the world's poor nations where standards of training and proficiency are low. And, many of the ships they work on are old and in poor repair.

Accidents are frequent and the potential for environmental catastrophe is large. The world's worst ferry disaster, for example, resulted from a combination of old vessels, overcrowding, and under-qualified crew members: in the Philippines in 1987 the ferry Dona Paz collided with the oil tanker Vector, and both sank within minutes. While the ferry was licensed to carry only 1,518 passengers, more than 4,000 passengers, including about 1,000 children, perished in the accident. Not only was the ferry overcrowded, as a former cargo/ passenger ship she was long past retirement age. Investigators later revealed that Vector's crew was under-qualified, and the vessel's license had expired months before the accident.

The huge tanker Exxon Valdez, is another example of a massive ocean disaster. The tanker ran aground in March 1989 only a few hours after setting out with 200 million litres (1.26 million barrels) of Alaska oil headed for California. Eight of the ship's 11 cargo tanks ruptured spewing almost 41 million litres (257,000 barrels) of crude oil into Prince William Sound. That's equivalent to the amount of water held in 125 olympic-sized swimming pools. The spill is considered the worst environmental disaster, though not the largest spill, on record. It's estimated that 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs were destroyed as a result of the disaster. It was largely the result of human error, from excessive workload, a drunken captain, and poor marine services.

Piracy is also a common occurrence--no eye patches, hooks, or wooden legs, this is industrial-scale piracy most commonly found in the South China Sea, including the waters of Indonesia and the Philippines. As a 2004 book review (The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime by William Langewiesche) in The Economist described it, the scene is one of armed and ruthless pirates working hard at "hijacking entire ships, killing or marooning their crews, and changing the vessels' identity in mid-ocean by renaming and repainting them while under-way." The ships then enter ports as legitimate vessels and sell the stolen cargo before picking up new freight and disappearing again.

In Indonesia, pirates with Kalashnikov assault rifles prompted shipping tycoons to seek permission for crew members to carry pistols to even out the odds. The pirates work the Strait of Malacca, the narrow, 900-kilometre-long stretch of water between Indonesia and Malaysia, which carries one-third of the world's trade and one-half of its oil shipments. Over a three-month period in the spring of 2004 seven ship crews were kidnapped and held for ransom off the northern coast of Indonesia. In February, four crewmen on an oil tanker were killed by heavily armed pirates after the ship owner refused to pay a ransom, and nine others jumped ship to escape.

According to one report, pirate attacks rose to 445 worldwide in 2003, a 20 percent increase from the previous year. The heaviest number of attacks occurred in Southeast Asia, including the Strait of Malacca. And, the numbers may be small compared to reality because it's thought that most pirate attacks go unreported.

The possibility of pirates linking up with terrorists is also a concern. Observers say terrorists could, for example, halt the flow of oil to Japan and China causing economic disaster in those countries and around the world.

U.S. officials also worry about the potential for terrorism as cargo vessels piled high with containers arrive daily; it's impossible to inspect them all. The United States has 152,000 kilometres of coastline, and more than a hundred seaports capable of handling large cargo ships. Over the course of a year, the country handles some 60,000 port calls by oceangoing vessels, carrying six million containers, several million vehicles, 53 percent of the nation's oil, and countless other goods. The sheer volume of the import/export trade in the U.S. opens enormous opportunities for crime, and a terrorist attack there could have a devastating impact around the world.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. For a gripping account of adventure on the high seas, read William Langewiesche's 2004 book The Outlaw Sea: A world of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime (ISBN: 0865475814).

2. Outline how the growth of trade influenced the designs of ships at various points in history.

THE NORSEMEN COMETH 

Some of the first vessels to reach Canadian shores were Viking ships. They landed on the northern tip of Newfoundland more than 1,000 years ago and established the first known European settlement in the New World at l'Anse aux Meadows. The site of the settlement was declared a World Heritage Unesco site in the 1970s after archeologists found remnants of an ancient community in the 1960s. Parks Canada built a replica of the village thought to have been home to about 90 Vikings for several years.

The Vikings came from Scandinavia during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. They were also called Norsemen or Northmen, and settled in Greenland and Iceland before moving on to Canada. The Vikings were fierce warriors, who conquered and pillaged their way through many parts of the world. At home, Vikings were mainly landowners who farmed, hunted, and fished. Much of what we know about the Vikings comes from the Sagas. These old stories from Iceland tell of the many voyages of the Vikings.

Excavations at l'Anse aux Meadows revealed eight turf-walled structures similar to those built by the Norse in Iceland and Greenland. Three are large, multi-roomed dwellings with stone hearths; the rest are outbuildings, including a forge for making iron nails and rivets. More than 130 artifacts have been found, which also include stone works, and wooden pieces.

FACT FILE

An estimated 95 percent of the United Kingdom's trade comes or goes by sea.

FACT FILE

About 90 percent of European external trade is transported by sea, and roughly 41 percent of intra-European movements are handled by short sea services.

Websites

Flags of Convenience (Global Policy Forum)--http:// www.globalpolicy.org/ nations/flags/guide.htm

Piracy--http:// home.wanadoo.nl/ m.bruyneel/archive/ modern/modern.htm

Shipping Federation of Canada--http://www.shipfed.ca/