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ABSTRACT
Geography has turned to towards the seas and oceans with much attention being paid to ‘water worlds’ through socio-cultural, political and environmental lenses. Geo-economic analysis, in particular, has considered the role of containerisation, the port, and logistics global flows central to the contemporary shipping industry. However, where routeing enters discussion these debates remain ‘surficial’ with a focus on the rationale of lines of connection which are mapped onto the sea (rather than into the sea, as a liquid, three-dimensional, motionful space). This paper challenges considerations of ship routeing that only skim the surface. This paper adds depth to the discussion. It is argued that ship routeing is not a purely surficial exercise of charting a voyage across seas and oceans. Routes have a geo-politics predicted at times on the water’s depth, the topography of the ocean floor and seabed and marine resources. Drawing on a variety of examples, notably the traffic routeing scheme – or ‘maritime motorway’ – governing the flows of shipping in the Dover Strait, UK, this paper brings a ‘wet ontology’ and three-dimensional analysis to ship routeing. It is contended that such a recognition and discussion of deep routeing is necessary to shed light upon the often invisible processes sea that underscore the global logistics flows vital to society and the economy.
Acknowledgments
This research has been an inspiring voyage into cross European innovation and collaboration, the story of which I hold close at a time of intense change and turmoil. It has been made possible with the support of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (RF-2016-299) which provided the time and space to explore a world of ‘Invisible Infrastructures’. I have been fortunate enough to have gained generous feedback on the ideas here, presenting this work at seminars across Europe, in Groningen, Bremen and Oldenburg, and also in the UK, in Southampton, Nottingham, and Plymouth, the RGS in London 2016 and Practicing Historical Geography Workshop in Manchester, 2018. My particular thanks to Rachael Squire and Klaus Dodds for their encouragement in developing this piece, to Ed Page of the MXAK for sharing his expertise of vessel navigation in Alaska and finally, to Kaimes Beasley of the MCA, without whom my interest in, and knowledge of, the Channel would not run so deep.
Sources
Dover Local Studies Collection D38
National Archives BT 243/177
National Archives BT 243/178
National Archives BT 243/611
National Archives BT 243/613
National Archives FCO 76/252
Royal Institute of Navigation 520.02
Notes
1. In 2010, only about 23% of the 90% of trade moved by ships is moved by container. The majority of goods shifted are ‘bulk’ including liquid bulk movement (oil) and dry goods (such as grain) (World Ocean Review Citation2010).
2. Little over a month later the Greek tanker Niki would collide with this wreck, hidden on the sea floor. A further 22 seafarers died. This succession of accidents was the worse set of maritime casualties in the Dover Strait during peace time. It remains to this day, the largest loss of life post-World War Two in the Channel.
3. Rule (b) states ‘a vessel using a traffic separation scheme shall: (i) proceed in the appropriate traffic lane in the general direction of traffic flow for that lane; (ii) so far as practicable keep clear of a traffic separation line or separation zone; (iii) normally join or leave a traffic lane at the termination of the lane, but when joining or leaving from either side shall do so at as small an angle to the general direction of traffic flow as practicable’ (COLREGS Citation2008, 7). Rule (c) states ‘a vessel shall, so far as practicable, avoid crossing traffic lanes but if obliged to do so shall cross on a heading as nearly as practicable at right angles to the general direction’ (ibid 2008, 7).