In the book, Life of Pi, Patel manages to survive 227 days at sea after being shipwrecked on board the Tsimtsum, a Japanese cargo ship traveling to North America. The ship is very important to Patel, as it not only harbored his precious animals and was taking him to a new location, but also sunk with his parents on board. The Tiger, Richard Parker, whom we come to realize later represents Pi, is a name used in many shipwreck narratives. Martel stated that he was inspired by a mutineer above a ship in an Edgar Allan Poe novel by the name of Richard Parker, as well as in the famous case of R V. Dudley and Stephens which also involved a shipwreck. The cargo ship is important to the book, and this paper offers brief information about articles that expound more on the topic of cargo ships.
- George, Rose. Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate. London: Picador, 2014. Print.
The book is a memoir of the travels of the author, who travels around the world aboard cargo ships and gives a detailed explanation of the cargo shipping industry. In the book, she investigates everything including the dangers of ships to whales, piracy, illegal trade, and dubious operators. The book is meant for all audiences hoping to get more informed about the business of cargo ships. The book is sharply informative and interesting and offers a first-hand analysis based on live experiences of the author. The book, however, breaks up into many sections as it tries to tackle different topics, and thus ends up being shallow on deep information. The book is, however, important as it talks about the various topics that a reader of Life of Pi would be interested in such as the smuggling of animals aboard cargo ships.
- Wall, Robert and Costas Paris. Ship Operators Explore Autonomous Sailing. 31 August 2016. Document. 10 December 2016.
The article by the Wall Street Journal is a logistics report that details how the future of shipping could look like with advances in technology. The paper hopes to show how technology can be utilized to reduce costs and optimize the use of cargo vessels and is designed for everyone interested in the future of shipping. The article is detailed on how automation will benefit users but fails to address pertinent issues that may arise such as regulator orders on manned ships and threats of piracy to vessels with few crew. The article is important to the book since it depicts a time where cargo ships would be unmanned and technologically capable of better communication. Such changes are important as they would help avoid the death witnessed after the Tsimtsum was shipwrecked.
- Jelena Nikcevic Grdinic. “Legal regulations in the function of ensuring ship safety.” Scientific Journal of Maritime Research 25 (2015): 30-39.
The paper is a research article detailing the most common risks impacting on a ship’s safety as well as the role of regulations in ensuring that such risks are unrealized. The paper first explains the issue of maritime security and then offers a detailed study of the numerous scenarios that can endanger a ship’s safety. The research hopes to show the need for stringent regulations on shipping to ensure that cargo reaches destinations safely, and is especially important for regulators and shipping industry bodies. The paper, however, fails to detail such regulations, how they can be enforced effectively, or whether they have had success in the past. The article is connected to the book, where the main event starts after a shipwreck that is later investigated by officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport. It is clear that the Tsimtsum had broken many maritime rules, and it would be important to know the potential ramifications of similar actions elsewhere.
Works Cited
George, Rose. Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate. London: Picador, 2014.
Jelena Nikcevic Grdinic. “Legal regulations in the function of ensuring ship safety.” Scientific Journal of Maritime Research 25 (2015): 30-39.
Wall, Robert and Costas Paris. Ship Operators Explore Autonomous Sailing. 31 August 2016. Document. 10 December 2016.