Abstract

Cargo ships are the backbone of the world’s supply systems, moving 90% of the world’s goods, but seafarers are frequently subjected to poor labor conditions. An extreme form of this is the rise of seafarer abandonment, a calculated practice that leaves crews stranded for months or years without pay, with little to no contact with their employer, and with no way home. Lack of food, drinking water and fuel for electricity are commonplace.

The economic and legal foundations of shipping have developed to protect shipowner’s profits whilst precaritising workers. Abandonment is just the logical end-point, an extreme form of the application of these systems. For this reason, it can provide us with a window into some of the mechanics of logistical capitalism as a whole.

Rather than frame abandonments as interruptions in otherwise smooth supply chains, this project focuses on the supply chain of abandonment itself. Moving through studies of debt, insurance and flagging, it seeks to map out the specific conditions, actors and processes that allow it to happen. Supply chains are more like supply nets: matrices of interconnected lines, prone to becoming tangled, in which workers find themselves caught.

Manifest  (Archive Components):

Abandoned Seafarer Map
A collaborative public mapping project, designed as a tool for journalists, researchers, and maritime organisers.

Supply Chain of Abandonment Map
Using an open source supply chain mapping software, this map charts the exploded geography of all cargo ships reported as abandoned to the ILO in 2021.

Log of Losses
Randomised index of ships abandoned in the last few years.

Video Essay
Investigation into how debt, insurance and flagging systems facilitate abandonment.

Operative Glossary
Conceptual tools built throughout the project.

Resources
Maritime investigations toolkit, poetics of the sea, media coverage.

Newsletter
An archive and active newsletter on logistics as loss, shipping, and the research process.