THE COST OF LOW-COST SHIPPING: The Lonely and Dangerous Life of the Filipino Seafarer. Filipinos are amazing people, who the world treats not so well overall. A friend on Facebook comments: “Fifty years ago, you went everywhere, and got to know everywhere well, while now you go almost nowhere, and get to know it not at all. And now you’re expected to do it for wages you could make on shore.”

I remember way back in Admiralty class, when Charles Black observed that the containerization revolution was a huge boon for trade, but that it sharply devalued the traditional role of maritime expertise, which was bad for seamen.