Hostile Seas
A Mission in Pirate Waters
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3.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Set during a period of dramatically escalating piracy, Hostile Seas is a personal account of a mission on board a naval warship in the waters off Somalia.
In late 2008, piracy around the Horn of Africa escalated dramatically, threatening the passage of international merchant ships through a critical waterway. Not only were ships carrying goods to North America and Europe affected, but also vessels entrusted with food aid for a Somali population suffering the effects of prolonged drought and civil war.
In response, the Canadian government redirected naval frigate HMCS Ville de Québec from the Mediterranean Sea to Somali waters to escort pirate-menaced vessels carrying World Food Programme aid to Mogadishu. Told from the perspective of a ship’s officer, Hostile Seas is a personal account of life on board a deployed navy ship that explores the tension between military imperatives and individual needs as a succession of hijackings brings into focus the reality of Somali piracy.
Customer Reviews
Hostile Seas
As an author of Canadian naval history and a retired Naval Reserve officer, I've read many, many books on the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy. Hostile Seas is different, which is why I enjoyed it so much.
This book tells the story of one Canadian frigate's deployment in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia in 2008 escorting vessels delivering UN food aid into Mogadishu to the people. But it is not all about the ship's tactics, strategies, and events, it tells the personal story of what it is like to serve on her.
The author, JL Savidge, is a female Naval Reserve intelligence officer and she tells the reader what life on board a deployed ship really means: the boredom, the lack of privacy and sleep, the anxiety of doing a good job, the too few shore leaves, the dangers, and the tensions arising between the military imperatives and personal needs during an escalation of merchant ship hijackings. Savidge gets us right into her head and setting—most naval memoirs don't, and certainly don't do it from a female perspective.
Hostile Seas is a good read that also opens our eyes to the value of the Canadian navy's work in dangerous places. Recommended.
Fantastic Read
A really great book providing incite into shipboard life throughout a stressful deployment.
Ok
Too big a disclaimer, is this a fiction novel?