Shipbreak

Shipbreak tells the story of the last voyage, dismantling,and recycling of an American merchant vesselin Bangladesh in the late 1990s. Through both wordsand images, it describes how the ship becomesa touchstone for many groups of people across theworld: from the American shipbuilders who built her inthe early 1960s and the seamen who worked on herfor almost four decades all the way to the Bangladeshishipbreakers who took the vessel apart, more or lessby hand, and the many people who incorporated theship's raw materials into their daily lives as part of their country's effort to develop its infrastructure andeconomy. The book describes how the ship was a source oflivelihood for all these individuals, whether they wereengaged in the act of its creation, operation, or apparent destruction, and it draws a seemingly improbableconnection between them in order to reveala common humanity above and beyond theboundariesof space and time that appear to separate them. Shipbreak also depicts how their lives collectivelygive this magnificent object a metaphoric life of itsown, and as such, the book becomes a meditation onthe nature of life itself, on its loss and its transcendence. From photographs of the ship's blueprints andlaunch to ones of objects made with the recast metal,it bears witness to the way the ship was born, livedand died, and ultimately came to live again, albeit in amyriad of new forms that bear little resemblance to itsformer self. (Claudio Cambon)