Seafarers are used to being exploited. At sea, the captain moans at chandlers who supply ships with green bananas that will never ripen; at fruit that goes moldy obscenely fast; at sub-standard meat.

There are more than one hundred thousand ships at sea carrying all the solids, liquids and gases that we need to live.

Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.

I find Suez astonishing for the first hour. It is a ditch in a desert, but a stunning one. The sensation of being hemmed in by huge ships, moving at a stately pace through a man-made waterway, is extraordinary.

The more ships have grown in size and consequence, the more their place in our imagination has shrunk.

I'm getting so old, I don't even buy green bananas anymore.