Ian Kumekawa’s Empty Vessel, both the book and the accommodation container ship whose checkered history it unfolds, brilliantly illuminates the workings of a global offshore economy that would prefer to remain in the shadows, lingering on the margins of the law, thriving on secrecy, sleight of hand and tax avoidance. By following in the vessels’ wake Kumekawa’s riveting story reveals not just its physical use and functions—as accommodation for British troops, New York prisoners, oil workers, asylum seekers—but explains how the Vessel became an exemplary object caught up in global skeins/schemes of capital and finance.

Ian Kumekawa’s Empty Vessel, both the book and the accommodation container ship whose checkered history it unfolds, brilliantly illuminates the workings of a global offshore economy that would prefer to remain in the shadows, lingering on the margins of the law, thriving on secrecy, sleight of hand and tax avoidance. By following in the vessels’ wake Kumekawa’s riveting story reveals not just its physical use and functions—as accommodation for British troops, New York prisoners, oil workers, asylum seekers—but explains how the Vessel became an exemplary object caught up in global skeins/schemes of capital and finance.

Ian Kumekawa’s Empty Vessel, both the book and the accommodation container ship whose checkered history it unfolds, brilliantly illuminates the workings of a global offshore economy that would prefer to remain in the shadows, lingering on the margins of the law, thriving on secrecy, sleight of hand and tax avoidance. By following in the vessels’ wake Kumekawa’s riveting story reveals not just its physical use and functions—as accommodation for British troops, New York prisoners, oil workers, asylum seekers—but explains how the Vessel became an exemplary object caught up in global skeins/schemes of capital and finance.