N00ba the Hutt posted:

The opening post's section on the MS Estonia sinking linked to William Langewiesche's excellent article. He's written several other longform articles on maritime subjects.

The Shipbreakers (2000) - about the industry of tearing down old ships in Alang, India. When a ship is no longer usable or wanted, it gets run up on the beach, where workers in terrible conditions with zero safety or environmental protections pull it apart for scrap.

Anarchy at Sea (2003) - about the utter chaos that is attempting to keep track of what goes on in international waters, covering shoddy corporate practices, terrorism, and piracy. I believe this piece got expanded into his book The Outlaw Sea, which I also recommend. Come to think of it, I need to track down my copy and reread it...

The Pirate Latitudes (2009) - about the piracy off Somalia, using the capture of a French cruise ship as its focus. One fun detail, which the piece only slightly touches on, is that some of the piracy around the Horn of Africa is driven in part by overfishing. While Somalia was in total anarchy for much of the 1990s, foreign fishing fleets showed up in Somali waters (now conveniently unprotected by anything resembling a coast guard or national policy) and devastated local fish stocks. The Somalis had previously been basically subsistence fishermen, but no longer had anything to catch. What they did have was boats, and they saw the big foreign vessels sailing past as a new source of income. This is why marine conservation is important: if you don't preserve natural resources, you get pirates.

Salvage Beast (2014) - about maritime salvage and the joys of the Lloyd's of London Open Form ("no cure, no pay").

I highly recommend Langewiesche's writing. He's also done a lot on aviation disasters, which I find to be another fascinating subject.